Two sides of Albany’s homeless problem came up before the city council Wednesday night in the form of pleas for help. But it did not look like any form of concrete help would come.
This, a garbage dump on a public trail, is still the exception in Albany. What can be done to keep scenes like this from multiplying as they have in other cities in Oregon and up and down the West Coast?
On Facebook last week, someone posted photos of a mess on the Periwinkle Bike Path in Albany. The mess was still there Sunday afternoon, when I went to take a look.
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.
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.
Scenery getting cleaned along Albany paths
There has been considerable progress in the cleanup of vagrant camps along two of Albany’s multi-use paths. You cannot help but notice this if you go past these places every few days.
Tags: Albany parks, Albany paths, bike paths, campsites, Cox Creek Periwinkle Creek, homeless camps, vagrancy