"What's the story behind this park? The Southeast has Laurelhurst Park, North Portland has Peninsula Park, and the Pearl District has Jamison Square, a neighborhood fixture since 2000, when the stylishly urbane neighborhood was just beginning to transform from a rundown former rail yard, warehouse district, and artists enclave into the trendy, highrise-lined shopping and dining destination it is today. Positioned between the Portland Streetcar lines that run along NW 10th and 11th streets, the park was part of early plans to revitalize the neighborhood, and the first of three open spaces created by PWP Landscape Architecture, the firm that also designed the National 9/11 Memorial in New York. Today, it’s a bustling social hub that welcomes a steady stream of dog-walking residents, visitors drawn to its artwork and rare public loo, and, come summertime, hordes of joyous fountain-bound children gripping drippy Oregon-strawberry cones from nearby Cool Moon Ice Cream. If we're visiting, is there anything we should be sure to see? The park’s most famous feature is its fountain, which mimics a tidal pool; water flows from the low-slung brown bricks that separate the dog park from the water, forming a gentle pool that brings kids delight on hot summer days. In the northeast corner of the park, find "Rico Pasado" (“Rich Past"), artist Mauricio Saldaña’s ruddy granite sculpture of a bear, commissioned in 2006 by the Portland Pearl Rotary Club in honor of both the Rotary International Centennial and the neighborhood’s long-gone four-legged former residents. And, of course, who could miss the four 30-foot Technicolor aluminum totem poles flanking the park edges; also known as the Tikitotemoniki Totems, they’re a 2001 abstract art installation by artist Kenny Scharf. If you look closely, you’ll see that they double as covers for the Portland Streetcar’s wire poles. So to wrap it up, why would you recommend Jamison Square to a Portland visitor? On your leisurely walkabout from downtown Portland to Nob Hill’s trendy 23rd Avenue, use this park as a prime people-watching rest stop. Pet a passing French bulldog, watch toddlers brave the fountain, or sit on a bench and read whatever you just bought at Powell’s City of Books . During the holidays, bundle up and sit in the square with a peppermint mocha and watch the Christmas lights twinkle." - Jen Stevenson
