Good Food Here Takes Shape
Over the past week, the folks at Urban Development Partners have been hard at work putting the finishing touches on the site improvements for Good Food Here at SE 43rd & Belmont… and carts should start rolling in over the next few days. This pop-up variety of site intervention involved minimal investment and the ability to take the majority of elements away from the site to be re-purposed elsewhere when the site evolves into it’s final use as a mixed use building.
Planters are placed to delineate spaces and limit access into the site, and areas of traffic to allow some carts owners, if the desire, to come and go. Tables, umbrellas, and additional plantings are in the queue for upcoming days. Water Bureau was on-site this morning to install service to the site – making it fully operational. Overall space for 20+ carts is in the plans, a sure way to offer a variety of culinary experiences.
One major task was cleaning up the site – as weeds and brush had filled up beds and occupied cracks in the pavement. The asphalt was also patched and coated for a clean lay-down surface for carts. Simple mulch with some supplemental plantings were added along the street frontage, along with some raised planter beds. With the exception of some iconic windmill palms at the entries, the site landscaping consists of a range of edibles including evergreen huckleberry, strawberry, pineapple guava, currants, artichokes, fruit & nut trees, and a variety of herbs. The area in front will act as a public food court with tables and umbrellas for shade – adding life to the streetscape of Belmont Avenue.
The transition from parking to cart area is facilitated with a new boardwalk to connect the two areas, flanked by planters and leading to the main cart space and the food court to the west. Other than a few trees removed, all existing vegetation was maintained on site to keep it as lush as possible.
The boardwalks spans a number of existing trees which form a secondary seating node within the shady grove. Picnic tables are ready to be placed once final electrical and water is completed and groundcover is completed. This area is filled with a local agricultural byproduct, crushed hazelnut shells, as a surfacing material – which acts as a great mulch and denotes this area for use.
The traffic coming to new businesses in the area, along with the proximity to traffic from local institution Movie Madness, will make this cart pod a great addition to Southeast Portland. Additional areas and site amenities include portable toilets, off-street parking, garbage and recycling, and option to rent commissary kitchen space for food prep down the street. Cart owners who want to make this their home can check out details on renting space at their website. (photos by Jason King, © 2010)
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