Day: January 25, 2023

I attended the next meeting about the future of the North Portland Aquatic Center. Unlike the first one, this included a presentation and then small group discussions with reporting out.

The groups ranked the five remaining sites (St. Johns Park, Northgate Park, Charles Jordan Community Center, Columbia Park, and Columbia Annex) using a variety of criteria and then ranked overall our top three sites. We also weighed in about what kind of features we would want in the play area, and what we want to prioritize in the fast water (a.k.a. swimming) and fun water (a.k.a. water for playing in)

The Pier Park site was knocked out due to grant funded reasons. I stayed to the end of the reporting out because I was curious how the St Johns Park location would rank. Aside from the table where a person insisted that the circle around the St. Johns Park location was drawn incorrectly, no one ranked the St Johns location in their top three.

I think that the St Johns location, while convenient for residents of St. Johns, is inconvenient for the rest of us in North Portland. It’s almost as far away from me as Dishman is.

My quibble with this process is that Columbia Park has been split into two sites. Columbia Annex is right across the street from Columbia Park. They are the same site. By splitting that vote, it’s much more likely that Northgate or Charles Jordan will be chosen. Those are fine sites, but the Columbia Park split annoys me.

I’ve got my fingers crossed it won’t end up in St. Johns. That site is too far for me to be a regular.