A duck navigated around sunken shopping carts in Periwinkle Creek on April 1.
A wooden bridge across Albany’s Periwinkle Creek leads from a dead-end stub of 12th Avenue to the northern end of the Periwinkle Bikepath. The bridge needs work, and so does the creek below.
From time to time I take that bridge on bike rides through town. Looking downstream from the middle of the crossing, people have a view of what looks like a graveyard for shopping carts.
I can’t be sure, but I think there were the remnants of six carts down there, all pretty much in one spot, the last few times I looked.
Shopping carts dumped in city waterways are not exactly news. We’ve had that problem for decades. But why was there a concentration of those things at that particular spot in the creek?
Maybe it’s because the spot is below an area of city property that has long been the site of an occasional vagrant camp. Such a camp was there just a few days before, though it was gone — cleaned up — by the time I shot that photo of the duck among the rubbish in the creek.
If you were condemned by fate or other things to wander the streets with a shopping cart to hold your belongings, why would you give up the cart or push it into the nearest creek? You’d have to swipe a new one. Wouldn’t you?
In 2008, the city council passed a law intended to cut down on shopping carts being abandoned all over town. The ordinance attempted to make stores responsible for recovering carts that belonged to them.
It didn’t work. One of the council members at the time, Bessie Johnson, voted against it because it wouldn’t work, and she was right.
On Periwinkle Creek, now and then there’s a campaign to clean sections of the channel. This usually involves volunteers working with equipment provided by the city. Manpower alone is not enough to recover carts and other unwieldy debris from the channel. The banks are too steep.
In the 1970s, the City of Albany and the U.S. Soil Conservation Service launched a huge project to deepen the channel and create the parkway beside it. The goal was to enlarge the creek’s capacity to carry runoff in order to reduce wintertime flooding in southeast Albany and beyond.
Fifty years later, the water in the creek has to make its way past fallen trees and discarded carts. Considering the importance of flood control, you’d think there would be a program of frequent maintenance to keep the channel clear.
But as the view from that bridge shows, there is not. (hh)
The City authorized money to train some version of a “Public Resources Officer” to handle the illegal camping etc. What happened to that person? Now the Police Dept. wants to hire another person to process Red Light Camera tickets. Why?
Would be interesting to see log hours of where this resource officer spends their time and the reports taken. How is this position benefiting the community?
You can read about the park service officer on page 16 of the APD Annual Report for 2023 at http://www.albanyoregon.gov
To save you looking it up, this is what the report says on page 16: “The park service officer serves as an ambassador for all of the parks within the City of Albany. A total of 621 calls for service were responded to which include park security checks and ordinance complaints.”
Maybe this is a spawning ground. Should be protected habitat.
There is so much more to this! To date, the city is not willing to work the proper channels to clean up the debris and trash. They ARE WILLING to contract out the planting of new vegetation in the area. State lands have their control over the area, does not seem they are willing either. What about the salmon? Short areas are deemed a salmon habitat…. Very interesting.
There is still so much more….
so many homeless in Albany anymore, can’t go to the gym by the dollar tree anymore without someone asking for money. And I see camping on some of the sidewalks. Where are all these people coming from is my question.
as long as we keep feeding homeless people, and helping them out, the longer they will stay and trash the city of albany. very simple how that works. if churches, helping hands, etc. fed them the same meal as linn co inmates they will vacate the city of albany real fast.
Helping Hands only feeds in house high barrier clients. We need more high barrier housing – meaning that they cannot be doing drugs and must follow high barrier guidelines to receive counsel and services provided for personal gain to a life free of life’s encumbrances.
Around 2012 or 2013 Albany put lime on the ground under the over pass by the train station to force the homeless away from that area. Since the state started funding homelessness the city has allowed them to stay in areas none of the perceived upper class live or work. The city is drying up small local businesses in Albany and replacing them with funded government jobs to manage the homeless that the city encourages to move here. Albany needs to be economically independent and maintain jobs for everyone. Funding for the homeless will eventually dry up due to addressing the housing shortage and the homeless passing away due to health issues caused by their lifestyle. All the money that is being wasted on all these temporary useless solutions will not be available anymore. Homeless shelters for short term crisis intervention are inhumane keeping people corralled in prison like conditions for years. The larger the shelter the more homeless they will need to get more funding. Third world behavior by the people in power is not a healthy society. Albany is becoming the “city of homeless”.
high barrier homeless people. does that include people on parole or probation? for crimes they have committed? they cant drink or do drugs! or they go back to jail. . they are forced not to drink or do drugs and they are given better food than other homeless people? and we have innocent until proven guilty people eating jail food? im confused.. i am very confused.
Get unconfused by looking at Creating Housing Coalition – those unhoused will be homeowners.
i think that is fantastic. no drugs, no alcohol allowed. i didnt read up on pets. and the unhoused homeless in albany will all become homeowners. and albany residents will clearly see a drop in the number of homeless people living all around town. this sounds good to me. .
I see there looks to be another camp showing up on the Willamette river front side coming into N. Albany, I know this is a big social problem but I sure hate the fact it’s our outdoor spaces taking the beating up and down the state. It’s one thing if people choose to engage in irresponsible behavior but our animals shouldn’t have to bear the burden for those actions.
In response to your email about the shelter, no longer pursuing the low barrier shelter expansion. The shelter is still getting larger and the city installed the camping area that is low barrier homeless. That area consists of very active local businesses. If you want to help the homeless at someone’s expense I suggest the city and council members offer the areas that they work in for a homeless shelter and low barrier camps.
albany has so many homeless people we now have different categories for them. barriers. = you gotta be kidding me. how about uniforms for these folks? boy scout/girl scout style. add stripes or badges for accomplishments.