The Roseway Parkway stretches five long blocks from NE Sandy Blvd to Prescott Street along 72nd Ave. It is a precious open space, providing peace, exercise, and recreation for our community. The parkway is officially a median, not park blocks. It is owned by the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), with no access to water and limited maintenance, provided primarily through RNA and other volunteers. 

Roseway Parkway Plaza Planning and Placemaking

The RNA, with funding from the CNN Small Grant program, hosted two events this year at our future plaza space at NE Mason St and 72nd Ave between two blocks of the Roseway Parkway. Our Earth Day on April 22nd and an Ice Cream Social and Emergency Preparedness event on October 8th provided useful information and fun activities. We hope to host many future events in our street plaza.

 The RNA Placemaking Committee began planning for the Roseway Parkway Plaza at the intersection of NE 72nd Ave and Mason St. Our last update from PBOT indicated a start date of late in 2024 for the initiation of construction on the NE Mason / Skidmore Greenway Project. As a component of this project, this intersection will be closed to east-west motor vehicle traffic and will become one of Portland’s street plazas. We hope to make our plaza a destination for the neighborhood and for bicyclists traveling on the Mason and 72nd Ave greenways.    

Students from the Portland State University Program in Urban Studies and Planning visited the Roseway Parkway in April to talk with residents and observe uses of the Roseway Parkway. They surveyed 165 parkway users and identified common desires for the parkway and plaza space. Working in collaboration with Greg Raisman, Director of PBOT’s Livable Streets program, the group identified goals, objectives, and recommended action items for the parkway space in their PSU_IT STEP Report. We are using this data along with our own interactions with parkway users to generate ideas for meeting some of these goals and objectives.

Tree planting and ongoing parkway maintenance

Seventeen new parkway tree watering volunteers were recruited at our Earth Day event. They join neighbors that have been engaged in watering some of our young trees the last several years during periods of drought or extreme heat. 

Neighborhood volunteers continued to help with mowing and trimming the five blocks of the parkway. Thanks to Scott Everist for the use of his riding lawn mower for this task, and to all the neighborhood volunteers for pitching in on the parkway.

 The RNA ordered six yards of screened fill dirt in September and neighbors filled most of the depressions on the parkway. Grass seed and straw mulch were applied to these areas, including several areas damaged last year by vehicles driving on the parkway. These repairs make the parkway a safer place for both pedestrians and the PBOT and volunteer mowers.

The Youth Conservation Corp Tree Crew led by Urban Forestry staff spent three days on the Roseway Parkway in July, weeding and mulching the young trees. They plan to return in the coming year to help the neighborhood with parkway tree care.

Urban Forestry staff, Neighborhood Tree Stewards from throughout the city, and local volunteers will plant 12 new trees on the parkway blocks between NE Sandy and Mason St on December 16th of this year. Tree species were selected for qualities such as drought resistance, wildlife habitat, or pollinator resources. The new trees will add to the species diversity of our Roseway Parkway, and we plan to apply for official arboretum designation from the Urban Forestry Commission in the coming year.