WILLAMETTE RIVER ADVOCACY

“At the catch! Blades in! Power 10! Let her run!”
Kaspar Murer, Past President, Wasabi Paddling Club   kasparmurer@comcast.new
Renée Morgan, Calm Water Coalition, Portland Rowing Club  reneenumber6@gmail.com
 
On any day on the Willamette River, you might hear steersmen and oarspersons shouting these commands to their rowing and paddling teams. Portland has a long history of crew teams, with the first club founded on May 3rd, ...

We all know humans have a great ability to screw up nature. Perhaps that is why it feels so good when we collectively take action to undo these wrongs – “unscrewing” nature up a little and seeing humans and nature respond in positive ways.
 
The tide is turning. Many people in Portland are starting to care about the Willamette River – to participate, feel empowered, and affect change. It’s a slow, incremental process and at times very hard work.
 
But it’s ...

I send warm greetings and much love to the HAP family. Thank you for being a part of it and helping us get where we are!

Look what we have accomplished together in our nine years. Two new downtown beaches, 5,000+ people at The Big Float, a thriving River Hugger swim team, and a city slowly but surely falling in love with its river.

God knows there’s a lot to be blue about these days. But it’s a fact my friend, blue space can drive away the blues.

If anybody knows a good blues lick, here are some lyrics: When blues get me down, I get down to the river, night or day, come what may, I get down to the river, down to the blue space, and let them blues flow away.

By Ringleader Willie Levenson
 
In the first two parts of this story about the forming of Audrey McCall Beach, HAP worked to address the creativity gap to unearth a beach (Part 1) that was buried in concrete, rip-rap, and abandoned pilings (Part 2).
The aspect of activism I love the most is cultivating and sharing encouragement and support from peers. Collaborating with peers to solve problems. These peers who do thankless work, inspire me with their daring to care.They are gluttons ...

By Ringleader Willie Levenson
 
In the first part of this story about the forming of Audrey McCall Beach, HAP worked with inmates from the Inverness Inmate Work Crew to haul out concrete from the beach. With their help and the muscle power of other friends/volunteers, we removed 19 tons of concrete over four summers – all without bringing in heavy mechanized equipment (as required in our permit).
 
The more concrete we got rid of, the more I felt the need to ramp up removal operations. ...

By Ringleader, Willie Levenson
 
The Big Float’s first year was 2011. Around 1,000 people participated. It was a crazy lift and learning curve to get it together. 
 
To put on The Big Float we had to find sponsors, pull permits, plan the event, line up bands and vendors, create a website, and hope folks came. It was thrilling to pull it off and experience validation that we were on to something. Something potentially big.
 
We realized The Big Float had tremendous potential ...

 By HAP Ringleader Willie Levenson  
I send warm greetings and much love to the HAP family. Thank you for being a part of it and helping us get where we are! 
Look what we have accomplished together in our nine years. Two new downtown beaches, 5,000+ people at The Big Float, a thriving River Hugger swim team, and a city slowly but surely falling in love with its river. Our culture is changing right before our eyes! What more can we do?  Stay tuned. There is more, much more ...

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has announced the winners of its 2018 Recognition Awards. Selected as winner of the Tom McCall Award is our intrepid leader, Willie Levenson! Major kudos to our Captain!
ASLA stated, “With his leadership, Willie Levenson and HAP set out to raise awareness of the river and ultimately inspire ‘a City in love with its river,’ leading to widespread stewardship of our largest natural resource. It is through his creative energy, clear ...

Unhealthy air, a warming planet, Harmful Algae Blooms…we’ve been getting the memos and dire calls to action since our childhood. Now the writing is on the wall. It’s actually way beyond the wall - the signs are everywhere.
 
What do these messages say to you and how does it make you feel?
 
Once upon a time before science had an explanation for everything, humans feared and revered Mother Nature’s dominion over our lives. It may be that those days have returned ...

 
Have you been curious why a Harmful Algae Bloom (HAB) has developed in Ross Island Lagoon the last four summers in downtown Portland? Good news is there’s a surprisingly simple solution to this problem.
 
Why are these blooms happening?
It is very unusual for a Harmful Algae Bloom (HAB) to form on a river. Typically HABs need three things to thrive: little to no water circulation (why they typically form on lakes), high water temps, and nitrogen load. Generally, ...

