Many Americans are reported to be unaware of exactly how Obamacare is supposed to work when it kicks in next year. It’s hard to see how Oregon’s publicity campaign is improving things on that front. “Long Live Oregonians,” the billboards are telling people. Come again? You mean like, “Long live the king”? What is that […]
This summer I had the opportunity to ride my bike around California’s Newport Beach, and I was delighted to find that the street department there had placed buttons where cyclists can reach them to activate the traffic signals when there happen to be no cars to do so. Too bad nothing like that has been […]
This is not a forum for critical appraisals of public art. But let’s make an exception here for the Icarus mural that covers the entire side of a two-story building on First Avenue in downtown Albany. Does this, I ask you, does this look anything like the mythical Icarus? In case you’ve gotten a little rusty […]
Vultures circling above may seem like a bad sign. The good news is that if you can see them and think about what you see, they are not circling for you. Instead, there must be some other carcass nearby. Sure enough, pretty soon the first one of these turkey buzzards lands in the neighbor’s meadow next door […]
These horses look happy to you? They did to me when I snapped the photo on a bike ride outside of Medford a few weeks ago. Maybe not deliriously happy, but at least content. I’m no expert on keeping horses, but these animals looked as though they had, if nothing else, a big enough pasture […]
You may have noticed that while everybody talks about climate change, the climate around here has been staying remarkably unchanged. We moved to Albany in the drought year of 1977. In North Albany, where houses then still relied on water systems fed by shallow wells, outdoor watering was restricted. The rain resumed that September and […]
Walk faster, Grandma: Seconds count!
Have you seen those pedestrian traffic signals that tell people how many seconds they have left before — before what exactly? Before they can expect to get run over? The signals count down the seconds after the “walk” signal has changed to red. In Albany some of those signals have been in use for years. […]
Tags: downtown Albany, pedestrian countdown heads, traffic signals