On Tuesday afternoon, a lone mallard paddles around a cleaned-up section of Periwinkle Creek.
Last week, this view of Periwinkle Creek in Albany was spoiled by the presence of a bunch of abandoned shopping carts half submerged in the stream. On Tuesday, as you can see, the carts were gone.
This is near the narrow wooden footbridge that crosses the creek channel from a dead-end stub of 12th Avenue to the northern section of the Periwinkle Bikepath and Kinderpark.
I went by there again Tuesday after getting a note Monday from Rick Barnett, the city’s parks and facilities maintenance manager.
“Our crew got a little bit of time this morning and pulled 11 carts out of Periwinkle Creek near the bridge,” Barnett’s note said.
When I wrote about the carts there last week, I could see parts of only about five or six. I’m glad the parks crew found more and pulled them all out. (hh)
Here’s a wider view downstream from the little bridge over Perwinkle Creek Tuesday afternoon.
I’ve seen city work crews gather carts I’ve walked out of the Takena Landing trail. If I saw one on one of my walks and rolled it back to Safeway and another in the back of my Truck back to Winco.
B R A V O!!! The willingness on the city’s part is superb! Years of cart collection and the area is cleaned up. Thanks Hasso and Thank You City!
Good morning Hasso.
Do you know what’s happening with the Greyhound Tavern and why it’s closed?
Nope. I don’t.
I heard on one of the Albany facebook groups they made some improvements, had a bunch of unpermitted work they inherited from the previous building owner, and opened without a certificate of occupancy. I guess the City’s building dept has been working with them to get it squared away.
Thanks to you and your crew. Getting rid of the carts dumped in the Willamette creek.
It’s sad that this happens. Our prices for food way to high
I would think the stolen then dumped carts costs factor in with higher priced. Hay guys we all don’t get 130.00 in food stamps. Stop wasting other people’s things. It ends up costing everyone that lives here money. Personally I have stopped buying the high priced meat.
Plus some veggies are priced too high to buy. I got 1 bag of food the other day, the bag was a little over ½ full.
$48.00. This is nuts. Then Federal workers at the White House (congress) making
over 200,000 a year. And the crazy thing is, not passing any bills. Taking weeks off, (with pay) to flex mussels on
showing their lack of working together
passing bills. The U.S. fight with the other side, is way out of control. Don’t tax payers pay their massive salaries. It’s a shameful thing. I’d say dock wages when they stop working for the people. Quit paying for these asses to have money to spare. At least while we the lower income people can’t even afford beans and rice anymore. Or pastas and other starchy foods, just to fill the bellies of our families. Here in the USA. So these assholes can eat steak.
Get your shit together and earn your money.
It is good that the city invested a whole morning cleaning the carts out of the stream. The real solution is to move the homeless into an area where they can live and not hide or cause trouble for local citizens. Hiding the homeless and shelter under the overpass just allows them to live in lawlessness and trashing that area. It is no different than closing that path that the kiddos hang out. Under the overpass is a bottle neck due to the homeless. If something is not working, trying to do the same thing over and over again is beyond common sense. Does the city understand the concept of enabling people to continue doing destructive behavior? This city cuts off its nose to spite it’s face.
Sounds like somebody has all the answers. Maybe you need to put up and run for city council so you can show em who’s boss.
Thank you, Hasso. And thank you Rick and crew. When a light shines on an issue, good things can happen.
the homeless will have more carts and or garbage back in there real soon. im sure las vegas would post odds on it. please keep us updated hasso.
Great work Parks Department, hoping the problem does not return in a few months.
Thanks folks!
Thank you for your keen eye and bike riding observations. Glad we have a city that responded quickly.
This has been an ongoing problem ever since the bike path was extended behind Lowes. I expect by Monday, there will be carts swimming again. IF the City won’t actively police this area, it’s not going to stop. Start arresting people for stealing carts and you may see a decline.
Good job – and many thanks – Hasso in reporting that to the city and getting it cleaned up!
How about an entire series on streets?
Pick a street a day and do a video of the pot holes etc. with your camera jarring away. Post on YouTube for the world to see.
Matthew Calhoun, you miss the point entirely. No one should be the “boss”, the city works for the people. The city manager and councilors are there to represent “the people”, not to fulfill their own agenda. All the “answers” to our community need to be from “all” the people who live here. No one can “step up” to do anything when they don’t know what is going on with a local government that has a deaf ear and plays dumb. It doesn’t take a genius to do what’s right.
You miss the point. Maybe you should step out from the keyboard, run for an open council seat, and work for the people, genius or not.
Until the people in Albany realize that they need to support a better local government, one person on the council won’t make a difference. Blindly following the status quo will not improve the city’s current processes. Silence is considered to be acceptance. Based on the people who respond on this blog, there is no cohesive mind set other than complacency. All for one and one for all is the solution, not one more voiceless person thrown into the mix. The goal is to urge others to start paying attention to their community and speak out not only for themselves but for others.
If one person could make a difference, Mr. Olsen would still be on the council.