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Giant boulders put in alongside Springwater Hall path car parking zone to stop automobile entry

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Boulders at SE 111th and the Springwater Hall path (that may be seen within the decrease left). (Images: Despatched in by a reader)

The Portland Parks & Recreation Bureau (PP&R) has positioned about two dozen giant boulders round loads on the northwest nook of the intersection of Southeast 111th and the Springwater Hall path (map).

A reader despatched us photographs taken yesterday that depict a hoop of boulders that stop anybody from driving onto what was previously a chunk of land used as a car parking zone to entry the Springwater and Beggers Tick Wildlife Refuge. For the previous a number of years, like many open areas and pure areas round Portland, the lot has been utilized by individuals who stay of their automobiles and/or in tent encampments. The one that despatched us the photographs (who requested to stay nameless) stated they’ve seen the identical sort of boulder utilization simply south of SE Foster Street on the Brookside Wetlands space.

“That parking [at the Springwater] was a great factor for the oldsters that stay up the hill on Mt Scott due to entry points,” the individual stated. “I’d not take my 3 12 months outdated down Mt Scott to get there by way of bike. The site visitors and the highway grade are massive elements why.”

The Springwater Hall is owned and managed by PP&R and we’ve confirmed with a spokesperson for the company that they put in the boulders. Based on PP&R’s Mark Ross they have been put in place to stop folks from driving onto the Springwater and into the pure space.

(Images of the lot earlier than the boulders have been put in)

Individuals driving automobiles on native multi-use paths has turn into way more frequent previously few years. So too has folks residing in automobiles and/or leaving them parted-out and deserted on properties alongside parks, pure areas, and paths. Willamette Week reported in January that 1,035 folks lived of their automobiles in Portland as of December 2021.

Screengrab from a video by Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty in 2019.

PP&R has struggled with the difficulty of automobiles on their properties, as a result of steps taken to limit driving on paths may also make it more durable for bicycle riders and different customers to entry them. This got here to a head again in January once we reported on the poor placement of enormous concrete obstacles on the Columbia Slough Path in north Portland that created a security hazard for some customers.

The usage of boulders to stop entry to particular locations has turn into comparatively customary process for the Oregon Division of Transportation. It has additionally been controversial. When ODOT positioned dozens of them to displace an encampment alongside I-405 in southwest Portland in 2019, Metropolis Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who now oversees the Bureau of Transportation, was so “outraged” by the transfer she filmed a video of herself standing in entrance of them and urged folks to contact ODOT.

Additionally this week, a reader despatched us the photograph beneath of a poorly positioned metal bollard on the west aspect of the North Failing Avenue Pedestrian overpass of I-5. It was put in by Kaiser Permanente to stop folks from driving from their car parking zone onto the trail and into grassy areas on the fringe of their property.

New metal pole proper in the course of Failing Avenue bridge path.

Efforts to crack down on folks utilizing open areas for unlawful parking, driving, and tenting appear to be intensifying. In February Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler introduced a brand new prohibition on encampments adjoining to freeways and excessive crash corridors (and no, SE 111th will not be certainly one of them).

We’ve reached out to Commissioner Hardesty’s workplace for remark and can replace this story if/once we hear again. We’ve additionally reached out to Parks Commissioner Carmen Rubio for remark and are awaiting a reply.