When Metro developed the 2019 parks and nature bond measure, community members were loud and clear that they wanted to see Metro take care of its existing parks, and they specifically wanted to see Blue Lake and Oxbow regional parks receive that love and care.
Blue Lake was closed over last winter so major infrastructure work could be finished. This work sets up major park improvements that community members helped shape during the fall of 2023 and over the summer of 2024. In 2025, Metro will share the final designs for the revamped park, and community members will help prioritize which projects should be built first.
Metro is also looking to make good on past promises to connect the communities of North Portland with nature at Willamette Cove, which lies between the St. Johns Bridge and the Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge. Metro purchased the former industrial site as one of its first natural areas in 1996, but plans to create a park were stopped by the need to clean 70 years of contamination at the site. After two decades, that final cleanup work is getting close to happening, and with it the chance to create the nature park.
As the cleanup gets closer, Metro is working with community members to design the future nature park. That process kicked off in the spring with workshops focused on hearing from communities of color, houseless community members and people with disabilities. A survey sent to every home in North Portland garnered 2,200 submissions, one of the biggest responses Metro has ever gotten for a project.
The planning process will continue through 2025 and includes more opportunities for community members to shape this long-awaited park.
Story: Blue Lake Regional Park reopens
Blue Lake Regional Park reopened on May 25 for Memorial Day weekend after a nine-month closure to update the beloved park’s water and sewer systems. Also new this year, park visitors will be able to launch paddleboards, canoes and other small, nonmotorized watercraft onto Blue Lake.
“We heard from community members that access to the lake was important to them,” says senior planner Olena Turula, who is overseeing park renovations. “Earlier this year, after engaging with neighboring property owners, Metro updated park rules so we could offer ways to access the lake that are safe and equitable for all.”
Visitors should remember that while the lake is now more open to them, it is still a lake – not a swimming pool. There are no lifeguards and visitors are responsible for their own safety on and in the water. Metro offers boating tips on its website.
Metro is in the middle of updating the park, which annually hosts hundreds of thousands of visitors coming for barbecues, family reunions, cultural celebrations, fun runs, Impala shows and any other gathering that can fit under a picnic shelter or on a lawn.
The park was built in the 1930s and most of the structures were last updated in the 1960s. Critical infrastructure, like pipes, were more than 50 years old and not designed to serve so many people.
Those old pipes are gone, replaced with 2.5 miles of new plumbing that connects Blue Lake to Fairview’s water system.
By the end of June, the park’s fishing pier will reopen to the public after being closed due to unsafe conditions. The renovated pier will feature new accessibility improvements and covered areas.
The work is funded by Metro’s parks and nature bond, which voters approved in 2019.
From: Blue Lake Regional Park reopens May 2025
Story: What community members want at Willamette Cove
The number-one message, without a doubt, was community members want Willamette Cove to focus on nature.
More than 50% of those surveyed said they want the nature park to lean towards nature. Going into the survey, we expected that most people would say make it 50-50 or lean toward nature, but we also thought plenty of people would want the focus on greater human access. Nope. Folks want Willamette Cove to be a NATURE park.
This result was the same no matter the person’s race, income, age or whether they currently have a disability.
The same was true in the workshops. Community members really gravitated to the idea that Willamette Cove was a place where nature could thrive amid miles and miles of industry.
When we asked which activities community members would most likely do at the park, the second most picked was “watching birds and other wildlife.” …
People do want to access Willamette Cove, first and foremost to connect with nature.
From: Community insights: Willamette Cove nature park