Pedalpalooza is a 2-week bicycle with over 200 mostly free events happening all over Portland and Vancouver. You don’t need to be a hardcore rider to enjoy these welcoming, fun events. In fact, one of the events is a leisurely ride is honoring the history of Woodlawn! This ride is organized by Gregg Lavender, who also coordinated our Friends of Trees planting.

June 23rd – 5:30pm – 7:30pm – Ladd Circle
Why are the Woodlawn neighborhood and the Ladd’s neighborhood strees crooked? Why is Couch Street not pronounced “Couch Street”? Where were the streetcar tracks before they were torn out? How did the parks get named?

Come ride on an historic tour of Portland with a local historian leaving from one crooked neighborhood (Ladd’s Addition) headed to another (Woodlawn). We will make little stops for discussion several times along the way. The trip will end at Woodlawn Park which is very near Good Neighbor Pizzaria on NE Dekum and 8th.

For more info, contact WoodlawnTrees //at// gmail.com
// Pedalpalooza website

Sunday the 18th, Former President Bill Clinton and his daughter Chelsea Clinton stood atop the teacher’s mound in the Woodlawn Community Garden and challenged the children, volunteers and onlookers to get involved and take action. Invited by the “I Have A Dream Foundation”, they came, they saw, and they dug it, the garden that is.

Introduced by Karen Hill, Executive Director of the foundation, Chelsea spoke first briefly about the joy of being able to spend time with her dad as both have been campaigning for Hillary Clinton, then she mentioned that she grew up doing service projects like this. Then she introduced her dad. Bill said he enjoyed supporting such great organizations as were involved in today’s event, the I Have A Dream Foundation, Hands On Greater Portland, YouthBuild, America Forward and the Experience Corps, and that he did service projects with such groups whenever he wasn’t being a campaign volunteer. He also said his family has known for 20 years or more and has adored Eugene Lang, who helped create the first I have A Dream Foundation.

He proudly mentioned the Americorps volunteers who have been a part of the success of the garden, and said that their full-time efforts formed a nucleus around which other volunteers could coalesce. He urged the audience (Hillary and Obama supporters sporting badges and tee-shirts and multi-lingual signs, curious neighbors and some with their leashed dogs) to become activists and support their community.

Other candidates walked among the crowd seeking the votes of those who hadn’t yet mailed in their ballots. John Kroger, candidate for State Attorney General is shown here talking to Woodlawn Neighborhood (and NE Coalition) Board member, Democratic District leader and gal who likes to have fun, Shirley Minor. You can see she’s quite adept at multi-tasking.

Portland police had blocked off some popular park paths with security tape, obvious secret service folks flanked the dignitaries, and Port of Portland Officer Mike Oester and his bomb-sniffing dog Linda were on dignitary protection duty.

Then they stepped down off the hill and joined Dream kids, Experience Corps volunteers Portland Community Garden staff, and others in planting and tending the garden. (Different parts of the garden are assigned for the students to have classes in, to plant, and harvest and for neighbors and their friends to plant, use and share with community food banks.)

The WNA periodically calls for volunteers to help weed and tend the community parts of the garden. The available plots in this organic garden are spoken for this year, but you can get on the waiting list.

Last year, Woodlawn Park was taken over for a day with tents, music, entertainers, costumes, kids, games and informational booths in celebration of the City Repair Projects’ annual Earth Day Celebration. The celebration, which moves to a different neighborhood every year, will this year be at Overlook Park in North Portland on Saturday, April 19th.

On the morning of the celebration, there will also be a service project to benefit the community surrounding the Overlook Park area of North Portland. They will be working in concert with thousands of other volunteers around Oregon at over 100 work sites.

This information comes to us from Rebeca Siplak, one of our neighbors who was involved last year. “As a Woodlawn resident who participated in last year’s Earth Day celebration at Woodlawn Park and the service project for Woodlawn neighborhood” she says, “I want to invite you to represent our neighborhood at both of these events. For more information, please visit City Repair’s website or contact Bob New: EarthDay //at// CityRepair.org. Please contact me directly: RebecaSiplak //at// Comcast.net for more info regarding the service project.”

// Contributed by Andrew Longeteig

With its rolling landscape, meandering pathways, majestic Doug Firs and unique layout, Woodlawn Park is one of Portland’s most original green spaces. At just under eight acres, Woodlawn Park is part of 12,591 acres of public parkland and open space — 10,000 of that is owned and managed by Portland Parks and Recreation. By comparison, Chicago has 7,300 park acres; Seattle, a mere 6,200.

The park’s many defining features include the amphitheater where the Oregon Symphony performed in August 2005. In 1998 the neighborhood association worked to establish the Community Garden. In 1999, local artist Anne Storrs created “Buckeye Bench,” a stone seating area that celebrates a nearby chestnut tree. The spray fountains, also installed in 1999, are a popular summer destination. In 2002, Woodlawn became one of 35 area parks to receive new basketball hoops and a synthetic surface made out of recycled shoes, courtesy of Nike. And on a clear day, visitors can look north to see snow-covered, slumbering Mount St. Helens.

Our neighborhood may be 109 years old, but the park’s history is much shorter.
Read the rest of this entry »