Sponsored by Port of Portland
What’s in a name? Although the Rose City by any other name would smell as sweet, how many Portlanders appreciate the significance of our city’s moniker? The city was founded as a port, after all, but few of us think much about how important the city's port function is to Portland.
“Portlanders think about Tom McCall Waterfront Park and the rivers for recreation, but unless you work at the harbor, you don’t think about it as part of the economy,” explains Ann Gardner, executive director of the city’s Working Waterfront Coalition (WWC). ”In Seattle, San Francisco, and New York City, you can see the port functions every day. But here, it’s downstream, just a little out of sight and a lot out of mind.”
So out of mind, in fact, that business owners connected with the city’s port grew alarmed a few years ago at proposals to build residences in the Linnton area near the port, which they feared would be incompatible with port functions. In 2005, more than two dozen businesses formed the WWC to tell the public about the importance of the port—not just its rail and water and pipeline connections, but also the businesses and employees involved. And what better way to tell the story than to bring Portlanders up close and personal with an area to which few of us ever go, unless we work there: the city’s working harbor. So for the past year and a half, WWC and the Port of Portland have organized tours of various port facilities. The third and latest round begins this summer.
Photo: Port of Portland
Although seaports may seem pretty old-school in an age where so much commerce moves over air and wires, Gardner ticks off facts that demonstrate the port’s continuing significance. The harbor moved almost 12 million tons of cargo in 2009—cars, grain, steel slab, petroleum products, soda ash used in glass production, potash fertilizer and so many other products we use every day. Moreover, “the port helps strengthen the economic viability of Portland by creating jobs and providing goods and services,” Gardner says. According to the port, about 40,000 people work in the areas surrounding the harbor, half of those connected to the 50 industrial marine businesses with direct access to the harbor.
All told, according to the WWC, one out of every nine jobs in the region is located in or supported by the work done in the industrial harbor district. Gardner notes that many of these are family wage jobs (average $45,000 per year) available to those who didn’t go to college, and that the taxes those employees pay go to support vital state and city services. WWC estimates that those jobs bring in almost $1 billion in personal income each year.
Anything that important is worth knowing more about, but the port’s economic significance probably isn’t the main draw for the 30 to 60 curious people (depending on the venue) who attend each tour. The port’s Brooke Berglund says it’s a diverse group: old and young, students and retired people, business people, elected officials and many others. What unifies them is their curiosity. “It’s a mystery,” she explains. “Because the port doesn’t have much visibility, people don’t know what’s going on there. And they’re able to go to a place they don’t typically go, to get up close, to see what’s going on and to understand it.”
What they see is often “a beehive of activity,” Gardner says. On a trip to Columbia Grain last year, visitors saw how much detail is involved in preparing and loading a vessel, from calculating volumes to making sure products meet state quality requirements. As groups like the Dill Pickle Club (which leads tours of various city historical and other sites, including one of the port tours) have shown, “people are interested in how things are made and how things work.”
The behind-the-scenes tours have included Schnitzer Steel’s facility next to Terminal 4 on the Willamette river, which collects old refrigerators, cars, construction material and other metal, and sorts and grades it for shipment to users here and elsewhere. Visitors get to see stripped-down car carcasses ascending a conveyor up to a massive shredder. Many are impressed by the sheer immensity of the facilities. “The size of the industrial operation is huge,” Berglund says. On one tour, visitors gaze up in wonder at a colossal industrial dredge in dry dock whose scale is hidden when it’s in the water. At the Terminal 6 container facility, which features giant containers stacked like Lego blocks, tour-takers quickly appreciate the fact that so many of the toys and clothes and appliances that populate our daily lives come from elsewhere. And there are few experiences as breathtaking as watching one of the mammoth barges built here make its first launch, sliding gracefully into the river for its maiden voyage.
“Seeing these things in person gives you a different perspective,” Berglund says. “Showing somebody a picture of something and experiencing it are two completely different things. Seeing a picture of a crane at Terminal 6 is different from going on a tour and driving right under it—you get a much better appreciation of what 16 stories high feels like! You can’t get that from a photo.”
n learning about the facilities themselves, visitors are also learning about the history and soul of their city. “They gain a new respect for many of these businesses that go way back fifty, seventy, 100 years” Gardner says, naming Oregon Steel and Gunderson. Parents bring their kids to show them employment opportunities. Tourists see Portland’s pro-environment ethic at work in areas such as metal recycling, the port's efficient transportation (rail and river transport consumes less energy than trucking), a fleet of new tugboats with more efficient engines, and in new, greener methods of ship repair, including less polluting sandblasting methods. Most of all, by showing Portlanders how their neighbors work at such an essential part of the city, Gardner says, “it helps them feel connected to their community.”
