We Built a New Playground in Rose City Park!
Here's the story of how Rose City Park Playground happened:
Rose City Park has long needed a place for children to play: activities that are fun, promote physical development and strategic thinking, and encourage connection with others. The existing playground equipment is broken, outdated and out of code.
The old Rose City Park Playground.
The old Rose City Park Playground
In 2019, a plucky trio of neighbors got an idea: build a better playground for Rose City Park. The playground hasn't seen improvements in decades. So Joe Saraceno, Benjamin Dudley, and Rachel Gittner formed the Rose City Playground Project and with other neighbors and area businesses and hosted barbecues, networked, and threw huge "play day" celebration in the park and, working even through the pandemic, raised $25,000.
Their efforts caught the eye of Parks Commissioner Carmen Rubio and the Portland Parks Foundation who formed a public/private partnership between the Foundation and Portland Parks & Recreation to split the cost of a new play structure.
The new play structure will serve youth from three nearby elementary schools and more than 200 who live directly across the street in Home Forward’s Ellington Apartments. The Ellington apartment complex has 263 units of affordable housing and more than ⅓ of the units have families that make less than 30% of the median income and are home to over 200 children.
Initiated by a diverse coalition of residents from the Rose City Park, Roseway, and Madison South neighborhoods, the Rose City Park Playground Project is the Portland Parks Foundation’s latest effort to bring safe, accessible fun to a Portland park.
The new Rose City Park Playground!
The new structure, a “Smart Play Venti” features a cargo net, inclined cable walk, bridge, vertical climber, panel maze, tightrope bridge, chinning bar, and other features designed to keep 5-12-year olds engaged with activities that grow agility, balance, coordination, endurance, motor skills, eye-hand coordination, upper and lower body strength, problem-solving, and strategic thinking. Some features are accessible and the improvements to the grounds will make the playground safer and more welcoming.
We did it! We built a brand new playground for Rose City Park!
Thanks to everyone who contributed, we met our goal for the Rose City Playground Project, and the playground is now complete.
The playground opened in April 2023. Join us on June 17, 2023 for the official celebration!
As we work to identify our next playground project, please join our mailing list to stay in the loop on upcoming projects.