Eight things I like about Albany, Oregon

A few years ago, I was thumbing through an Oregon guide book. The entry for Albany began similar to this: "Perhaps no town in Oregon presents such an ugly face to passersby than Albany."
It stung a little to read, but I couldn't argue with the guy. From the freeway, Albany appears to be little more than a stinky paper mill and some trailer parks. The "real" Albany lies about a half mile west of the interstate, and it's a good (not bad, not great) small city. Or maybe it's a town.
We chose to move to Albany from Stayton because my husband was working in Albany at the time. Shortly after we moved, he was downsized, and he hasn't worked in Albany since. We stayed, because there are a lot of things I like about Albany. Here are some of those things:


* Albany is not pretentious. Albany is geographically situated between Corvallis, a college town with a hip, Sunset magazine feel, and Sweet Home, a failed lumber town with a COPS feel . Albany's vibe is right in the middle of "hip, trendy" Corvallis' and "those folks just don't know any better" Sweet Home's. Albany has just enough culture to support a community theater and a few museums, but not so much that residents have to search too hard for a check cashing joint. Our homes are generally modest, but they do have functioning plumbing. Our cars are seven or eight years old, but they run.

* Albany is bike-friendly. There are no hills in Albany. Most of our major arterials have wide bike lanes, and drivers are polite to cyclists. There are 3 kinds of cyclists in Albany, listed here from least to most common: The Serious Cyclist, who probably uses his bike to commute to work in Corvallis; the Family Cyclist, who only rides between May and September; and the DUI cyclist, who got his drivers license revoked and rides year-round out of necessity.

*River Rhythms/ Mondays at Monteith: Albany's two summer concert series. The "bigger" acts play Monteith Riverpark on Thursday evenings, Mondays are for local and regional artists. Twice a week in July and August, Albany residents bring their blankets and picnic dinners to hear live music on the banks of the Willamette. The last show of the season is usually a state fair caliber artist- we've seen the Dixie Chicks, Sugarland, the Oregon Symphony, and Los Lobos. It's a great family atmosphere, there are arts and crafts tables for children. It's all free- but the city does "pass the hat" to help with expenses.

* Albany Parks and Rec. department: There's no excuse for being bored or sedentary in Albany. We have a ton of parks- one in every neighborhood, the aforementioned Monteith River Park and it's opposite-shore sister Bryant Park; Timber-Linn Park, which is home to the Albany Art and Air Festival and the Timber Carnival, a smaller outdoor ampitheater, numerous soccer and softball fields, and a veteran's memorial; as well as a skate park and an outdoor pool/ water park. The parks department takes great care of its facilites. On top of that, they run a top notch community education program. They offer music, exercise, outdoor skills, cooking, dance and home improvement classes, and maintain a busy calendar of trips and tours for Albany's seniors. In addition to putting on River Rythms and Mondays at Monteith, they produce an annual Children's Performing Arts series that features musicians, pupeteers, acrobats and other educational entertainment for kids. I can't say enough about how well I feel my municipal tax dollars are spent.

*The railroad: Albany is sometimes referred to as "Hub City", a nod to its glory days as a major hub in the golden age of rail. Though that age has passed, Albany is still bisected by a major railroad. Waiting 10 minutes for a train to pass is part of life in Albany, and "Sorry, train..." is a perfectly acceptable excuse for being a minute or two late for an appointment. We can hear the whistles in the distance at night, and they remind me of church organs. A couple years ago, our train depot was restored and renovated, and our now famous "Albany sign" was erected.

*No Wal*Mart: (for the time being): There is only one Wal*Mart in all of Linn County, in Lebanon. It's easy for me to stick to my "I'm not shopping at Wal*Mart"principles when I would have to go pretty far out of my way to buy cheap Chinese crap there. I get my cheap Chinese crap at Target and Kmart in Albany.

*Our new library: If Albany has one thing to be smug about, it's the new library. A generous anonymous donor gave millions of dollars to our library so that they could buy and renovate a vacant office building. The remodel is complete, and our new library is spacious, quiet, contemporary and functional.
*Our old library: In the early 1900s, Andrew Carnegie funded the construction of about 2500 libraries in the United States. Albany has one such library, and it is still in operation. There is a fireplace that gets lit during the Christmas season. The library is small, crowded, dark and wonderful.

I don't think Albany will ever be my hometown. It's where I live now, and I like it most of the time. It's my daughter's hometown, the place she will always think of when she tells her "Back in the Olden Days" stories. I think it will make a nice setting.