Decent weather is finally paying us a visit, and Portlanders are digging on the sunshine. On Wednesday evening, the rooftop patio at that 10 Barrel Brewing pub on NW 14th had an ungodly three-and-a-half hour wait for seating. And yesterday afternoon, people were sunbathing on the Holman Dock, that popular hangout south of the Hawthorne Bridge. See?
Suddenly, that’s going to be an all-summer thing. The Portland Development Commission had planned to pull the Holman Dock for at least two months this summer, to make way for pollution control work Portland General Electric had planned for the adjacent river.
But PGE is pushing that work back, according to spokesperson Steve Corson, to make way for work the city has to do in the river. That means the dock’s staying put this summer, says the PDC’s Shawn Uhlman.
It’s good news for people who want to chill on the Willamette (which, by the way, has relatively safe water these days, even though vast acres of river bottom are contaminated). We’re a river city, but centrally located public spaces that let people interact with the water are few and far between.
That’s likely to grow even starker after a vote by the state’s Marine Board on Tuesday. The board voted to allow the relocation of the city-owned Duckworth Dock—from its home south of the Steel Bridge to Swan Island, where it will be adjacent to the headquarters of Daimler Trucks North America. Daimler’s been pushing that move for a while.
The Portland City Council will need to approve any move.
What happened to the fire station? That dock is supposed to be for fire boats and fishing firemen.