Woodstock’s informal Lake Carlton is finally gone

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Have you seen “Lake Carlton” recently? If you have visited Carlton Street in the Woodstock neighborhood, between S.E. 44th and 45th Avenues, you would not have found it. Last year the huge puddle in one of Woodstock’s many unfinished streets was graded and graveled into a serpentine roadway.

But, it took three years, a PSU graduate study, a modest grant from Southeast Uplift, and involvement of nearby neighbors, to finally make the necessary improvements to that section of Carlton Street.

For years, the rutted dirt street turned into a lake after several heavy rains. One memorable photo taken by a neighbor, and published in THE BEE in March of 2010, was of two children in a canoe traversing the huge mud puddle. Thereafter, that section of unimproved right-of-way was referred to as Lake Carlton.

Today neighbors are happy with the lack of lake, and are tending the landscaping on either side of the serpentine (slightly winding) roadway. Shortly after the grading and graveling, neighbors pitched in for a work party to plants shrubs and trees.

Chuck Coulter, who lives a block away, commented to THE BEE recently on the improvement. “We don’t have the 4×4’s [through here] in the middle of the night anymore. It’s no longer a muddy playground.” For years, all-terrain vehicles and large pickup trucks would plow through mud for joy rides — waking neighbors and enlarging the rutted areas.

The improvement project raises an issue that has been on the minds of some Woodstock residents for many years: How to deal with the many, many unimproved road segments in the area. According to city data, Woodstock has the second largest number of unimproved roadways in the city — topped only by the Cully neighborhood in Northeast Portland.

The newly-formed Woodstock Neighborhood Sustainability Committee is taking a look at the question: Can other unimproved roadways be improved simply, with direction from and involvement of neighbors?

The chairperson of the WNA Sustainability Committee, Becky Luening, says the committee’s goals of boosting livability, community interactivity, and food self-sufficiency, could be fulfilled with unimproved roadway projects.

“Incorporating bird and wildlife habitat with native plantings, creating raised garden beds for food self-sufficiency, constructing bio-swales to help with watershed management, and making bike/walking paths with features such as benches and exercise stations, are some ideas we have come up with,” remarks Luening.

Suzanne Harold, a neighbor at Carlton and S.E. 45th who helped organize the neighbor support for the Lake Carlton improvement project now has advice for others who might want to improve their own unimproved roadway:

“Talk with everyone who owns property on the street, and come to agreement on what the problems are, and what a good solution could look like. Take the time to look for support from groups like Southeast Uplift, the neighborhood association, and local businesses. Also, know that it’s not as difficult or expensive as you may think — and the payoff is great!”

The Carlton group had donations of plants from neighbors and Arbutus Nursery, and searched online for a reasonable rate for grading and graveling.

Now the area is safe for children to play, and has become a spot where neighbors meet and talk. Neighbors have become friends and everyone agrees the improvements are positive.

“We went from being a ‘problem poster child’ and serious safety hazard to a picture-perfect unimproved roadway,” smiles Greg Geist, a Carlton neighbor who helped organize the grading and graveling, the planting day, and the ongoing landscape maintenance.

As for other unimproved street projects in Woodstock?

“Different roadways lend themselves to different dreams”, says Luening. “It remains to be seen how to make these dreams a reality, but I look forward to exploring this question with Woodstock neighbors.”