Construction at the corner of Riverside Drive, foreground, and Queen Avenue on Sept. 12, 2025.
Somebody emailed a question that sent me on a bike ride out Queen Avenue to Riverside Drive in Albany last week. What I saw was that access to an area off the northwest corner of this junction had been cut off.
“Who is behind the recent change to eliminate parking at the intersection of Queen and Riverside,” the email sender wanted to know. “This follows elimination of parking along Queen in the past. There seems to be a concerted effort to eliminate access to the Calapooia for swimming. It feels very mean spirited.”
The swimming reference was to the little beach on the Calapooia River just upstream of the Queen Avenue bridge, a popular swimming hole going back years. The river marks the Albany city limit. Anything south of the bridge and west of the river is in unincorporated Linn County.
People visiting the swimming hole in summers past used to park along Queen near the bridge, causing occasional traffic problems and complaints from neighbors. Now there are no-parking signs on both sides of Queen.
The wide spot on the northwest corner of Queen and Riverside was a parking spot year round. Now there’s a wall of dirt and a deep ditch making the area off limits.
In reply to my question about this, County Roadmaster Amy Ramsdell explained via email: “The road department is working on Riverside Drive and cleaning up our ditches and right-of-way in that location. … The activity is related to right of way maintenance.”
As for “no parking” on Queen between the corner and the Calapooia bridge, I’m not sure when the signs went up. But Ramsdell checked and found that the county commissioners approved the parking ban there in June 2019.
“The area would see a large number of vehicles parking for recreational activities,” she wrote. “However, the parking was becoming a hazard. There was a crash at the location associated with parking related movements and in response, it was deemed time to take action.”
Now that the swimming-hole season is just about over, it probably doesn’t matter that there’s no place to park nearby. In summers to come, though, people going there may want to make the trip on foot or on their bikes. (hh)
The swimming hole on the Calapooia River below the Queen Avenue bridge was deserted on the afternoon of Sept. 12.
No-parking signs like this line both sides of Queen Avenue from the Calapooia bridge south.
Unless they can charge for something there, like parking, access to outside activities for free have been effectively cut off
My neck of the woods. We used to hike down to the Calapooia about a 1/2 mile upstream from the bridge through the woods off of Park Terrace in west Albany down to the river. It was a young boy’s dreamland (we were allowed to go out all day on our own back in the 60s). The river was our destination and its rocky “beaches” at turns in the river a place to explore
That last photo shows a sign of civil disobedience.
The bike is clearly parked against a ‘No Parking’ sign.
Here’s your sign: Right on, Write on, Ride On!
Thank you Hasso, for covering our local news better than the MS local news, even when the truth hurts.
I believe the no parking by the Calapooia bridge, is a good thing. The swimming hole that your talking about is 100-200 ft from our property. I walk down to the river alot. I used to be a nice place, but not any more. People do there illegal drugs there. I’m tired of seeing their syringes and litter by the swimming hole. No Parking might be a good thing?
I suspect they’ll just clog up the already limited neighborhoods’ parking…then walk to the swimming hole. The neighborhood complaints are surely to follow…
As for the corner of riverside and queen, that has been a dumping ground for years which once again shows why we cant have nice things, cutting off access is inevitable
Living in one of the neighborhoods by the river, when the parking and traffic used to be so bad that we would have our line of sight blocked by parked cars and pedestrians, the no parking was welcomed. Concerns for accidents and people’s safety should be paramount.
Far too many times this summer in my multiple trips per day through that intersection, I had to slam my brakes due to people trying to back out onto the road. Not to mention the folks that would stand in/near the road (un)loading their kids/tubes/fishing-gear/etc.
Though it hasn’t even stopped the truly entitled idiots. More than once since the ditch started that there have been vehicles parked in the one remaining ‘entrance’ space, more often than not, with their tires right on or even over the lane-line.
So, Hasso, we need a mini jet boat? Sounds like a plan!!!
I think it’s out right poor management of funds to start a new project no matter how small when the roads are so neglected due to a budget crisis. If you can’t afford to take care of what you have then you shouldn’t start anything new. Pointing to the fact it’s obviously just a few people with power deciding the fate of the general population cause no one is questioning their decisions … So frustrating
I am glad to see this area blocked off. It has become a dumping ground for stolen vehicles, broken down rv’s and people’s unwanted trash. The overwhelming amount of cars along the road has also created a hazard, with people running across the road in front of traffic. There was also a crash there that ended a young man’s life.
I’d like to thank them for cutting down the vegetation. So you can see the river and the people on the other side that made an illegal camp.
That’s the only way to find the stolen generator from my camp up river. They had dug a whole and put the generator in it. So you could not hear it running, also stole a chair cut a hole in it and put a bucket underneath it. Needles, tweaker trash, it’s just disgraceful, the amount of trash that is left at the river for others to pick up.
Not to mention the idiots that bring glass bottles to a river where people swim and walk around bare foot… Thank you APD. And property owners along the river.
The article mentions “a crash once” (paraphrased), as a reason to prohibit parking.
There are about 5 crashes a year at Belmont and Pacific, but they haven’t prohibited Left turns yet?
Since moving here a few years ago, I’ve been looking for a place to access the Calapooia for floating.
This looked like a great spot, but I couldn’t figure out how to get to the beach.
There is plenty of parking along Perfect Lane, Orchard Lane, and Chase Loop. The neighborhood would rather people park there than alongside Queen or Riverside. Or park farther down on other side streets. I have a feeling they prefer lots of foot traffic through their neighbors vs vehicles. Give’em what they want,