SeeingGreen ™

Depending on how you see the world, the space underneath our highways are liabilities or opportunities. Sure trolls and other misunderstood characters live under bridges and freeway on-ramps, but there is another school of thinking that sees these dark and spooky spaces as potential spots for public markets, art installations and pocket parks.

In this vein, the Pearl-district based Zimmerman Community Center lead the charge to create a thriving community garden underneath the roar of I-405. Although you are probably right to have concern over the effect of pollution on edibles growing under a highway, you can’t deny the ironic beauty of a thriving garden in the shadows of life numbing rush hour traffic. To view the garden, go to NW 16th and Johnson where you can’t miss the striking red fence and deliberately stacked pieces of urbanite (concrete chunks) framing colorful beds of native plants, ornamentals and a test plot for monitoring the toxicity of vegetables grown under the spew of tailpipes. Maybe the space underneath is not so spooky afterall.