The pavement at Third and Jackson on May 8, 2022.
Every once in a while, bumping along the broken pavement and potholed streets of old Albany on my bike, I wonder why the people living there or driving on these streets are not complaining?
The last time the city council had a serious discussion about street repairs was four years ago.
That discussion ended with a decision to put a 5-cent-per-gallon local gas tax on the ballot in the primary election of May 15, 2018. Not surprisingly, the proposal went down in flames.
On its website, the city has publicized information on the condition of Albany streets and the costs to maintain them. Long story short: The city budgets only enough money to maintain the main thoroughfares, the arterials and collectors.
There’s a gap of at least $10 million a year between what Albany has been spending and what it would take to maintain all the streets. So the residential streets in the older sections of town are left to break up over time.
The streets I’m talking about — Third, Fourth and Fifth east of downtown in the Central and Willamette neighborhoods; Seventh and 12th in West Albany, and others — were paved probably 60 or 70 years ago. They’ve been patched many times. But the patches don’t last.
Streets in new residential neighborhoods are still pretty good, but unless the technology of paving has improved, they too may crumble in another generation or two. To prevent that, the city does a slurry seal treatment every year.
This year the slurry sealing starts June 17 in three newer neighborhoods, one in North Albany and two in South Albany, in the Lexington and 53rd Avenue areas. For the details, check here.
As for Third and Fourth and the others, they need to be rebuilt. But unless residents and users start complaining and keep it up — like Cato the Elder complaining about the existence of Carthage until Rome finally destroyed it — those streets will just get worse. (hh)
I was just told I need new tires. I told them I drive on albany roads that’s why they are in rough shape. I’m sick of the city of Albany so worried about making us all pay more for water. But who cares about the streets..
Truth!
Try to find a pot hole in north Albany where a majority of city council lives I dare you
This is nonsense. Only one of the seven members of the council lives in North Albany.
And there are plenty of rough stretches. East bound on Gibson Hill is a nice … not so nice example.
Gibson Hill is a county road that Benton County intends to repave this summer before turning over jurisdiction to the city of Albany.
How about instead of just complaining, maybe some constructive, realistic solutions to the gap between need and money to pay for it?
How about fixing the roads before spending money on “waterfront rejuvenation” and bicycle “bikeways”. Both are lesser needs for the majority of the citizenry.
What are your ideas?
Here’s an idea.
Responsible city & county wealth contribution. I’ve been working on my phrasing lately. And can’t you tell?!
Note I didn’t say Wealth Tax or any mention of Eat the Rich. Not here to set the threshold but just sayin……
Oh and it goes to road repair.
There’s a cost to the Measure 50 property tax assessment limits Oregon homeowners enjoy, especially as the only state with no reset to RMV when property is sold. The implications are even outlined in the City’s budget documents. Can’t have your cake and eat it too.
The City of Albany had the money, but like the Federal Gov’t robbing Social Security, the money needed to fix and maintain Albany’s streets was robbed for CARA.
If I was a home owner, I would stop paying taxes on my house. If the city came after me, I’d file a lawsuit against the city.
My next set of tires will be billed to the City of Albany.
Unite City of Albany Residents…call for the money to be spent on streets or bill the City of Albany for auto maintenance!!
Wrong. CARA gets a portion from property tax revenues, which are almost completely exhausted for paying for Police, Fire and a portion of Parks. It’s been that way for about 50 years or more.
Gas taxes are the primary source for streets funding, and people routinely refuse to increase the needed income. As cars get better MPG, and electric vehicles become more prevalent Gas Tax does not, and will NEVER keep up with the cost of repairing existing roads.
The bottom line: The streets are what they are because you refuse to pay for them.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
And where does the fuel to keep producing electrical power to charge these electric cars come from? Most is from coal. I’m sure burning that to produce electricity is just as environmentally damaging as vehicle exhaust.
Instead of paying for gasoline, people will spend more for electricity to charge these overhyped, overpriced vehicles.
That’s not true. Only about a quarter of the electricity consumed in Oregon comes from coal. Hydroelectricity is a much larger portion, and natural gas (which is far cleaner than coal) is a significant portion
For Pacific Power, the numbers produced by googling the question are these: “In 2021, the ‘basic fuel mix,’ the average mix of energy sources supplying Pacific Power customers, is 46.8% coal, 18.4% natural gas, 15.2% wind, 5.8% hydro, 3.9% solar, 0.3% geothermal, 0.4% biomass, and 9.2% miscellaneous.”
You don’t have a clue about what your talking about.
Whether Pacific Power or Portland General Electric, every user can choose what power plan they want, and al lot of people choose Renewal Energy as their power source.
I’m with Portland General Electric and NONE of their electricity is generated by coal. In fact, Oregon has NO coal fired generating plants.
