Rosewood/162nd Max Station Name Change Proposed

162nd Max Station (view east), 162nd & E Burnside, Portland OR

By Jenny Glass
Executive Director, Rosewood Initiative

(Update: On November 29, 2017 TriMet decided they won't be going forward with changing the name of the 162nd Ave MAX station. Residents of the Rockwood, Wilkes East and Wilkes Community group had expressed strong feelings against the name change during recent neighborhood meetings.)

(Update: At the November 13, 2017 Wilkes East Neighborhood Association General Meeting neighbors approved a motion to support the Rosewood/162nd Max station name change.)

The Rosewood Initiative, a community organization serving the neighborhood since 2009, has requested that TriMet change the 162nd Ave MAX station name to Rosewood/162nd. This is a request to honor, identify and lift up the community that the station resides in. It is part of a larger effort for and by the community to create a sense of place and belonging. Where is Rosewood?

No one has claimed "ownership" in the form of investment, financial or otherwise, in this MAX stop since it was created. In fact, although the 162nd MAX station has one of the highest rates of ridership compared to other stops, the station area has received almost no public or private investment since it was built. Here's a snapshot of the lack of investment:

The public sector has invested in mixed-use buildings, pedestrian improvements and crime prevention programs to improve MAX ridership. At the 162nd Avenue station, that amount totaled $900,000.

By comparison, the public sector has spent $28 million improving the area around the Killingsworth MAX station, the audit said. The Tuality MAX station in Hillsboro has drawn $12 million in transit-oriented public investment.

When the public sector does not invest in a community for decades, we collectively pay the price by having to react to symptoms like concentrated poverty and high crime and consequently an extraordinary amount of police and emergency response services, as well as social safety net services. Maintaining brokenness is very expensive. We can't afford it.

Renaming the MAX station is an opportunity for us to come together as a community and create a strategy for investment around the 162nd MAX station. The Rosewood Initiative has stepped up to lead the advocacy for investment in this station.

The Rosewood Initiative was started to reduce crime in the area. Rebuilding relationships between community and police in both Gresham and Portland was one of the first strategies. But even the Portland and Gresham Police that started The Rosewood Initiative understood that the high crime in this area was not going to be solved by policing, but by public and private sectors coming together and collectively investing in a community.

We would love to work together with Rockwood Neighborhood Association, Wilkes East Neighborhood Association, City of Gresham, TriMet, Metro, and the people that live near the 162nd Ave MAX station to create a comprehensive strategy for investment that is led by the people that live in the community.

We believe that one of the first steps toward collectively taking ownership of the 162nd Ave MAX station area is to give it its own unique identity. Since this area is now known to many as "Rosewood" we think this is a symbolic gesture to highlight the cross-jurisdictional investment that is imperative to support the Rosewood community.

More Info
For more information contact The Rosewood Initiative.