More than a decade ago, Willie Levenson had his heart set on swimming in the Willamette River. In his own words, he got carried away. He is the founder, executive director and ringleader of the Human Access Project, an advocacy group that dedicated its efforts to change Portlanders’ relationship with the Willamette. Over the years they have pushed for city beaches and swimming docks, held annual community events and more. And after being with the organization since its inception in 2010, Levenson is stepping down and retiring. He joins us to share more on his initial vision for the Human Access Project and its future as he steps away.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Jenn Chávez: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Jenn Chávez. I personally have been known to enjoy swimming in a river. There’s just something so peaceful about being out there in a natural body of water, whether it be the Columbia, the Clackamas, the Sandy, or the Willamette. Yes, the Willamette. Swimming in Portland’s Willamette River hasn’t always been a thing for several reasons, but a lot has changed in recent years, thanks in part to the efforts of Willie Levenson. He founded the Human Access Project in 2010. Now he’s retiring after 16 years of hard work as its ringleader. He joins us now to look back and look forward at Portland’s relationship with its river. Willie Levenson, thank you so much for being here.
Willie Levenson: Thank you so much for having me. I love the framing.
Chávez: Thank you. So to start off, for anyone not familiar with the Human Access Project, what is the goal or goals that it’s been working toward over the years?
Levenson: Human Access Project’s mission is transforming Portland’s relationship with the Willamette River. Our vision is simply a city in love with its rivers. Our objectives are to build it, use it, love it, sustain it.
Chávez: And you founded the Human Access Project, like I said, in 2010. How did the idea first come to you?
Levenson: Well, I grew up swimming, and then I went to college at Radford University in Southwestern Virginia, where I fell in love with the New River. The community loved the river there and I just spent every summer there. Then I moved to Boise, Idaho, and I didn’t realize it at the time, but Boise is the Paris of urban river park systems, at least in the United States. When I moved there, I just took it for granted, really, and assumed that every West Coast city had kind of a relationship with the river like Boise did.
At the time, Portland had this larger than life reputation as being green, a place people take care of things. So when I had an opportunity to move to Portland, which felt like the migration that people would do out of slightly more ambition than Boise at the moment, I just assumed Willamette was where everyone swam because of that reputation. So when I moved here I was indoctrinated with the culture that said, well, welcome to Portland. It rains a lot and don’t touch the Willamette, because your skin will flake off or you’ll grow horns. Everybody seemed to have a pocket joke.
I really initially was disappointed, because I probably wouldn’t have moved to Portland if I’d known that. Then I kind of got pissed off about it, because it just seemed really hypocritical that people would live in Portland, identify as green citizens, and really at the time, it just meant we were really good recyclers, maybe, in a way. It didn’t make a lot of sense to me why people love rivers in Portland, but would make jokes about a river that flows right through our city that we had a hand in screwing up. And ultimately what I came to the conclusion of is those jokes were a way to subordinate something that was very uncomfortable and an expression of hopelessness.
So the big pipe got completed in 2011, which was the largest public works project in Portland’s history. It largely managed our combined sewer overflow. So prior to the big pipe, we would have 50 to 100 sewage overflows a year that would be triggered by a tenth of an inch of rain. After the big pipe, you know, it still happens four to five times a year in the winter time; it’s never happened in the summer, but that was a game changer. And literally when the big pipe was completed, I expected everyone was going to start swimming in the water because of that. But it just goes to show you that this culture that gave up on the river, it takes a lot of hard work and nuance to court the public to reconsider how they feel about the river. That’s been our work.
Chávez: So I want to unpack this phrase human access a little bit because I feel like there are multiple ways you can think about it in relation to a river. So for example, there’s the cultural perception. But there’s also systemic things like infrastructure, right? So, what do you mean when you say human access? What are the different ways that a river can be accessible to people?
Levenson: Sure. So, first, the name, it’s funny because I’ve been asked opinions over the years about when people want to name stuff. I kind of initially, when I came up with the name Human Access Project, it was kind of tongue in cheek, because at the time, there was a lot of bureaucratic infrastructure, nonprofit infrastructure that focused on habitat in a river, which is extremely important because that’s the difference between a pool and a river. A river or a lake, a natural body is alive. That’s really what makes it enriching. But I thought, what about the people? I mean, we want to have access to the river too. People said it should be called the Willamette Access Project, etc. I just thought, you pick a name and you make it mean something, and that was kind of my band name. Human Access Project.
