After years of talking about it, Albany is trying to follow its neighbors on the Willamette River by stimulating redevelopment of its riverfront. The first step — you guessed it — is finding a consultant.
After years of talking about it, Albany is trying to follow its neighbors on the Willamette River by stimulating redevelopment of its riverfront. The first step — you guessed it — is finding a consultant.
Some days there is nothing to see on my riverfront beat. But sometimes there is, even if it’s nothing big. Three items caught my attention Monday afternoon.
Things have been quiet on my waterfront beat, but there’s stuff going on, mainly including the installation of a new and improved railroad crossing at Water Avenue and Hill Street, a main entrance to the Edgewater Village development.
Patrolling my riverfront beat on Friday afternoon on the bike, I could not help but notice that the Willamette had risen rather sharply over the last few days. Looks like the Corps upped its releases from the upstream dams.
For a few weeks now, Albany’s Bowman Park has sported a fine new restroom, but it hasn’t been ready for use. Completing it has taken longer than expected, but the wait may be over now.
Those mysterious chunks of concrete lying along the Dave Clark Path on Albany’s riverfront are no mystery at all when you remember that a contractor is working to install lighting all along the trail.
My riverfront beat is rarely quiet for long: Saturday night, it turns out, was the last time a scheduled wedding was held at Albany’s Wheelhouse because it no longer will serve as an “event center.” That’s the word from Janet Johnson, who along with her husband, Dave, owns the landmark building on Water Avenue.
Sooner or later, I thought while riding my riverfront beat on Saturday, efforts to revive Albany’s riverfront will have to deal with the question of how to attract more customers, residents, visitors and even home buyers to a place where the homeless often hang out.
If you’re looking for a respite from bad news about politics and everything else that’s going wrong, you have come to the right place. This is the home of the mundane. Like blind corners on one of my bike routes along the Albany riverfront.
On the riverfront: More homes going up
Along the Albany riverfront — my beat, if you’ll remember — home construction has entered another phase at Edgewater Village, and a long-planned apartment complex is still in the works farther east, near Bowman Park.
Tags: Albany riverfront, Edgewater Village, George Diamond, Patrick Morley, The Banks, Willamette River Holdings