Sometimes you get the feeling it makes no sense to spend big money on public improvements as long as vandals and vagrants remain free — and motivated, if that’s the right word — to ruin them with spray paint and trash.
Albany has banned unauthorized camping on public property and set up a zone from which the municipal court may banish repeat criminals for up to a year. Both measures are in effect starting now.
A proposed crackdown on crime and other problems associated with vagrancy in Albany turned into a public debate before the Albany City Council Wednesday about what to do — and not to do — about the homeless.
Albany officials are poised to get tough — or tougher — on abandoned vehicles and houses, and on behavior that drags down the quality of life especially in the central part of town. You might call it a combined campaign against crime and the messes people leave behind.
The wasteland under the Pacific Boulevard viaduct is not exactly Albany’s garden spot. Vagrants have turned it into a dump where repeated cleanups have to be done.
This is kind of indelicate, so be warned. The Albany City Council, as you may have heard, has passed a couple of ordinances to give the police more enforcement tools against vagrants that cause trouble. One new city law outlaws open containers of alcohol in a public place. No problem with that. The other ordinance […]
On Simpson trail: Picking up campers’ trash
A cleanup of homeless camps took place today in the jungle that is the Willamette riverfront off Albany’s Simpson Park. And from the looks of it, cleaning up the place is a never-ending task.
Tags: Albany riverfront, homeless camp cleanup, homeless camps, vagrancy