Looking east on the unnamed bike and walking path along the canal between Swanson Park and Lyon Street on Jan. 21, 2026.
There’s a path along a neglected section of Albany’s Eighth Avenue canal between Lyon Street and Swanson Park. On a bike ride last week, I came across a big mess along the creek. On Tuesday I was surprised to see the mess was completely gone.
Last week, it looked like somebody had been camping among the bushes on the bank of the creek. The spot was littered with all kinds of debris, along with three shopping carts loaded with stuff.
This was right across the canal from the stately old house at 729 Baker St. S.E., in the Hackleman Historic District. Albany’s Inventory of Historic Properties calls it the Young/Torbet House and says it was built around 1880 in the gothic revival style and remodeled in 1930.
Anyway, across the canal from this showpiece of Albany’s architectural history there was this unsightly mess. Somebody, not me, put photographs of the filth on Facebook. By Tuesday the post had generated a flood of comments.
A bike ride took me past the site again on Tuesday afternoon. Somebody had cleaned the place up and done a thorough job. Not a shred of litter remained to be seen.
This path is about 900 feet long. It may not get a lot of use, but I’m sure that those who do use it are grateful to whoever accomplished this praiseworthy chore. (hh)
The location looked like this on Jan. 21, 2025.
And on Tuesday afternoon all of the debris was gone.
We used to use that path a lot when I was a kid. It runs parallel to the Pacific Ave off ramp to Lyon St.
Very glad to see there is still “pride of place” in Albany. I hope that is never lost.
I am sure once all the immigrants are deported, this homeless problem will resolve itself.
really? How sure are you?
LOL! Are you serious?? So the homeless problem will be resolved? Arent you just some kind of special.
Wow what a Genius, but those homeless folks are mostly WHITE …So MAGA logic fox news style.
Another instance, I’m pretty sure, of sarcasm not going over as intended.
It is nice that the path now looks great. But, what happened to the homeless person or people who were there? Are we so numb from life’s tribulations that we think the problem will disappear if we don’t talk about it?
MjDain you are so right if the community doesn’t get involved and don’t judge people and families because they are homeless I Walk down the path all the time and I used to be homeless you can look someone and know when they need a little help
If the “campers” packed out their trash, they would be perceived in a much better light. Poor/homeless doesn’t mean you have to be an inconsiderate slob.
However 3 carts are still there with bags of trash in them. So much for true clean up?