The idea for a park in North Portland’s Cully neighborhood goes back nearly 20 years. In early 2000, Portland Parks and Recreation acquired a 25 acre former landfill in the heart of the neighborhood.  The area has been primarily African American and ethnically mixed for decades and some questioned the idea of building a public park on a landfill.

In 2008, a master plan was created, but no funds were available to begin implementing the cleanup and construction. In 2005, Verde, a project started by Hacienda CDC to serve impoverished communities was started in Cully. Oriented to providing jobs and improving the neighborhood with an emphasis on environmental design, they launched letsbuildcullypark.org.

The organization was soon active in making the vision of a community park become a reality.

In 2012 a public/private partnership was approved by the Portland City Council and fundraising began. The park design included new access on Northeast 72^nd Avenue, parking, fitness trails, a dog park, athletic fields, stormwater management, bioswales, plantings, and the Native Gathering Garden. Among the issues they had to deal with was adherence to state and federal DEQ policies. Once that was achieved, people in the neighborhood saw the potential and were eager to participate.

Michael Martin, president of Northwest Infrastructure, served as the main lead of the group that worked to bring the $11.3 million project to fruition.

“I’ve been involved for about three years, but this is really a community project,” said Martin.

Maurice Rahming and Ali O’Neill of O’Neill Construction Group and James Faison of Faison Construction were also heavily involved. All are COBID-certified contractors.

“Instead of just one contractor, we kept the spirit of what Verde was doing and included several certified minority companies,” said Martin. “And people in the neighborhood got on board. They were a lot of the labor force that helped with the landscaping and built the community garden.”

A grand opening event was held on June 30th with Governor Kate Brown, Mayor Ted Wheeler, members of the various construction firms and landscape teams – and even the Portland Timbers – on hand to celebrate opening the park for public use.

Alan Hipolito, Verde’s outgoing executive director, said of the project, “Cully Park is a statement about the power of community, and I want to especially thank the hundreds of Cully adults, families and children who worked so hard for so long. My friends, you did it. You designed and built a park which everyone can enjoy and which will serve generations of Portlanders.”

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