Beginnings

In December of 1989, a flyer was distributed to people living on the perimeter of Columbia Park informing them about a meeting for a proposed parking lot. The lot was to be built on the south side of Columbia Pool. Neighbors were alarmed about this, and they decided to attend this meeting of the Portland Park Bureau. At that meeting they were told that the proposed parking lot was a "done deal".

That started the "ball" rolling. Neighbors had meetings, and decided to ask for help from the neighborhood associations. Kenton Neighborhood Association supported the parking lot. Portsmouth Neighborhood Association (PNA) was against the parking lot. PNA offered to help neighbors fight City Hall.

Affected neighbors asked if petitions could be placed in local businesses on N. Lombard and in St. Johns. The petitions were checked every week for several months. Neighbors also walked the streets in their neighborhoods, going door to door explaining the proposed parking lot proposal and obtaining signatures. Major testimony from 12 people opposed to the project and six in favor of the parking lot was heard. More than 300 signatures for and 700 plus signatures opposed to the proposal were gathered. This was grass-roots lobbying at its best. Many Kenton residents believed that it would be good to have the parking lot. They thought it would make kids who worked at the pool safer. Others were opposed to the idea because the parking lot would be a place where drug transactions could occur and it would take up a huge amount of the park's green-space plus trees would have to be cut down. The lot would also have been on top of the surge tank.

City Council held several hearings on the proposed parking lot. A conditional hearing was filed by the city of Portland, but two citizens, Adele Kaptur and Mary Gilbertson, filed appeals to the land use hearings officer in Salem. There were more city council hearings and many citizens testified. The end result was that there is no parking lot at Columbia Park today.

Formation of the Friends of Columbia Park

Residents attending meetings about the parking lot, decided to form an organization. That was the beginning of Friends of Columbia Park (FOCP).

Officers were elected and meeting schedules were posted. Initially, the Friends did not have any one building to have meetings in, so meeting sites varied between Portsmouth Middle School, residents homes, meetings in the Park, and St. Andrews Episcopal Church.