The Alder Street Food Carts Need $300,000 to Move to the North Park Blocks [Updated]

The North Park Blocks could soon become a new food cart pod. As the Southwest Alder food cart pod prepares to close, city officials and business owners are attempting to move carts to two blocks between West Burnside and NW Davis streets on NW Park Avenue, the Oregonian reports.

For months now, the food carts at the longstanding pod between 9th and 10th avenues on SW Alder have been preparing to leave the neighborhood, making room for a massive development including a Ritz-Carlton. The carts need to leave the pod by June 30, forcing many carts to find new homes throughout the city.

Now, it’s possible they’ll hop a few blocks north. Mock-ups show potential spots for 37 carts around the park area, though nothing is fully set in stone just yet. Still, commissioner Chloe Eudaly’s team, the Pearl District neighborhood association, and others behind the attempted move are fast-tracking things to create a shorter hiatus after the impending move-out deadline. The Friends of Green Loop, an organization attempting to create a greenway-style, six-mile connected park in Portland, is attempting to raise $300,000 to underwrite towing, supply electricity for the proposed pod, and help develop a long-term solution for the carts — namely, the previously discussed “culinary corridor,” a pedestrian-centric food cart pod near SW 9th Avenue between Director Park and O’Bryant Park.

“Sometimes referred to as the ‘MotherPod,’ this pod alone is home to 40 food carts, employing anywhere between 200 (to) 300 people, many of whom are people of color and immigrants,” the GoFundMe reads. “...As our city grows, more and more of our downtown food carts will be displaced as open lots are developed.”

The GoFundMe raised a little more than $400 in its first day; all the carts need to be out by the end of the month. The new pod plans to be open July 15.

Updated June 26, 2019, 8:55 a.m.
This story was updated to include information about the GoFundMe for the new pod.

• Save Portland Food Carts [GoFundMe]
• Portland officials have a plan to save the Alder Street food cart pod [The O]
• Largest food cart pod in downtown Portland to close at end of June [KGW]
• Developer to bring the Northwest’s first Ritz-Carlton to new 35-story downtown tower [Portland Business Journal]
• Proposal calls for ‘culinary corridor’ to save downtown food carts [The O]