On the Periwinkle Bikepath near Ninth Avenue on May 7, 2025.
As expected, it didn’t take long for vandals to start undoing the volunteer work of Albany’s “graffiti chasers” on the Periwinkle Bikepath behind Lowe’s, near Ninth Avenue.
The bike took me through that section of the path on Wednesday. The photos tell the story of what there was to see.
Volunteers had gone there in late April to cover up graffiti on about 600 linear feet of the textured wall that separates the path from the back lot of Lowe’s home improvement store.
Much of the time, vandals there have a free hand because that section of the path is not used much. It doesn’t go anywhere. At its north end, it stops on the narrow sidewalk of Ninth Avenue, a three-lane segment of two highways, Oregon 99E and US 20.
Why should anyone care about the appearance of that wall? One answer is that if people are able to vandalize someone else’s property with impunity, time after time, this signals some kind of decline in the character of the community.
Deterrence might be one response, or punishment if deterrence fails. I’ve never been there but I imagine that Singapore has very little graffiti because if you’re caught there, the punishment is a stiff fine and up to eight blows with a cane on your naked behind.
I don’t expect Oregon would go for caning people caught defacing public property. But we might start by carrying out the penalties specified in Oregon law. For damaging property with graffiti, ORS 164.383 calls for a sentence of up to 100 hours of community service, such as cleaning up graffiti done by the culprit and others.
But first, culprits have to be caught. For years the wall along the path has borne signs warning of security cameras, but no cameras are in place.
Now that Albany officials are fond of cameras to catch speeders, the city could start installing similar technology to catch vandals armed with wire cutters and paint. (hh)
On the other side of the path, this fence is cut as often as the city mends it.
This section of the Periwinkle Bikepath ends on busy Ninth Avenue.]
hasso- how about finding out when the last time a.p.d. arrested anyone for graffiti. very safe bet that number is zero for 2025. and i’ll bet a cold soda pop on it. a.p.d. simply does not give a damn about graffiti, figure it out people.
Given the brazen criminality going on at the White House, you gotta ask yourself: If the Federal criminal-catching apparatus doesn’t care about the administration’s obvious criminality, then why would the local police show any concern about graffiti on a wall. It’s that old Criming Trickle Down philosophy.
It does my heart good to see your anti PRESIDENT TRUMP obsession eating your very being. Look how desperate you are, interjecting into topics that have nothing to do with your sickness. Keep it up.
You must be one of the few Democrats that miss Dementia Joe.
Indeed. As Donald Trump said, “When you ran out the healthy arms — you ran out of really healthy — they had great arms, but they ran out. It’s called sports. It’s called baseball in particular. And pitchers, I guess you could say, and really particular.”
Donald Trump as he welcomed the Los Angeles Dodgers to the White House.
While camera’s would certainly help in the area. That is clearly not the purpose of the camera’s. The Camera are solely a money generating operation. The council has spoken.
It is sad to see the efforts to clean up an area be disrespected by others. Why they do it is the unanswered question, because it depends on who is doing the graffiti and their purpose of doing it. The cutting the fence seems like the homeless making a path to move from the creek up to the park. The saddest is these paths and walkways are so nice for people who like to walk, ride their bikes, have a place that can give them peace of the chaotic world. So I guess we will need more volunteers that work as hard to clean it up as the others that have a need to mess it up.
Wake up Hasso. Free yourself from a self-imposed imprisonment. Become more progressive.
Graffiti is a form of art and social commentary. A vehicle for expression. A challenge to the existing power structure. There is real value in this form of urban revitalization.
There is diversity, political awareness, and real value in this form of public dialogue.
Progressive enlightenment is here to stay. Adapt and follow, or get out of the way.
Yea..art, and do gang tags fall into that “art”? Because if you want to see whos representing in your neighborhood, just learn to read that “art”. Now that being said, sure bring on the murals.
I rode through about 11 am Sat. and there was a City Parks? truck and “residents” packing up. (for the day?)
Two things to take away from this.
!,) The Albany police dept. is short staffed according to the handful of police I have talked to over the last five years. All of these city employees state that they don’t have enough staff to do the job as they have been mandated to do.