So from there people have asked, what does human access mean? And it’s really just three simple things. It’s a sign that directs you to the water edge access point, a trail that from a landscape architecture perspective coaxes you to the water’s edge. Like good landscape architecture makes you curious to go down a path. And then when you get to the water’s edge, a human habitat that people would want to hang out. So, in terms of cultural change it really started with the Big Float. When I was in Radford, I would tube the New River, and it just felt like something that was really accessible that anybody could do. And it was our movement disguised as a party. We really were just kind of looking for a way to bring attention to the swimmability of the river, because at the time, the river was safe to swim in, but again, I mean, there’s a certain amount of distrust in government.
It’s really compelling when you see thousands of people in the river and they don’t die. That kind of just says something. And then ultimately too, word of mouth is very powerful. So when you move to Portland and a friend says, “Oh woah, you never swim in the Willamette River,” you say, oh, well, that’s too bad. And you just kind of let it go because it’s so busy and word of mouth from friends is really powerful. So every time you’re able to get a new person in the river, they become an ambassador. And it’s an opportunity for them firsthand to battle that. And what we’re seeing now is a reflection of 16 years of really grassroots playfulness of people discovering the Willamette and firsthand just saying, “Yeah, not only did it not kill me, it’s actually pretty amazing to be able to ride your bike to the river and swim.”
Chávez: I love that, grassroots playfulness. So you kind of got into this and I know this is a huge question, I’m sure, but what are some of the things that the Human Access Project has accomplished in your 16 years that you’re most proud of?
Levenson: Well, I mean, the number one thing I’m proud of is just there’s no better feeling for me than to go to any of these places that we’ve helped shape on the water’s edge and see people loving it. That’s really just very powerful for me. The culture movement. When I started the work, I just imagined the time one day that people would never be able to remember when you didn’t swim in the river. And I feel like for a lot of people in our community, that time has come. That’s cool. Ultimately, as Jacques Cousteau said so well, “people protect what they love.” So this is sort of a way to unintentionally create activists. So when people see that the river is an asset with value for them personally, then suddenly they treat it differently.
Some of the things we’ve done, we spearheaded the first public beach in 100 years, Poets Beach. In 1924, the city of Portland closed swimming in the Willamette, so it was really technically off limits for 100 years. In 2022, we worked with Parks and Recreation to designate six swimming areas on the Willamette, which is a massive bureaucratic win. The public probably didn’t notice it, but to the bureaucracy, it signaled we’re going to be treating the Willamette River differently now. We’re going to be viewing it as a recreational thing where people are going to touch it. We removed 150 tons of concrete, 300 derelict piles, and raised $1.2 million to replace the Cathedral Park dock. That was cool.
Like at that moment when we had the grand opening, this was 2024, I just had this moment where I thought, wow, over the years we’ve hit doubles, singles and triples, and suddenly there’s all these access points on the river. Audrey McCall Beach removed 200 tons of concrete over four years that we had to get permission from eight separate agencies to remove the concrete chunks with the stipulation we cannot use heavy mechanized equipment. And it was just like, all right, you’re on. If you want to bureaucratically flog me, I’ll do it. And at that point, it really felt like a grand gesture to the bureaucracy, like, I’m not going anywhere. We’re doing this. I don’t care how hard you make it, we’re going to do this thing.
Duckworth Dock, that’s become an iconic swimming place in Portland. It was encumbered by Oregon State Marine Board policy because they funded it. They said it could only be used by motorized boats. It was basically only used by homeless boaters. It took us six years of work to get permission to add eight swim ladders that took less than four hours to install. That is the grind of bureaucracy, but now we have this world-class swim dock. You know, we brought 25,000 people out to the Big Float. And you’re asking about the river hugger swim team, which I think we’re going to have a new member…
Chávez: Yep, we’ll see.
