On a bike ride down south, I came across this constructed wetland — or series of ponds and connecting channels — that reminded me of Albany’s “Talking Water Gardens.” This layout just south of the Santa Ana River channel is about five miles inland and designed to filter runoff from the surrounding area so the water […]
There’s not enough water in the interior of the West for everything we want or need to do. Part of the answer is to conserve as much as we can, but conservation goes only so far. Doing with less or without does not serve the purpose for long, whether you need to wash your truck […]
If you don’t like the price of gasoline, closing in on $4 a gallon in Oregon again and way beyond that point along I-5 in California, don’t buy any. That sounds like a useless thing to say. But it hits the mark. The main reason the price of fuel jumps this time of year is […]
As far as I’m concerned, a town can never have too many parks. So whether Albany has enough is a tough call. But there’s no question that it has a wide variety of very attractive parks, from the tiny and little-used Eades Park, which has modern play equipment for kids, to the big ones with […]
Brian Boquist is a state senator from Dallas. He’s also a retired career Army officer and something of an idealist. He thinks there must be a way to reduce the costs and complexities of state government. After all, with fewer than 5 million people in Oregon, do we really need almost 80,000 state employees? When […]
Oregon puts a lot of people in prison, and this is very expensive. Legislators including Albany’s Andy Olson, who served on a special commission on sentencing, have been looking for a solution. The most obvious answer is for fewer people to become criminals. If everybody acted the way the vast majority of law-abiding citizens act, […]
Bike trails worth copying
When it comes to bike trails, we in Oregon could learn something from transportation authorities in Southern California. Here’s a look at part of the Santa Ana River Trail, part of an extensive bike path system that goes on for miles and miles. According to a website on the SART, it was designated as a […]
Tags: Orange County, Santa Ana River Trail