The Alder Street Food Carts Have Found a New Home

The former residents of the Alder Street Food Cart Pod are moving—again.

At the end of June, Portland's biggest cart pod was cleared out to make way for an incoming 35-story, 460-foot tall Ritz-Carlton hotel. City officials proposed relocating the carts to the two blocks between West Burnside and Northwest Davis Streets on Northwest Park Avenue. Friends of the Green Loop, a nonprofit advocating for the creation of a six-mile "urban trail" through the city, launched a last-minute crowdfunding campaign to fund the move.

The group was unable to raise the necessary $300,000 before the July 1 eviction date, but did find a temporary place for owners to store the carts while figuring out the next step: the downtown post office.

Today, Friends of the Green Loop announced that the city has secured a permanent home for the carts along the area of the North Park Blocks referred to as Ankeny Square. About 30 carts will be situated along Southwest Park Avenue, 8th Avenue and Ankeny Street, just a stone's throw from their previous location.

It is the first step in the organization's planned "Culinary Corridor," which aims to have carts occupy curbside parking spaces downtown along the proposed Green Loop.

"This move has been made possible thanks to countless public and private donors, for which we are extremely grateful," the organization said in a press release. Travel Portland gave the largest contribution of $25,000, the group said.

Initially, the relocation was meant to be a stopgap In June, Keith Jones, co-director of Friends of the Green Loop, told WW they would ultimately like the carts to occupy curbside parking spaces downtown along the proposed Green Loop as part of a "Culinary Corridor." Jones said they'd hope to permanently settle the carts by next summer.

No specific timeline for the move is available yet, but Keith Jones, co-director of Friends of the Green Loop, says the carts will be able to stay at the post office for up to six months—though "our intention to get the carts moved to Ankeny as soon as possible," he adds.

The press release notes that money is still needed to cover electrical, plumbing and moving costs. The group's GoFundMe campaign remains active.