--Brett Campbell
Tour Calendar
Goods to Market: How Port Facilities Work
They're big; they're busy; and they're mysterious—that's the extent of what most people know about marine terminals such as the Port's Terminal 6. The mystery is ironic because there are several public and private terminals within mere minutes of downtown Portland. In an area typically closed to the public due to federal security regulations, you'll tour among the shadows of towering 16-story cranes and giant multicolored containers stacked up like Legos. Learn how and why things like furniture, tires, footwear, apparel and cars arrive from overseas, while agricultural goods, animal feed, paper, metal scrap and wood are exported. Location: Port of Portland Terminal 6; Date: April 16, 2011, 10 a.m.-Noon; Minimum Age: 14; RSVP: RSVP required; Contact: Brooke Berglund, 503.415.6532
The Port Across the River
Up and down the Columbia River maritime activity bustles with exports and imports of various commodities to and from international markets. The Port of Vancouver is no exception. With exports of steel scrap and imports of Subarus and wind energy cargo, this facility is sure to impress! Don't miss out on the opportunity to find out more about the port across the river! Location: Port of Vancouver Date: April 30, 2011, 9:30 a.m.- 12:30 p.m.; Minimum Age:18; RSVP: RSVP required; Contact: Brooke Berglund, 503.415.6532
All About Potash
Step inside the largest wooden structure west of the Mississippi and learn all about the product that comes from mines in Saskatchewan, Canada and provides both agricultural and industrial uses for several international markets including Oceania, Asia and Latin America. Owned by Canpotex, the world's largest exporter of potash, the 100 acre facility will allow participants to get up close to the entire process from the unloading of the rail cars to the ship loading which processes 3,000 metric tons an hour. Take advantage of this unique opportunity open to the public to learn what the two different kinds of potash are used for and why this facility is essential for crops all over the world. Location: Portland Bulk Terminals Date: May 7, 2011, 8:30, 9, 9:30, 10 a.m. (tours will last approximately 2 hours); Minimum Age: 18; RSVP: RSVP required; Contact: Brooke Berglund, 503.415.6532
Wheat and So Much More!
In 1868, just 23 years after a coin toss gave Portland its name, the first overseas shipment of wheat sailed from our harbor to Liverpool, England, establishing our city as an international gateway. Today, the Portland Harbor is the largest wheat export hub in the United States. This is thanks, in large part, to the activities at Columbia Grain, who handled over 4.3 million tons of grain last year. The company supplies superior quality western grain to service both U.S. domestic markets and export markets worldwide. Supply lines include the western region of the U.S., well known for its high quality wheat, feed grains and pulses. You'll have the rare opportunity to visit this Terminal 5 facility, which is otherwise closed to the public. Location: Columbia Grain; Date: May 18,2011, 4-5:30p.m.; Minimum Age: 18; RSVP: RSVP required; Contact: Brooke Berglund, 503.415.6532
Big Barge Builders
Come inside the world of big barges that are up to 90 feet in width and as long as a football field. These big steel containers haul such items as lumber, grain, chemicals, petroleum products, wood chips, sand and gravel throughout the West Coast, Alaska, Hawaii and at ports on the Columbia and Snake River systems. Learn all about the history of the Zidell companies which have been around for nearly 100 years and employ over 200 people in the Pacific Northwest and learn why Zidell Marine Corporation is an important economic driver on the working waterfront. Location: Zidell Marine Corporation; Date: June 08, 2011, 3:30-5 p.m.; Minimum Age: 14; RSVP: RSVP required; Contact: Brooke Berglund, 503.415.6532
All About Ships and Barges
"Wow!" "Holy cow!" "That is amazing!" These are some of the descriptions said about the unique vessels seen coming and going at Vigor Industrial's Portland Shipyard. Vigor Industrial owns several subcompanies, including Vigor Marine, Cascade General and US Barge, that specialize in maritime construction and repair. See the eye-opening scale of their operations; hear about what they're working on; and learn about the people who make a living there. Location: Vigor Industrial; Date: June 18, 2011, 10 a.m.-Noon; Minimum Age: 7 (accompanied by an adult); RSVP: RSVP required; Contact: Brooke Berglund, 503.415.6532
