The City of Portland will be removing lamp posts from parks to address safety issues. It is being reported that hundreds of light poles will be removed. The city’s Light Pole Safety Project has 12 parks in the plans. However, it has not yet secured the funding to do the removals. Nearly all of the impacted parks on the list are in Southeast Portland.
There was also legal action. The light pole project follows legal action taken against the city. An attorney sent the city a tort claim last summer. It alleged the plaintiff was injured after laying in a hammock tied to a cement lamp post and a tree in Irving Park. The claim said the post broke and fell on the plaintiff.
Many light poles were inspected. The city recently inspected 1,000 light poles. The city found that 243 of them across 12 parks were structurally unsound and needed to be removed. Some of the light poles were more than a 100-years-old.
Portland estimates that the project will cost $15 million to bring it to full completion. However, it only has $5 million slated to cover it all. At this point, it’s unclear when funding will be available to replace them.
For safety, park rangers will prioritize visiting the affected parks. It has also been stated that parks with diminished lighting will close early at 10:00 p.m. At Mt. Tabor Park, 81 of the park’s 216 light poles are slated to be removed. And, the list goes on. In Irving Park, 73 of the park’s 78 light poles are in the process of being removed, and in Sellwood Park, 17 of its 23 light poles have already been removed.
Parks are a way of life to many in the local area. Some identify their entire neighborhood by the park there. The friends of Mt. Tabor Park sent Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler a letter saying, “Turning off the lights is likely to lead to more crime and injuries and more lawsuits.” The group also used the letter to ask the city to slow the light pole removals on the grounds of safety and historic preservation.
