Obie project: The option price & likely timeline
One or more of three city-owned parking lots on Albany’s Water Avenue may be sold for construction of apartments or other multi-unit buildings, but it will be some time before anything is actually...
View ArticleWillamette viewpoint is worth your visit
Last Sunday I paid another visit to the Willamette River viewpoint at the foot of Broadalbin Street on Albany’s waterfront. Here’s what I found. With a chain and padlocks, the metal grating on the...
View ArticleNew asphalt makes for smooth ride
Friday found the bike and me pretty much in the middle of Albany’s retail commercial center, enjoying the new asphalt pavement on Clay Street and 14th Avenue. What you often hear is that the City of...
View ArticleSqualor on our streets: What must be done
Saturday was their deadline for leaving, and by the afternoon people seemed to be getting ready to move their improvised shelters from the state property near the Ninth Avenue off-ramp on Pacific...
View ArticleWeeding of Waverly to be done annually
The weeding of Albany’s Waverly Lake may become an annual affair, at least for a few years. This was the second summer a company contracted by the Albany Parks Department deployed a couple of floating...
View ArticleJust in time to watch another train
It has been a few weeks since you last saw a train on this site. So let’s make up for lost time. On Monday evening I heard the horn of an approaching freight as I rode my bike east on Seventh Avenue,...
View ArticleStopped on 20 and steaming in the rain
With the summer over, afternoon traffic congestion on Highway 20 ahead of Albany’s Ellsworth Street Bridge has made its seasonal comeback. There are ways to make it less annoying, but none of them has...
View ArticleNew photo enforcement: A status report
So where are we with Albany’s plan to step up traffic enforcement with cameras at four intersections in town? Getting closer, but not there yet. In December 2023, the city council authorized speed and...
View ArticleMore details about traffic camera timeline
Additional details have emerged about the timing of Albany’s project to start or step up photo enforcement of traffic laws at four intersections. In an email to Councilwoman Matilda Novak, Police Chief...
View ArticleThat’s some swale at Santiam and Main
Every once in a while a bike ride takes me past the corner of Main Street and Santiam Road in Albany to check on progress there, the former site of the historic Cumberland church. “I am 90 percent done...
View ArticleWhere to park at popular playground
Since Albany’s Monteith Riverpark reopened in July, the new playground and splash pad there have drawn lots of children and their parents every day the weather has been fine. The playground has...
View ArticleOn Ellsworth Bridge, note the raised height
On Albany’s Ellsworth Street Bridge, construction work to raise the height clearance looked complete last week, at least to drivers crossing the bridge. But the job is not yet done. Wildish Standard...
View ArticleAn urgent fix under Salem Avenue bridge
Five years ago Albany applied for a state grant to fix the Salem Avenue bridge over Cox Creek. Now the project has taken on new urgency, and the city has contracted with Wildish Standard Paving to do...
View ArticleWhat, another train? Already?
Yes, there’s no shortage of trains on the Union Pacific’s western Oregon mainline. And if you move around Albany much at all, whether on four wheels or two, or on foot, trains and you are often going...
View ArticleNeighbors ask alley be closed for safety
Homeowners along an alley for pedestrians south of Knox Butte Road have complained to the Albany City Council about people causing problems in the walkway. They would like it closed. The alley, roughly...
View ArticleMayor passes Albany street fee ordinance
Mayor Alex Johnson II provided the deciding vote Wednesday in favor of an Albany ordinance authorizing the city to collect a monthly fee for street maintenance and repairs. The council was split 3-3,...
View ArticleCamp site near 9th Avenue ramp is clear
On Thursday evening I got off the bike and looked around near the Ninth Avenue ramp on the south side of the Pacific Boulevard viaduct in Albany. The site had been almost completely cleaned up. For...
View ArticleA Swift Show in Albany (not THAT Swift)
For years I’ve heard of flocks of little birds called Vaux’s swifts roosting overnight in Albany chimneys on their migration south for the fall. On Friday night I saw them in action for the first time....
View ArticleWhat to do with these city-owned lots?
Two parties have declared their interest in obtaining three lots owned by the City of Albany near the corner of Ninth Avenue and Jackson Steet. And I’m trying to learn why the city owns these...
View ArticleOnly development on this lot: Taller weeds
Once a year or so curiosity and the bike take me to 370 Burkhart St. S.E. in Albany. I go there to check if anything has happened at the address since I first wrote about it nine years ago. When I went...
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