PORTLAND, Oregon — The city is moving forward with plans to demolish O’Bryant Square, the condemned city park on Southwest Harvey Milk Street.
On Wednesday, Portland City Council members voted to spend $4.5 million to tear down the park. The process will include filling in a structurally unsound garage below ground, leveling the infrastructure and covering it with grass. Trees that are currently planted at the park will remain.
The park was once a center for civic beauty and activity, and featured a large fountain that was dedicated in 1973. In 2018, the city placed a fence around O’Bryant Square while they decided what do with it. Besides its structural challenges, drug use and crime came to define the area.
“You've got the extremes of our society from folks living and staying in the Ritz Carlton to folks who are going to Central City Concern to New Avenues for Youth,” said Randy Gragg, executive director of The Portland Parks Foundation. “The square is bracketed by these social extremes but we think everybody should be able to have their park be safe and experience a lively place.”
The Portland Parks Foundation is working with Portland Parks & Recreation as well as Portland State University’s Center for Public Interest Design. Together, they held a series of webinars and open houses in March to help them decide the park's future.
Gragg said around 400 people shared public input. He said while there isn't enough money to build a new square, they can make improvements.
In June, Gragg said they will share a series of recommendations. Demolition is set to begin in the next couple of weeks with the goal of completing short term improvements by October.