[0]Bijou Cafe CorralThe Portland Office of Transportation (PDOT) celebrated National PARK(ing) Day on Friday, September 19, with its four newest on-street bicycle parking facilities [1]. The four locations are as follows:
• Ace Hotel [2], south side of SW Stark St. at SW 10th Ave.
• Bijou Café and Stumptown coffee, east side of SW 3rd Ave. at SW Pine St.
• Powell's Books [3], south side of NW Couch St. at NW 11th Ave.
• Southpark Seafood Grill & Wine Bar [4], west side of SW 9th Ave./SW Park at SW Salmon St.
The new on-street bicycle parking facilities (a.k.a. bike corrals) will 
[4]Almost No Occupancy at Ace Hotel.provide parking for 16 to 24 bicycles in two motor vehicle parking spaces. These corrals, joining the five existing corrals already in place in Portland, are intended to serve the high volume of people arriving by bicycles at these locations. They also improve the sidewalk environment by reducing the number of bicycles that lock onto signs and railings.
[4]Southpark busy as ever.The above named businesses advocated for this increased bicycle parking and were integral in the decision to swap the auto parking spaces for bicycle parking. "We feel that the installation of a bike corral in front of our restaurant will be an asset to our guests and our employees. We believe it helps us support the Portland lifestyle," said Karin Devencenzi, General Manager, Southpark Seafood Grill & Wine Bar.
To date PDOT has received over 30 requests for on-street bicycle parking installations from across the city. Many businesses are recognizing that an increasing number of their clientele are arriving by bike and the infrastructure to serve them is lacking. Not only businesses, but property owners and developers as well, are requesting these facilities.
"These businesses understand that on-street corrals
[4]Park your bike and stay a while at Powells. mean more efficient use of on-street parking to better meet their customers' needs. For PDOT, this is a smart move to support downtown retailers. It's a win-win situation," said City Commissioner Sam Adams.
Laughing Planet Café has had a bike corral in front of their business since June 2007. "We've always been a very bicycling oriented company. When they came to me about the idea about doing these corrals it was instantaneous ‘oh yeah - let's do it.' They've been very successful, they're used all the time, and the usual business argument that you can't take away parking just doesn't work here," said founder Richard Satnick.
BACKGROUND
The five existing bike corrals in North Portland along North Mississippi Avenue and in Southeast Portland along SE Belmont Street have are widely deemed successful. The positive response, especially from the business community and the neighborhood associations, encouraged the City to investigate locations in Downtown and the Pearl District.
PDOT believes that the demand for bicycle parking is only likely to increase as rates of cycling increase across the city. On-street bicycle parking can provide many advantages in areas of the city where bicycle-use is high and growing.
National PARK(ing) Day [5] is a nationwide event sponsored by the Trust for Public Lands [6], in which individuals create park-like settings in 8 x 20 feet parking spaces as a way of recognizing the large amount of land that is devoted to auto use.
The collaborating businesses - Powell's Books, Southpark Seafood Grill & Wine Bar, Bijou Café, Ace Hotel, and Stumptown Coffee - will be contributing furnishings to outfit the locations. Plants are being provided by the Portland Parks and Recreation Bureau. Flowers have been donated by The Garden Corner.
[6]Park(ing) dayIn honor of Park(ing) Day the Bureau of Environmental Services "rolled" out a green street curb extension on SE Clinton. It was a fun way to show how important the "green" is to our urban environments. The curb extension was a true to size plastic tarp portraying what it would look like to have a green street [7] facility at this location capturing stormwater from along the street curb, filtering and infiltrating the water for watershed and other community benefits...... this instead of the asphalt that exists there today.
Also highlighted were the benefits of trees to watershed health in 
[7]Community in the street.intercepting stormwater, cooling the air and filtering out particulates not to mention providing habitat and neighborhood amenities. According to a recent Portland Parks & Recreation study, every dollar spent in tree planting and maintenance yields $3.80 in environmental and aesthetic benefits.
The SE Clinton location was chosen specifically because it is located within the Brooklyn Creek Basin: Tabor to the River program area. The Bureau of Environmental Services is combining innovative stormwater management techniques with sewer repairs and improvements to solve a variety of urban challenges. The work will stop basement flooding, manage stormwater more naturally, and begin to restore the health of our watersheds. [8]