Portland Revelations – Neighborhood Parks
Decatur Metro | August 4, 2010
I do enjoy expansive city parks. Ones where you can easily get lost amidst miles of rock and tree. But sometimes it’s even more enjoyable to turn a corner or peak around a building and come upon a small park, hidden from the raging world around it.
Paris has a good number of these sorts of parks.
And while Portland does have an array of “lose yourself in nature” type parks, it was the variation of the smaller, neighborhood parks that has really attracted my attention.
Take the admittedly experimental Tanner Springs Park in the pic above. It was designed to recall the wetlands that formerly existed in this newly developed area of Portland. As you can see in the pic below, residents can sit on the steps surrounding the park and on the small patch of green on the park’s northern boundary. The park’s greatest current threat are the neighborhood dogs, who could easily over pollute the park’s waters, allowing algae to take over.
And now lets move from marshiness to a hardscape.
Jamison Square isn’t technically a park, as the name indicates, but it serves many of the same purpose.s It is a gathering spot. While Tanner drew in the lunch crowd looking for a couple minutes of respite, Jamison caters to local families with a pooling waterfall for toddlers.
And of course, we must not forget the historic parks.
The ones that no longer need to prove themselves to anyone. Parks like the North and South Park Blocks (pic right) serve as spines of the city, providing cool and scenic paths to destinations, lunch spots for preschool classes or just usable land for a farmer’s market.
These types of parks are widely utilized. And not because they immerse you in the most primal forms of nature. Straight rows of trees, benches, Teddy Roosevelt statues and a random gentleman howling at the moon continuously remind you that you’re still in the heart of the city.
What really makes these parks stand out from the rest is their functionality and flexibility – and thus vitality – within their city.
DM-I’m beginning to think we might lose you to Portland….
Noo…we need to work to make the ATL more like Portland.
Love Portland! It is interesting to see all of the street food there but also note what a different pedestrian environment downtown has compared to just about anywhere in our metro. Even the Square doesn’t compare, though it is probably the closest we get to Portland. Atlanta street food advocates seem so obsessed with pointing fingers at the big ol’ meanies in the government that they haven’t considered if there is more than a niche novelty market for street food in Atlanta.
If you have any interest in 80s arcade culture, don’t miss Ground Kontrol (http://www.groundkontrol.com/), an old school video arcade. It’s amazing how much more fun it is to play the old games on the actual physical machines in an arcade environment rather than on a emulator. And if you like whiskey, Clyde Common has one of the best selections around. Since Portland already has lots of great beer, Clyde Common had to turn to whiskey in order to be Portland’s Brick Store.
Threadjacking: Have you had marionberry pie yet? Or at least marionberry jam? Marionberries are named after Marion County, Oregon, best I remember. I’ve never seen them outside of Oregon. They are delicious. Do not miss!
I find it very odd that Portland has made pie in honor of Marion Barry.
Those wacky, crazy Oregonians! (Hope I haven’t started another brouhaha about stereotyping folks. Any Oregonians reading this blog?). If we have any indigenous berries in Decatur, I propose we name them andreaberries, in honor of Decatur EdTV’s intrepid reporter. And I want to be the first to make Andreaberry Pie!
Do you cut that on a mirror?
You’re making me look for an excuse to visit the left coast.
Portland Chamber of Commerce should hire you.
hmmmm or did they?…
I love a few of the hidden gems in Decatur, Ira Moss park accross from College Heights in S. Decatur, Glenn Creek Nature Preserve between Glennwood Estates & N. Decatur Heights, Wadell Park in Great Lakes, the small green space @ 315 W. Ponce., the flood Plain at the end of Westchester Drive that along the Peavine, the green space in Adair Neighborhood at the end of Melrose, All these green spaces are not as much a part of the City as they are to the neighborhoods they reside in. I know there are many more, any others you can think of?
That may be the ugliest, sorriest excuse for a “park” that I have ever seen. Designed to recall the wetlands? Do they explain that to the ducks and other wildlife?
You must mean the mutant ducks and ninja turtles, since that land used to be a contaminated industrial site.
But even if it was untouched nature, I’d explain to the ducks that we were building 15 story condos in lieu of taking over much more duck land to develop single family homes.
These photos remind me of Atlantic Station.
This reminds me…I was thinking of starting a non-profit called “Pocket Parks” and start adding parks around Decatur. I really want t-shirts that say “Is that a park in your pocket or are you just happy to be in Decatur?” I think this could be brilliant.