Here is a link to the Fed Energy Information Agency for Oregon:
https://www.eia.gov/state/data.php?sid=OR
But here’s the summary that refutes you 100%
Utility-Scale Net Electricity Generation (% share of total) For Oregon & US Feb/2022
Petroleum-Fired Oregon – No Meaningful US – 0.3 %
Natural Gas-Fired Oregon – 27.4 % US – 35.3 %
Coal-Fired Oregon – 0 % US 21.6 %
Nuclear Oregon – 0 % US – 18.9 %
Renewables Oregon – 71.1 % US – 20.9 % Includes Hydropower
TLH……fyi….CARA was able to reconstruct many streets in the district. CARA funds can only be spent in the district. Without the CARA funds then those streets would be still on the list today for reconstruction.
Property taxes do not even fully fund police and fire services. It takes many other resources to support city services. Streets come from state shared gas tax revenues and a big chunk of the state’s funds goes towards transit.
Population growth brings more housing and with more housing is cars and we know what those cars do: wear and tear on all streets.
I was one who pushed for a five-cent gas tax to pay for residential streets. But it failed and the biggest social media complainers against the ballot measure lived outside of Albany, yet they need our streets to access their services.
Hmmmm….five cents a gallon tax to fix Albany local streets! I doubt five-cents would have cut back on sales in Albany. Drivers are paying over five bucks a gallon today!
Hi Sharon, Gas tax revenue does not go to transit. However, there is Liquor and cigarette tax that goes to transit as well as a relatively new (2017) 1/10 of 1 percent income tax that is dedicated to transit services in Oregon. For every $1,000 a person earns the State takes $1 for the STIF fund (State Transportation Improvement Fund).
Barry, I thought the recent state transportation funding package that increased gas taxes (2017 ? legislative session) was divided between cities, state and transit?
Not sure if this will help, or confuse.
https://www.oregon.gov/odot/About/GR/2021_ODOT_Conditional_Fuels_Tax_Increase_Report_FINAL.pdf
sharon, sharon, sharon, 5 cents wouldn’t cover redoing your driveway, people do complain about the streets constantly, and yes thats how we run our municipality by complaint based system, but the complaints with roads go unheard, we used to have small bond measures in past, but that doesn’t grow the empire, buildings, river front sidewalks for parades, just think 3 million dollars total for architects could have done alot in our roads, we had a smal summer crew every summer, a man by the name of mr bailey ran it, there are i believe still 2 pavers down at public works, what happen to that specific line item in the budget, oh yes p.e.r.s.
You are correct.
CARA’s borrowed money can augment the city’s Street Fund and pay for improvements. Remember the “Promenade” street reconstruction project?
With their millions ($) CARA picks winners and losers. Third and Jackson is a loser. Broadalbin is a winner.
Marion Street in particular has held up extremely well since it was redone and it would be awesome if they could do something similar downtown. I’d have to guess that city council members just don’t have to drive the streets that are the worst in this town,otherwise they’d be fixed by now.
There are some seriously bad streets in Albany however, I believe the primary reason no one complains about them is because it falls upon the deaf ears of city staff.
Says a former city staff member.
Hasso is correct:
“…the city has publicized information on the condition of Albany streets and the costs to maintain them. Long story short: The city budgets only enough money to maintain the main thoroughfares, the arterials and collectors.”
If you want all the details on Albany’s Street maintenance; the how, why, etc., start here:
https://www.cityofalbany.net/streets
Good thing we have those giant metal flowers and cantenary lights though huh? And super bright street lights every 12 feet near businesses that aren’t open after dark. I will never understand why they tore up prefectly good road around city hall to replace it before it was even necessary instead of spending that money to fix the roads mentioned here which have been woefully dilapidated for as long as I can remember.
Four years ago I wrote the City and asked about the shameful condition of 12th, especially near Elm. The roads project manager replied and tersely informed me these roads were on their project list, which was true, but no action was anticipated without funding. There were some new patches placed in the worst areas, which has been the practice since. Absent funding, we should expect more of the same.
Thanks for all the comments and suggestions about how to fix Albany’s streets. Those of you who are Albany residents should consider making a real difference in how city government operates by running for office this fall. Three seats on the city council and the mayor’s seat are up for election every even-numbered year. The filing period for the November 2022 general election is August 5-22. Check the city website after July 1 for details: cityofalbany.net/elections.
sorry marilyn, but your a retired city staffer, just keep voting for increases in fees, and utilities, people on a fixed income in an inflationary time period are hurting, why can’t you do what your ward wants you there for—a little leadership, and not following what staff tells you.
The roads are in such disrepair that even Gordon can feel the bumps…. and he doesn’t even live in Oregon.
I still see a Chiropractor for the damage Albany streets did to my neck and back.
And I drove a newer car back then… :-)
Building car-dependent cities produce these problems. Albany is no different than many other towns in North America, where the ratio between miles of road per inhabitant is exorbitant. Streets are unnecessarily wide, and instead of building higher I see new single-family developments popping up nearby Mennonite Village, in the fringe of the city. New suburban houses starting at $450k? Cool, we’ll be stuck forever paying for the maintenance of a couple of new miles of suburban streets for a total increase of 20-30 properties paying property tax. Awesome.
Then, cars getting bigger and bigger, in this arms race towards the biggest truck and the most luxurious SUV. 4000 lb+ vehicles, carving the asphalt like butter.