Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park, that generous green swath of grass and trees alongside downtown, used to look very different than it does today. Those of you who moved to Portland within the last 30 years might not even know that the park was once a freeway.
I want to share a couple of videos (full disclosure, they are a tad lengthy but you'll learn so much about Portland from them) about the history of Portland's freeways, the ones that got built, the ones that didn't, and the one that got moved! The story of this aspect of our city's development is evidence that citizen organizing–to protect neighborhoods, to prevent further harm to historical black neighborhoods, and to safeguard the state's natural resources from environmental harm–does have an impact. I mean, who would have thought that you could get the city to move a freeway?