Looking south where Jackson Street dead-ends, with the Pacific Boulevard viaduct in the background, on
April 19, 2025.
Wandering around old Albany on the bike without any goal in mind, I sometimes find myself in places that are so out of the way I have never paid them any attention before.
That’s what happened Saturday, when I rode south on Jackson Street from Sixth Avenue. I passed Swanson Park on the right, Seventh Avenue on the left, and ended up at the guardrail where that section of Jackson ends.
Ahead there was some grass, then a section of the Eighth Avenue Canal overgrown with brambles, and then the multiple tracks of the Union Pacific and Portland & Western railroads.
A well-worn footpath leads from the end of the street across a culvert in the canal and then to the wire fence that marks the railroad right-of-way. A sign warns people against trespassing. But a rectangular hole has been cut in the fence.
I didn’t see anybody, but evidently people on foot have been crossing the tracks at that point to reach the continuation of Jackson Street on the other side.
Why would they do that? Who knows. But on the other side, there are three potential destinations: Two homeless shelters and the Linn County Jail. On this, the north side, there’s the public pool and Swanson Park.
To reach these places on foot means hiking a long way around to the east or west. I guess they didn’t think of that when the Highway Commission designed the Southern Pacific Overcrossing nearly a century ago and closed the street crossings in that stretch.
I spent a few minutes looking around this spot. The land is owned by the City of Albany. It may not be scenic in the usual sense, but on a sunny afternoon in sping it didn’t look too bad. (hh)
This section of the Eighth Avenue Canal goes east before turning left and becoming the Thurston Street Canal.
The no-trespassing sign didn’t keep someone from cutting this hole in the wire fence before the tracks.
Looking west, through the overpass, toward Albany Station in the distance.
This time of year when the grass is green, blossoms and leaves are on the trees, and flowers are blooming, every property looks better. Spring is amazingly beautiful.
I drive in that area everyday and there are homeless people hanging out doing drugs. This is why I keep writing in this blog about the criminal activity and chronic traffic problems because that area is easy to sneak around and hide. The shelters want to build apartments where people can use drugs and still use the shelter resources. They can continue to get donations and funding without any responsibility for the bad behavior just like they did with the Marvin’s garden camp ground. There was a reason why the city put rocks under the over pass and the area by the railroad tracks is fenced with no trespassing signs. The only way to keep that area positive is to maintain the residential homes and businesses there. Homeowners have a commitment to the keep their homes safe. The businesses help limit the criminal activity by bringing more people to the area which reduces the opportunities to go undetected. The city keeps allowing this area to be a scab that is picked all the time and will never heal. The shelter has received complaints ever since it moved there in 2005. The city doesn’t care, we are the ones who pay for it.
Albany is small and evolves slowly. There are many signs of its river city past where it was the hub of activity on the Willamette, before the I-5 freeway changed the nature of the city and downtown area. What looks like a creek, as you say HH, was a canal at one time. Several canals were hand dug in the late 1800s by Asian migrants (really, slaves). There was a large Asian influence in downtown Albany. Riverboats, ferries and log raft tugs plied the river. There are echoes of this past all over the older parts of town, if you look, which thankfully, you do, HH