On bike rides along Albany’s main off-street paths over the first few weeks this summer, I noticed something that wasn’t there.
Three years ago I took the bike down the trail in Albany’s Simpson Park and made a video of the experience. Not many people saw it, but just yesterday somebody left this comment: “This park today is absolutely filthy and infested with homeless encampments.”
For a reason shrouded in the mist of long ago, the City of Albany owns three lots in the same block as the Albany Helping Hands homeless shelter. The shelter has an idea of how the lots could serve a useful purpose, and it’s not to house people in ragtag tents.
I was out of town when I wrote Monday about the latest plan to rid Simpson Park of unauthorized encampments. On Tuesday the bike took me there to look around.
The first thing I noticed when I stopped by the Hub City Village construction site last Saturday was the concrete pool to the right of the entrance.
Given the reports last week on conditions in “Marvin’s Garden,” it was clear that Albany’s designated camping site for homeless people would have to be shut down.
Why all the trash? Because we allow it
That’s the trouble with winter: The foliage is gone and you can see the trash that people have left behind where, in summer, it’s hidden in the bushes.
Tags: Calapooia River, homeless, Queen Avenue, trash piles, vagrancy