People on tricycles are cleaning up the Pearl District and beyond, a special city effort to mitigate impacts related to three facilities for the homeless in the district. Pedal-powered vehicles have been making the rounds every morning since the beginning of October, picking up trash as well as biohazards, such as needles.
“This is in response to the Northrup Shelter but also the Navigation Center and the new Oasis Day Shelter,” said Chase McPherson, executive director of Northwest Community Conservancy, a nonprofit dedicated to keeping the Pearl District safe and livable.
“If you map those out, the 1,000-foot cleaning radius the city promised around every shelter in the city really covered almost all of the Pearl, so they expanded it to fill in any of those blanks,” McPherson said.
The workers are part of a Clean Start program at Central City Concern that provides employment to help people “to get back on their feet.”
Anyone can email PEMO@portlandoregon.gov to report trash.
The tricycles were made by Icicle Tricycles, a company founded and operated by Ryan Hashagen, who is also a member of the Old Town Community Association board.
“We proudly built all of the city cleanup Bikes for Portland Solutions and for Clean and Safe out of our Old Town Icicle Tricycle factory,” Hashagen said.
