While serving on a community advisory committee for the Gateway Urban Renewal Area, in 2005, Ted Gilbert (a local developer) and Linda Robinson (a park advocate) teamed up to work on an idea that eventually became one of Portland's newest parks -- Gateway Green, a 25-acre park sandwiched between the I-205/I-84 interchanges. Gateway Green is Portland’s first park with a focus on all things off-road cycling; it is now being used year-round by adults and families with children.
In 2009, they co-founded a nonprofit (Friends of Gateway Green) to advocate for the creation of a park and, later, to help raise the funds needed to create it. They both continue to serve on the board of the nonprofit.
Ted and Linda will talk about how Ted's "crazy idea" led to a collaborative process and public/private partnership that created the park. For many years, the nonprofit focused on getting the park built. Since the park opened in June 2017, the park has added improvements, the most recent of which will be completed by Summer, 2023.
One of the compelling motivations for Gateway Green was, and is, to assist with the revitalization of Gateway and East Portland; to get the public, local and from around the region, to take a fresh look at all that the area does, and can, offer. In part, it is an economic development tool, and there are ways that you and your business can benefit and help.
