Plan to clean up Portland's I-405 corridor
City Councilor Eric Zimmerman proposes pilot project
City Commissioner Eric Zimmerman intends to create an Interstate 405 corridor enhancement program to clean the areas along the freeway. A pilot program would be managed by the Portland Environment Management Office, which oversees the Portland Solutions program. It would hire workers, many of them homeless or formerly unhoused, to tend an area within a block or two of the freeway and Providence Park.
Having seen a similar project thrive in the Gateway area, Zimmerman is so confident the program will succeed that he will fund the pilot project from his own office budget.
The concept also draws inspiration from We Heart Portland and the Pearl District Neighborhood Association, which enlisted weekend volunteers to remove trash along the freeway north of West Burnside in 2022.
Zimmerman is such a bright spot in this council.
If he hires someone like Kevin Dahlgren to run it, it just might work.