There’s a lot of talk going on about culture these days. Regardless of your ethnicity you have one! Your culture is who is in your circle - it’s your friends, your family, your co-workers, your neighbors - all these groups individually and together help form the perceptions we hold about things.
It’s time for the culture of our group of HAP members to step forward to help influence our own sub-cultures. Word of mouth is powerful, and clearly if you are reading this, you are an ...

PLEASE PUT IN YOUR OWN WORDS AND VOICE TO SUIT HOW YOU FEEL OR MAKE NO CHANGES. THANK YOU!!
 
Deborah Kafoury, Chair mult.chair@multco.us 503.988.3308
 
Sharon Meieran, Commissioner-Dist.1 (Downtown) district1@multco.us 503.988.5220
 
Loretta Smith, Commissioner-Dist. 2 district2@multco.us 503.988.5219
 
Jessica Vega Pederson, Commissioner-Dist. 3 district3@multco.us 503.988.5217
 
Lori Stegmann, Commissioner-Dist.4 district4@multco.us 503.988.5213
 
Deborah, Sharon, ...

March 26: Greening Portland
 
Architecture, city planning and community/environmental activists come together to define a sustainable vision for the future of Portland. How many bioswales and bike lanes are enough? What about widening I-5, or increasing mass transit? How many highrises, parking spaces, and how high is high? There's talk about equity, but is anyone creating it, and how are they doing it?
 
 
The Human Access Project is a non-profit with a mission: Transform ...

I will never apologize for a Sewage Overflow into our city’s river. When it happens I feel a collective shame for our community. I wish it would never happen at all. But how often does a sewage overflow happen? In 2017 there were a grand total of seven - that is an occurrence of less than 2% of the year!When a sewage overflow does happen it is typically 80% storm water and 20% sewage.
This Valentine's Day Portland will celebrate 115+ consecutive days of no sewage overflows for our $1.44 billion ...

  
We MUST tend to our individual flames and seek out things that stoke our optimism.
What is the alternative?  
For many, including myself, 2017, and continuing into 2018, has felt like a pile on.  Did we take the eight magical years with Obama for granted?  Did Obama make it look too easy?  Did we become complacent and expect progress would continue to happen without active public participation?  Did we forget how hard and long it takes to build things and how ...

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently released its proposal to allocate water stored in Willamette Basin reservoirs and is taking comments on the plan through December 22. Your voice is needed! Please act now and ask the Corps to give more water to fish and wildlife and to prioritize threatened fish populations in low-water years. 
The Corps has proposed allocating 962,000 acre-feet to fish and wildlife, 254,000 to irrigation, and 73,000 to municipal and industrial use. The remainder will ...

“Kon-Tiki” 
A fund/funraiser for Human Access Project
 
Thursday, Dec. 7  6:30 pm
Hollywood Theatre with after-party at Popina Swimwear
 
Aye, it is true that you can change your world while sitting on your butt – on a raft or theater seat. Support the Human Access Project and put an oar in the Portland “riverlution” by watching one of the most amazing raft voyages in human history – “Kon-Tiki”!
 
This inspiring ...

We have officially hit the HAP offseason. What an amazing season it was! Thank you for being a part of it! So much accomplished, so much fun. I feel like I am witnessing an awakening in our community – can you see it too?
 
As Ringleader I tested my limits and pushed myself as far as my body and mind would allow. It feels great knowing I gave it all I could, that the work yielded positive results, and so many new friends were made in the process. But it’s all ya’ll participating ...

In May 2011, Human Access Project, in an effort to create an improved access point to Portland's largest public open space, the Willamette River, began a project to re-envision what HAP viewed as an excellent potential beach park. The site had many pros - great access off the eastside esplanade, a walkable distance from the central eastside, great views of downtown and sunsets, and just off a major bike commuter route for people crossing the Hawthorne Bridge from downtown.
The biggest challenge ...

Audrey McCall, the wife of Oregon Governor Tom McCall, loved to swim. Now she may be lucky enough to have a beach named after her right in Portland on the Willamette River. And knowing her, she would invite all Oregonians to share it, enjoy it and mostly, swim from it.
 
My mother, then Audrey Owen, grew up in Spokane, an area dotted with lovely lakes. Her parents would take their three daughters to the lakes as often as possible. Audrey grew up swimming from beaches and ...