When to expect photo radar on N. Albany Road
If you have been anticipating the new red-light and speed cameras on North Albany Road — has anyone? — the wait is almost over. It was in December 2023 that the Albany City Council authorized the city...
View ArticleThe changing face of an Albany corner
The corner of Santiam Road and Main Street in Albany continues to undergo a gradual transformation. I can’t help but notice the changes as I pass this corner occasionally on the bike. This was, of...
View ArticleWhat’s being built here, you asked
A reader’s question sent the bike and me to 2400 Pacific Blvd. S.W. in Albany on Monday afternoon. She had noticed construction activity at the address and wondered what was going on. It’s the address...
View ArticleConversion of historic house is on hold
A plan to turn a historic house in downtown Albany into an outpatient drug and alcohol treatment center is off, at least for now. On Jan. 9, the Albany Hearings Board approved a conditional use permit...
View ArticleIn S. Albany, 86 lots are set to become 176
The City of Albany has received its second request to convert a single-family subdivision to “middle housing” at twice the density previously approved. The applicants, Lennar Northwest of Vancouver,...
View ArticleFarmworker Housing site plan gets city OK
The Albany Community Development Department has approved the site plan for a 54-unit apartment project on the south side of Creel Avenue, a residential street one block south of the Walmart...
View ArticleVideo report: River vandalism repaired
On a bike ride along the Albany riverfront Friday I went out on one of the two viewing piers. Here’s what I found. By the time I saw this on Friday afternoon, it was too late in the day to ask the...
View ArticleOn Albany agenda: Street fee and a fuel tax
For much of the last few years, Albany city officials and the council have talked about raising money to rebuild or repair local streets. This afternoon they’ll get an update on moves to collect a...
View ArticleHow about a street tax for Christmas?
While I was looking at Periwinkle Creek near Queen Avenue and Geary Street Monday afternoon, the Albany City Council heard of the tentative schedule for starting a new street maintenance fee and...
View ArticleClose this walkway or keep it open?
This may sound familiar: City planners and developers set aside a pedestrian connection to make walking easier. The path becomes a nuisance to the neighbors, and now the question is: Keep the path open...
View ArticleRiver pier repairs: What the vandalism cost
Last week I posted a brief video report that damage done to Albany’s two Willamette River viewing piers had been repaired. Now we know how much the vandalism cost. “Right about $7,500,” reports Rick...
View ArticleBlossoms and bills: Look at the temps
Even though the start of spring is still three weeks away, the sight of a lone yellow blossom Wednesday was a hopeful sign of milder weather. Why hopeful? Because our heating bills in the mid-valley...
View ArticleUp for discussion: Use of city-owned vacant lot
Since 2013, the City of Albany has owned nearly one acre of former railroad land near the Willamette riverfront. Off and on since then, city officials have talked about what to do with the vacant lot....
View ArticleJust a sign, but speaking of graveyards
Rounding the corner of Broadway Street and Seventh Avenue in Albany on the bike Saturday, I came across this “for rent” sign. It seems to invite what is clearly the wrong conclusion. No, in case you...
View ArticleRiverfront beat: How Bowman Park came to be
My bike rides along the Albany riverfront often lead me to Bowman Park, which on Monday, the third of March, was not exactly teeming with activity. As you can see in the short video below: But then I...
View ArticleClimate Friendly Areas: A skeptical view
Bowing to a state mandate to slow global warming, the City of Albany is plowing ahead with the designation of six so-called “climate friendly areas.” It’s hard to imagine a project that is so ambitious...
View ArticleOn Cox Creek, trees come crashing down
Dead trees crashing down across the Cox Creek Path in Albany and taking out sections of chain-link fencing — that’s getting to be a routine or at least recurring thing. I came across the aftermath of...
View ArticleIt’s disgusting, but take a look anyway
Let’s take a quick little tour of what might qualify as ground zero of Albany vandalism. Not many people go there, which is probably why it often looks the way it did on Thursday afternoon. Here,...
View ArticleA visit to the mouth of Periwinkle Creek
If you could follow Periwinkle Creek from south Albany all the way to its mouth, you would end up in Bowman Park on the Willamette River. But you can’t. If memory serves, it was a group of college kids...
View ArticleAbandoned carts: Albany may try again
Trying to get a handle on the problem of stolen and abandoned shopping carts, Albany passed a law in 2008. The law was amended in 2021 and then, in a reorganization of the city code, passed again in...
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