Friday in the park with Fish and Zari
The Portland parks bureau's head honchos have responded to the recent focus on the city's Forest Park with new initiatives to protect the place while trying to accommodate everyone who wants to use it for their own purposes. One of the steps is going to be the hiring of a full-time park ranger for that long stretch of greenspace.
Paying for the new programs isn't quite settled yet, however, and City Commissioner Nick Fish says he'll look for "a dedicated source of regional" funding -- I guess that means a new tax to be levied by Metro -- as well as the dreaded "public-private partnership" stuff.
| Posted at 9:42 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (9)
The deterioration of Forest Park has been swept under the rug for years because Parks Bureau leadership thought it made them look bad. Forget yesterday's grandstanding. One of the region's natural gems is in trouble because Zari & Co. were only concerned about their own skins. What a disgrace.
Posted by RJBob | June 18, 2010 10:18 AM
Save Forest Park by charging those that use it. Mt. Bikers in particular should pay to maintain the trails that they routinely destroy. Most people wouldn't mind paying a few bucks to hike there.
Posted by Frank | June 18, 2010 11:26 AM
HOW ABOUT USING THE BUDGET RESPONSIBLY, THEN CHARGE.
Posted by Erika G. | June 18, 2010 12:09 PM
What? there is no park ranger now? Ban the mountain bikes. Forest Park is remarkable. It should be maintained, managed and protected. Management should include continued efforts to eliminate exotic species (ivy and blackberries). Not the wild Oregon blackberries of course, but I doubt there are many if any present. Management does not mean benign neglect however. Positive steps must be taken to control insect and disease infestations. This will require some thinning and selective cutting at times. If the mountain bikers need a place to play how about having the PDC and Delvelopment clique build a fun park for them at PGE park after MLS folds its tent? I could just go on and on...
Posted by Dean | June 18, 2010 12:33 PM
Dean,
I could go on and on too, I think a lot of us could, this is just getting weary dealing with this dysfunctional council.
Frank:Most people wouldn't mind paying a few bucks to hike there.
Some people would and it would stop them from using their park. Eventually only those who can pay could partake in nature, the trend is there already. Taking more and more in this way and that way from the people is the end result now that millions have been given for the pet projects, and that is another reason I object to making citizens pay more and now to hike in their park. It is making the citizens then bail out for the bad decisions as the city prefers to spend wildly rather than take care of basics. Citizens already pay taxes that should take care of basics.
Posted by clinamen | June 18, 2010 2:04 PM
everytime gov trys to charge us to use something we own , the fee collection activity costs more than the collection , then they raise the fee to cover the diff , then they hire more upper mngmt to oversee it , and have to raise the fee again to cover that.... sure hpoe mr ranger keeps an eye on Yogi and BOO BOO
Posted by billb | June 18, 2010 2:26 PM
I just returned from a camping trip to a State Park on the coast. I paid a nominal amount to camp there - and was glad to have the use of this remarkable publicly-owned facility. What's wrong with asking users to pay? A couple of bucks to hike in Forest Park is not too much to ask. Let kids hike for free.
Posted by Frank | June 18, 2010 3:16 PM
A fee to hike in Forest Park? Try to enforce it. There are too many ways to enter the park and the Wildwood Trail alone stretches for miles. One ranger couldn't begin to police it.
When I lived on Skyline Blvd north of Germantown Road. I occasionally saw city employees in the Newton Road parking lots, ticketing people for off leash dogs.
On another single memorable occasion I ran into a city employee setting out and checking moth traps. He told me that he was the only person undertaking this task in the 40-mile-loop.
Re. mountain bikes, there are already several fire lanes that provide a tough and challenging place to ride, not to mention Saltzman and other gated areas. Hamilton Mountain (WA) and nearby areas are a short drive from Portland. IMO there's no need to create mountain biking paths in Forest Park.
Posted by NW Portlander | June 18, 2010 3:47 PM
billb has it right.
An example is Willamette Park which was Portland Parks first park to charge for parking. The cost of the ticket booth, employees, and means to avoid paying by parking in the neighborhood seldom generated any revenue beyond the cost to manage the parking. The "profits" were to go to the park directly, but even when there was a "profit" it went to the Parks Bureau general fund.
When's the last time anyone has seen a new picnic table there, or any work to prevent the rain water build up over the unimproved 30 year old rutted asphalt walks? And of course, when Parks asked us to support another Parks Bond, they stopped garbage service there to cry poor.
Fees don't mean improvements in Portland. They just mean more jobs for the government elite.
Posted by lw | June 18, 2010 7:16 PM