“Healthy Parks for a Healthy Community” : Sport Oregon Voices

Sport Oregon Voices

We interview Randy Gragg, Executive Director of the Portland Parks Foundation, in light of upcoming Ballot Measure 26-213

If you’re from the city or surrounding area, you’re likely very familiar with the unique sense of place that Portland offers. The famous sign in downtown Portland may read “Keep Portland Weird,” but to locals, there’s arguably more of a fierce sense of community and pride in “Keeping Portland Special.”

A big part of that “special”—our pride of place—is our parks system and corresponding outdoor recreational opportunities, gardens and trails. We boast one of the largest urban forests in Forest Park. And, of course, we lay claim to the smallest park in the world, with the 452-square-inch Mills End Park.

Those outliers aside, Portland has more than 10,000 acres of public parks and other natural areas, along with major community centers, swimming pools and sports courts and fields that give beauty to our city and provide residents a place to play, explore and live active, healthy lifestyles. There are north of 200 parks alone under Portland Parks & Recreation’s management, with countless programs and recreational activities being offered that are vital to our individual and collective quality of life in this area. Consider that more than 250 athletic user groups reserved more than 193,000 hours of use at PP&R facilities last year.

In short, Portland parks system is essential infrastructure to our overall sports ecology.

But the system is facing two crises: one a decade in the making, one made by COVID-19. PP&R has been facing a long-term decline in financial resources coupled with rising costs due to an over-reliance on user fees to cover roughly 40 percent of funding for its recreational programs alone. But, as we all have experienced to some degree, that harsh economic reality became even more stark when COVID resulted in another multi-million-dollar hole in the parks budget, with little-to-no user fees coming in for the majority of this past year.

Randy Gragg, executive director of the Portland Parks Foundation, the non-profit partner of PP&R, sees the agency’s work at a crossroads, of sorts, with the level of continued service, maintenance and customary programming of the parks system hinging on an upcoming levy on the November ballot. The levy, Measure 26-213, is a five-year measure to address the mounting budget cuts and pandemic-related deficits as an essential means to reopen community centers and pools, protect essential programs for families with lower incomes, and to continue providing the customary recreational services used by so many.

 “There are really clear consequences that you will see within months, whether this levy passes or not,” Gragg said. “If this levy doesn’t pass, we will see a lot fewer recreation programs, we will see less maintenance in the parks. If it passes, we will see more people having access to recreation programs, and we will see a park system better cared for.”

 While allowing for the backfilling of some immediate financial shortfalls, the levy also paves the way for a more sustainable business model. According to Gragg, it will, in part, allow Portland Parks & Recreation to offer many of its recreation programs for free, and many others on a sliding scale to make them more accessible and equitable to users of all incomes.

 Another substantial portion of the levy funds, which proposes a rate of 80 cents per $1,000 for taxpayers, will address the steady and long-term decline in operations, providing important maintenance and appropriate upkeep for the many facilities and parks under the agency’s management.

 “This levy is really about preserving what we have, and making what we have more accessible to more people,” Gragg said.

 The reach of this proposed new business model spreads beyond the typical parks services, too. Case in point, many of Sport Oregon’s bids are reliant upon the predictable parks funding that results in the certainty of availability and overall operating condition of the city’s recreational facilities and parks.

 “The stable and predictable funding of the parks system allows us to more aggressively pursue sports tourism opportunities and events that drive a positive impact in our community, drawing participants and teams from throughout the region and country,” said Jim Etzel, CEO of Sport Oregon. “It’s also critical to provide underserved communities increased access to our parks and related recreational programs and to eliminate barriers that hinder our youth from staying active and participating in these activities.”

 Most agree that a healthy parks system is vital to a healthy community.

“When you come into a city and you visit a neighborhood and there’s a high level of activity and things are well-maintained, it just gives you a sense of a place that people care about, and are active and healthy,” Gragg said.

In others words, it’s an important contributing factor in Keeping Portland Special, while carrying on the impressive legacy of our vast and unique parks system.