Levenson: So we swim, this is our 14th season. Last year we had 300 individuals participate, 150 first-time swimmers. We collectively swam close to 2,000 miles. We swim six days a week, 13 total swims, and we swim across the Willamette and back. So when we started that, it was not technically legal to swim in our river. By Parks and Rec code, you could not swim in the river from any Portland park or dock. That was changed in 2022. So when we started to swim, we called ourselves a recreational protest swim. Just, our attorneys suggested that if anybody wanted to ticket us, that we might have civil rights protection. It’s all just hilarious. Yeah, it’s all hilarious.
Chávez: So if one original goal of the Human Access Project has been achieved, a city in love with its river, what does that goal grow into then? What do you see as the work ahead now for the folks taking up the reins when it comes to Portland’s relationship with the river?
Levenson: I’m just super proud to have built something durable and it was durable enough to be able to recruit just an exceptional executive director to take my place, Scott Fogarty. Scott was with Friends of Trees for 15 years and took that organization from the brink of bankruptcy to where it is today. He was also the executive director at Friends of Opal Creek when they passed legislation to protect all of that wilderness. He has a law background, he’s just a total ringer. So we’re set up for success now with Scott. It’s an opportunity to build the team, do more.
But now that we’ve set this platform, what’s really cool is tomorrow we’ve partnered with Portland Metro Chamber and we’re going to be releasing the very first Economic analysis of the value of the river recreation economy. So from a cultural change perspective, when the business community views the Willamette as an asset it is not a replacement for regulation, but it’s certainly a safeguard when the business community is fighting for a clean and healthy river. So from here, all of these places that we’ve started, it’s gonna be an opportunity to build them out even more. And as far as we’ve come with our culture change work, we’re nowhere near our ceiling in terms of our reach and being able to connect more people with the river.
So I’m looking forward to being an observer, not being the adult in the room, and being available to Scott when he wants to have help. And also too, I’d say the hardest things about choosing to leave, and I’m never going to work full time again in the rest of my life, which is just an awesome thought, is I do want to make myself available to other people who are trying to do good and just kind of take these skills that I’ve learned to navigate bureaucracy and just help people do what they want quicker and be smarter with their time. So I hope I have a chance to mentor some people and pass this knowledge that I’ve developed on.
Chávez: Awesome. You know, I have heard people say that they’re still a little bit hesitant to swim in the Willamette River, but we actually put this question to some of our Facebook followers, and there were a lot of people who said, yeah, I do swim in the river. We got one comment from Leif Eccles, who said, “When it’s really hot, the docks in Portland are a fun place to hang out. I don’t swim if it’s been less than 48 hours since it rained. The swim guide app is a great tool to check that it’s safe to swim. Human Access Project also does a good job of sending out alerts on social media if there’s an algae bloom in the river.” And we got several comments like that from other folks being like, yeah, I swim in the river, totally. But as you mentioned, there’s still a bit of an attitude shift that can happen. I guess in just our final seconds, what would you say to people who are a little unsure?
Levenson: I’m not here to convince anybody to swim. People are going to do it in their own time and way, and if it’s not something you want to do, then that’s your thing. I mean, you’re missing out, but what I’d say is if you come to one of our events, if you observe people swimming, it’s going to be really hard for you to not give it a shot at some point. And last summer I had a chance to visit Paris. They just opened up five swimming areas on the Seine. It was an unbelievable leadership move that’s really buoyed up the International Urban Swimming Movement.
Two weeks ago, Human Access Project was actually featured in Outside Magazine in a national news story. We had a tour from a dude who was like, a cool dude. Like, he’s a food guy, he’s showing us around, etc. So I figured he was hip and I was like, hey, so what do you think about swimming in the Seine? He says, “I would never do that. That is just for tourists. We’ll never do that.” And again, it speaks to the hard work of cultural change. This is an intelligent person that I was talking to. He was hip. He liked good food, but still. People will figure it out. We’ve made it this far, and every year we just see exponential growth. So we’re talking about Portland recovery, this thing that we’ve ignored for so long, could very well be the thing that redefines who we are.
Chávez: Well, Willie Levenson, thank you so much for joining us and congratulations on your retirement.
Levenson: Thank you so much for having me. We’ll see you at the river.
Chávez: Thank you for tuning in to Think Out Loud on OPB and KLCC. I’m Jenn Chávez, have a great day.
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