Not yet noticed much by the media is a proposal percolating through the Portland Parks & Recreation Bureau to install pay parking for visitors to Washington Park. The proposal, which may come to the City Council as early as the second week in July, calls for charging Park visitors $1.60/hour to park. (Here's a link to the map of the pay stations that the Parks Bureau proposes.)
One point not yet perhaps considered by the Parks Bureau is that although the attractions at the west end of the park (the Zoo, the Children's Museum, and the Forestry Center) all charge admission, the east end is mostly free (the tennis courts, the play areas, the Rose Test Gardens, the Sacajawea hill; everything except the Zoo train and the Japanese Garden, in fact) -- and it is nestled among some of the most expensive houses in Portland. The people who can afford to live next to the park will still be able to use it for free, but everyone else will pay.
The Parks Bureau's plan is actually a clever idea -- if the goal is to keep those pesky east-siders out of Arlington Heights.