Community centers provide health and recreation benefits to Portland residents of all ages, helping to make Portland a family-friendly and a livable city. A goal, established in the Parks 2020 Vision plan, is for all Portlanders to have access to a full service community center (defined as a center with a pool, fitness facility, rental rooms) within 3 miles of their household.

Without major funding support, year over year increases are very small and are driven by a combination of new housing development and acquisition and development of new community centers - which is currently funded by System Development Charges (SDC) fees.

North Portland is currently the area with the lowest level of access to a full service community center at 58%. With the completion of the North Portland Aquatics facility, North Portland will have access to an indoor aquatic center and a nearby community center (Charles Jordan Community Center). 

View a PDF file with a map of community center level of service   

Using Geographic Information System technology data, housing unit data from Metro is combined with community center location and street network data to complete this analysis.

More details about Portland Park & Recreation's objective can be found in the April 2022 Level of Service Guidance for Community Centers report.