This Week, East Portland Gets a New Park Two-Thirds the Size of Laurelhurst With Epic Views of Mt. St. Helens

Luuwit View had been promised for 40 years.

By Matthew Korfhage

East Portland will get a new 16-acre park this week, at Northeast 127th Avenue and Fremont Street.

It's not just any park. The massive Luuwit View park will be about three times the size of popular inner-Portland playground Colonel Summers Park—and two-thirds the size of massive, water-featured Laurelhurst Park.

As should be obvious from the name—Luuwit is the Upper Cowlitz word designating the peak many know better as Mt. St. Helens—you'll get a prime view of the flat-topped dome of our region's most infamous volcano. The park will also include playsets, a full-size basketball court, a skate park, a community garden and public ping-pong tables.

This is a zone of East Portland extraordinarily ill-served by parks, with years of promises but no funding—according to Portland Parks and Recreation Director Mike Abbate, around 1,500 people will now have easy access to a park when they had none.

Portland Parks and Recreation's Mark Ross says the park had been promised to park-deprived East Portland for 40 years. "To be able to offer something of this size and complexity is icing on the cake," he says.

The grand opening will be Saturday, October 21, from 11 am to 2 pm, and will feature a Native American blessing and drumming ceremony, live guitar, breakdancing, skateboarding classes and Zumba.

Anyway, the park's pretty:

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