2.) The department seems to first look at the cost to enforce the laws in this state, county, and city. Will the DA prosecute? This has lead to selective enforcement. I have seen many times over the last few years first hand, the police do nothing to stop or prevent an on going violation of the law, because they don’t have the manpower and/or the DA will not pursue charges. Or there may be an on going legal question as do want law is being broken. Sometime they will start to enforce the law and then not follow thought. They fail to act. As long as the City looks at cost first, and pulling in revenue, not at having a well run and staffed police force which enforces the laws on the books, let the courts decide if the law is valid. There has to be equal enforcement across the board. Allowing of Albany to have trouble areas or spots because of poor management is really unacceptable. Bottom line someone is not doing their job in city government.
Over simplified IMO…
Where does the City get the necessary to fulfill your #1?
Without the proper staffing, the City will never be able to achieve your goals in #2
At a bare minimum, Vote YES for the levy!
I will never vote for another levy in this CITY due to the wastefulness of people like YOU. $1.5 million for an empty parking lot?
That was the price of a building, not an empty parking lot. It became a parking lot when it developed that nobody except for linn county wanted the property with the building.
IF the City kept their hands off, it’s $1.5 million they wouldn’t have spent on that spot. More property off the tax rolls.
Some people just dont like it when we have nice things, so they need to be ruined. Walks, boats, walls, parks, trees, river fronts, streets, housing, government- who really cares if these things get destroyed?
Since you ask about cameras, I would like to add my perspective. I spent 26 years working in corrections, a lot of that time as the leader of the Security Technology Team that was responsible for security cameras (in addition to access controls, alarms and every other kind of technology to keep people safely incarcerated in a correctional facility). There is a lot of stuff in this world that I am not qualified to speak to. This is one of the few things that I can claim some expertise in. The first question you have to ask yourself before you go through the surprisingly significant expense of installing a camera is, why? What purpose will it serve? In corrections we had specific criteria to satisfy before we installed a camera. First, will the video it captures serve a purpose? In this case I would suggest it would not. Even if the villains were clearly captured and identified, would that lead to an arrest and prosecution? I would suggest that it would not. If I have clear video from my home security system of a bad actor breaking into my truck by smashing a $400 window to steal the meager contents of ash tray change, APD is not interested in following up. I am not a cop hater. They have to prioritize what they do. They probably have a much better idea about how to allocate their resources than I do. That is a crime with an identifiable victim. Spray painting graffiti is a “victimless” crime, that is not likely to rise to the level of investigation and prosecution. It already kind of fails the first test, but let’s just say for the sake of argument that it still sticks in to so many peoples throats that installing a camera is still an option. What does that entail? We are not talking about some Ring video doorbell stuck on a wall. We need a stable safe place to install the camera. I have never been to the area referenced, but I assume that would require a mast or pole to keep it out of reach of the perpetrators. Planting said mast or pole is not cheap. Then you need power and network access for the camera so you can get the video without climbing the pole. Most modern surveillance are POE ready so you can accomplish both with just a UTP connection back to a suitable network connection. There is none that I know of anywhere close to this location unless a nearby business would be willing to host it. Installing a connection that would be available to the city would be very expensive. You don’t just drag a wire out to the boondocks from the city’s network. There is more involved in that than I care to go into, and it would be irrelevant even if I did. The point is that the expense is much more than the city would be able to justify. Many thousands of dollars that should go to potholes, city council skullduggery, forcing housing of desirable areas and whatever else the usual trolls here will find a more pressing need for funding. You also have to have someone qualified on the other end monitoring the camera. APD does not. Trust me, you need a sworn person that can go to every court appearance, and they don’t have that. Even if everything went perfectly and the city installed a system that allowed them to monitor this area and bring a perfect solution to this area, then what? Everybody and their dog would want the same level of security for their neighborhood. Pandora’s box would be opened. I hate that this is happening just as much as you do. Seriously, the degradation of society concerns me on every level as it should everyone. But in this case, the practicality of a seemingly obvious solution does not pass the feasability test.
Well stated…
With the proliferation of “RING” cameras and such, it’s not THAT difficult. LOWES would likely provide free internet. You have to think like a non PERS employee.
Bill- you should run for city council you have good idea to have public private partnerships for stopping crimes perhaps you can use that skill in other areas like taxes or immigration to name few.
Hasso
Do you know if the Lincoln train will be coming through Albany on the West tour. The train is in Portland today.
I don’t know. UP said the locomotive’s next stops were to be announced, but I have seen no announcements.
Wow! Ray K and Eaton are both well stated. Nice to know that breaking the law is inconvenient to stop unless you can fine people who can pay. Since when is damaging public property a victimless crime? You pay for your truck and we pay for the damage to the city property. I think the city might not like being an “unidentifiable” victim lol.
Sorry, left off the “lol” after well stated. My bad lol.