Bryant Park at 1:25 this afternoon.
It took less than 24 hours for Albany’s Bryant Park to fill with river water once the Willamette and Calapooia rose from Monday night to Tuesday morning, as I discovered on a bike ride about 1:30 this afternoon:
The wintertime flooding of Bryant Park is a yearly event, and this year it came right on cue at winter’s official start.
Rick Barnett, the park maintenance and facilities manager, points out that the high water doesn’t do any damage to the park, but the road is closed of course.
“We probably won’t reopen to traffic until after we do some planned tree work in the park in late January,” Barnett told me. The work involves some trimming on the west side of the park near the road. “We also have a couple of big trees that need some weight taken off of them. ”
So winter has arrived in Bryant Park. Until the park drains again, it will remain mostly the domain of ducks. (hh)
And on cue, responding to Hasso’s hidden message, some Albany politicians and committee appointees will instinctually react with –
“Maybe we should spend millions of urban renewal money to stop the annual flooding and re-possess Bryant Park from the ducks.”
Message received. Venice built walkways and flood barriers, why can’t Albany?
Don’t forget, as editor of the DH, Hasso secretly lobbied councilors to create CARA.
Given he has complained in many blog posts about the annual flooding of Bryant Park (Jan 30, 2020; Jan 17, 2020; May 11, 2013; March 5, 2019; March 3, 2019; Dec 31, 2014; May 11, 2013; Nov 22, 2012)…………is he now advocating for “urban renewal ” and pushing for CARA, part deux?
I’ve been to Venice. It’s nice, but I didn’t like walking on elevated wood walkways. Flood barriers and wood walkways are not worthy of public “investment” to stop nature.
Stop it, Hasso. Everyone knows the river floods Bryant Park every winter. They don’t need to be constantly reminded of the inconvenience it presents to bicyclists. Deal with it.
Troll of the Decade Award. Do you accept “Shadle”?
One wonders, my mind wanders, still we wonder why you care so much about little old “A” town. oh oh please explain. ….waiting…..
My friend, when you get to feeling like this & the need to be negative come by my place & I’ll share a well fortified drink with you.
I hear you, Jim. I had just read an article about $600 payments to some and a $10M payment to Pakistan for a gender program. It activated my nerve endings.
I shouldn’t have taken it out on Hasso. My apologies.
Invite?
Stop it, Gordon. Everyone knows that Hasso supports responsible public-sector spending. They don’t need to be constantly reminded of the inconvenience his imperfect conservatism presents to doctrinaire libertarians. Deal with it.
About the high-water spot on Bryant Way:
! – Is there just a single spot that is always under water from the Calapooia overflowing its bank? How long does it typically cause Bryant Way to be “closed?”
2 – If just one low-elevation spot, how far would $80,000 (deliberately familiar amount;) go to putting in culverts so the road could stay open? Is this feasible and desirable? I don’t know anything about civil engineering.
3 – I was there Tuesday afternoon, saw it from the west, didn’t dare cross it on my bike, went back via Queen Ave. It seemed that there was far more traffic going past Bryant Park than could be explained by the small number of houses, etc, on the way to that point. I saw a truck drive through it — scary and unwise. There must have been many others who did the same. This strikes me as a real problem.
4 – Do I misunderstand something about rural life that makes all the above irrelevant?