“It may surprise many people in the Portland area to know that Metro is, among other things, the owner of vast swaths of park land. Its holdings, at about 17,000 acres, were amassed largely as a result of two voter-approved funding measures totaling more than $363 million. Metro officials swept up this property for a number of conservation-related purposes, from preserving wildlife habitat to improving water quality. But that’s not all. Improving access to people — who are, after all, paying for all of this — was a goal as well.”
See also, a letter to the editor in response: “In the worst instance, an employee from Metro insinuated that the general population were trespassers in these environmentally sensitive areas. I tried explaining that “we” own the property and that it is not their personal property.”
Source: Oregonian
