Article contributed by Alan Armstrong

Last week, a group of about 20 Woodlawn residents got together to discuss the possibility of working with City Repair to enhance one of our intersections and create a  multi-purpose gathering place that engages our neighbors.  Several other neighborhoods in Portland have created similar projects with City Repair, a non-profit organization that educates and inspires communities and individuals to creatively transform the places where they live.

While this spot doesn’t have to be the final project location, the intersection that is at the top of the list right now is the odd corner where Durham, Holman, and 13th all merge together. There is a small, under-utilized park that could be re-purposed as part of the project. Rich Mackin, a Woodlawn resident, has also proposed a project to designate the intersection of Rose Parks and MLK as a Civil Rights Square, which could be the location where our City Repair project takes place.  Or maybe we can do both!

A lot ideas were generated at the meeting including:

Play area, play house and/or play structure
Food/harvest box
Free bin
Book exchange box
A fabulous light
A street mural
Road curves
Sheet mulch

Pavers and/or bricks
A bench
Chess table
Tea house
Big community table
Skateboard rail
Oven and/or grill
Kiosk and/or information board

Edible plants
Pee pit
Fire pit
Sand box

Our goal would be that any of these features added would be accessible to neighbors with disabilities and our elderly neighbors.  The next step in the process is to hold a meeting with neighbors to further hone our ideas.   For the project to be successful we need input from a representation of all members of our diverse neighborhood. The more, the merrier!

If you are interested, please join us at the next general meeting on December 2nd at Gregg and Nikki’s house, the big green house at the corner of Highland and Durham.  Potluck food will be enjoyed from 6:45-7:15 and the meeting will take place from 7:15 to 8:30ish.  Please note that Gregg and Nikki have a dog, and while he is large, he is very friendly.

Please follow this website for more information and project updates. If you have any additional ideas for the project please comment below or email Alan at StrongWorkArch //at// Gmail.com.

// See other city repair projects here.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 9th, 2008 at 7:43 pm and is filed under Art, Calendar, Events, Family / Kids, Get Involved!, Land Use, Meetings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.