The First-Ever Blumenauer Bridge Witching Hour — Recap & What Comes Next

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November 6, 2025

By Jake Nishikido

On November 1st, we hosted the inaugural Blumenauer Bridge Witching Hour, a Halloween and Día de los Muertos celebration connecting Lloyd and the Central Eastside along the future Green Loop. This pilot was made possible through support from the Metro Regional Travel Options (RTO) program, which invests in projects that make it easier, safer, and more joyful to walk, bike, and roll in our region.

For the first time, we closed NE 7th Avenue between Holladay and Davis to cars and filled the corridor with vendors, music, altars, bike-powered dancing, pumpkins, treats, and community.

And yes — it poured.
But the community still came:

  • ~20 vendors and makers activated the corridor.
  • Our volunteer bike valet parked ~50 bikes (and fixed a flat).
  • We counted ~500 people moving through the space — nearly entirely by foot, wheelchair, stroller, or bike.
  • 20 dogs competed in the Pet Costume Contest.
  • The Bear Blocks was animated as a public gathering space for the first time.

This was a pilot, and it worked.

The street closure between Holladay and Davis was smooth, low-conflict, and low-cost, totaling under $7K in staffing and infrastructure — a fraction of a Sunday Parkways–style closure. It demonstrated that we can build the Green Loop block-by-block, using light, tactical, community-led activation.

What We Learned (and will improve next year)

  • Weather matters. Warm food/drinks, shade, and covered gathering make outdoor play possible year-round.
  • The Traffic Garden (even at a fraction of it’s size due to rain) confirmed strong demand for kid-friendly bike play and learning opportunities, and it’s now part of our Lending Library so it can return bigger and in better weather.
  • It takes a village. This event happened because of GoByBike, Go Lloyd, CEID, Lloyd ESD, Bear Blocks, Steeplejack, Milagro, The Street Trust, 30+ vendors and local businesses, and a long list of neighbors and volunteers. These relationships are the infrastructure.
  • Portland responds to things with heart. Kids’ bikes, free photo booth prints, candy and pumpkin giveaways, dog costumes, shared altars — all of it brought people together with genuine joy. When we lead with care instead of spectacle, Portland shows up.

The Blumenauer Bridge is already a civic connector.
This event showed that the Green Loop can come alive through small, joyful, human-scaled interventions.

Thank you to everyone who made this possible.
This is just the beginning.

More to come.