[2] The park is bordered by RiverPlace to the south, the Steel Bridge to the north, Naito Parkway to the west, and Willamette River to the east.

In October 2012, Waterfront Park was voted one of America's ten greatest public spaces by the American Planning Association.

[3] The most common uses for the park are jogging, walking, biking, skateboarding, fountain play, lunching, basketball, fireworks viewing and boat watching.

The Waterfront for People, a humorous civil disobedience group, organized a picnic on the sliver of land between Harbor Drive and the river.

[4] In 1968, Governor Tom McCall initiated a task force to study the feasibility of replacing Harbor Drive with open park space.

In 1978, the Francis Murnane Wharf, the only public memorial to a labor leader in the state of Oregon,[7] was dedicated in the park by Harry Bridges, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

[8] A large part of the creation of Governor Tom McCall Waterfront Park was the engagement of citizens to shape the design and uses for the property throughout its development.

In 1969, an analysis sponsored by the Portland City Club was conducted to make a case for creating a waterfront park.

[1] The current occupant of the historic John Yeon building, which abuts the fountain to the south, is the Portland Rose Festival Foundation.

This area also acts as the moorage and embarking site for the Portland Spirit, a small cruise ship that provides 2-hour trips on the Willamette River.

In recent years, the memorial has been repeatedly painted with graffiti on multiple occasions; the city has not kept up with maintaining the monument, and the signage has been heavily cracked and weathered by the sun.

[11] This memorial honors William Pettygrove and Asa Lovejoy, who tossed a coin to determine the city's name.

A contemporary open-sided pavilion just north of the Bill Naito Legacy Fountain shelters Portland's Saturday Market on the weekends from March until December.

The sternwheeler is only sporadically accessible, as the museum does not abide by its posted open hours and is frequently closed without notice.