Water, Water, Water
I am writing to all those people who don’t understand why a high desert could be low on water. I grew up here and most of the town hauled their own water. Most people on the outskirts did not have wells. City water was only in the city which was a small area. This has gotten out of control; houses yards and golf courses are everywhere. These new people are going to run our wells dry. No joke! Think of others and the BLM that has been destroyed to build thousands of homes displacing wildlife and locals. Farmers are begging for their water while the new people in this town are whining about how their yard may look if their neighbors decided not to water their lawn during a severe drought. Maybe we need to remind people all though the snow from the mountains runs to a beautiful river, the river can still only support so many people. Oh and stop for deer—you can’t be in that big of a hurry and if you are you need to slow down and take in the true beauty of this little desert town.
—Aspen Lowe
Commending Sally Russell for Her Honest Resignation
I want to commend Mayor Sally Russell for her honest resignation. Sally stated simply, “I am exhausted,” which is a difficult thing to admit in our culture of hyper-productivity and overwork as a means of defining worth. The pandemic has strained the seams of what is bearable and revealed the harsh truth that, for most families in America, the social safety net is weak or non-existent in the face of hardship. Between the pandemic, political animosity, migration, homelessness, housing prices, food prices, gas prices, the inaccessibility of child care, as well as whatever personal losses and trials this period of American history has forced us to experience alone, we are all exhausted. It’s too much. Thank you, Sally, for bravely announcing what we all feel. I hope you find rest, peace and joy again with your family, and that we all, as a society and community, find a way to better support one another in living a balanced life. It will require massive social and political upheaval across America to provide what families need for basic quality of life, and it begins with recognizing and normalizing that the burden we are currently carrying is just too much to continue to bear.
— Emily Burnham
Bend Needs Chris Piper
Who doesn’t love Bend? We are the fastest growing metro area in Oregon and seventh fastest growing nationwide. And along with that growth comes many challenges like congestion, housing affordability, infrastructure, threat of wildfires, workforce supply, public safety, and homelessness to name a few.
Strong leadership is obviously required to confront these challenges, but sadly lacking in our current City Council. We appear to have elected Councilors with an agenda to focus on the few, at the expense of the many, instead of what is good for ALL. Their motivation may be well-meaning but clearly misguided. Buyer’s remorse anyone? Our current City Council has drifted so far left that even self-proclaimed moderate, (former) Mayor Sally Russell, said she has gone from being perceived as most liberal to now getting labeled as most Conservative.
The leadership Bend needs to meet its challenges is not left or right, it’s in the middle and Chris Piper is the best mayoral candidate for the job. He is a Moderate whose common sense approach to city government will bridge gaps, find middle ground, and bring balance to the City Council. He’s got the experience and importantly he will listen to all of us, and give us direct, honest communication. If we want different outcomes than those we’ve experienced lately, we need new leadership, and Chris Piper will make a difference for the entire community.
—Rick Seibert
Save Bumblebees, Do Not Use Roundup Ready to Use
May 20 was World Bee Day. Many of us are planting more and more pollinator plants to help them. Our city governments have programs to not use bee-killing pesticides. Many of us are aware of the toxic effects of bee-killing insecticides called neonictinoids and won’t use on our property. New research sheds light on another product that has unintended result of killing bumblebees. Most think RoundUp is just an herbicide that doesn’t affect bees or other insects. New research shows differently. RoundUp Ready to Use product has inert ingredients that are responsible for this product killing bumblebees. It is not the glycophosphate itself, but the additional ingredients that cause death. Applications show a shocking 94% mortality rate, and even a 78% mortality rate if used in a 1:3 dilution. Also Roundup Speed Ultra (no glycophosphates) was found to kill 96% of exposed pollinators.
The scientists found that surfectants in the product to be matting the body hairs of bees and thus smothering them. Inerts are not required by EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] to undergo the same level of scrutiny for harm they may cause and the EPA has refused to disclose these ingredients to the public on the label of the pesticide products, despite repeated attempts by many advocacy organizations.
Please do not use this product. Find alternative products to use for weed control including many organic weed control products.
Help save our bees and all the work you are doing to improve pollinator gardens.
—Barbara Rumer
This article appears in Source Weekly May 26, 2022.
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Chris Piper’s campaign will be heavily funded by the builders lobby, the realtors lobby, the Chamber of Commerce PAC, and other special interests who want to purchase government. He may be “moderate” in his personal outlook but he will be beholden to these folks and he will do their bidding. They are the folks who got him appointed in the first place and they financed his failed bid at re-election. While he was on the City Council he promised to meet with progressives in town and never did. Don’t be fooled by his campaign rhetoric.
Mickey Finn. This is absolutely not true. Chris Piper will listen to our community members and I invite you to reach out to him for a coffee with Chris or a pint with Piper and have a discussion with him about your fears, because I feel you are just feeding into fear. I had a coffee/tea with Chris and several other conversations with him. I am independent and lean left and he certainly has my vote. And I do believe developers and builders need to be held accountable here in Bend. Chris may have an (R) behind his name but he is moderate and capable of leaving his party hat at the door to do the work and listen to his community members.
Which is much more than I can say for the current council whom I voted for without vetting. Chris has my vote.
Name any issue in Mr. Seibert’s letter–and the current City Council is on it. The transportation bond by which Bend is transforming its roadways to accommodate neighborhood street safety and multi-modal options has been largely a “liberal” initiative–with notable Republicans such as Moseley and Chudowsky (in the past) in opposition. This council continues the efforts of previous moderate to liberal bodies to work with innovative builders in the creation of thousands of affordable living units for our younger workforce. A priority on its upcoming to-do list will be decreasing the density of short term rentals in our town.
On the most contentious and tragic issue of all–the thousand-plus unhoused individuals in our community–the current City Councilors are actually honoring their campaign promises and accomplishing never-before-seen successes such as partnering to build the life-saving Second Street Shelter and the Central Oregon Veterans Village.
I see Mr. Piper as a beneficiary of former Mayor Eager’s Orwellian-named Bend Humanity Coalition–which is practicing a political form of Naomi Klein’s aptly named Shock Doctrine. It is politicizing what should be a unified community response and is sowing fear, anger, and distrust, instead.
I still can’t get out of my head reports of the disruptive, abusive crowd that showed up recently to confront City Councilor Perkins in Drake Park. She had agreed to meet with a small number of people, but–instead–encountered an ambush. The crowd (according to reports) included Mr. Chris Piper.
I, personally, contacted Mr. Piper’s campaign 2 years ago to ask if he was supporting or if he planned to vote for Trump. No answer was forthcoming.
Bend’s City Councils of old were composed of good old (white) boys reading scripts prepared for them by the local power elite. Anathema to these men were concepts like neighborhood greenways, diversity and equity, workforce housing, Community Climate Action Plan, etc. With, Mr. Piper, I think, we go backwards.
Full disclosure: I am a spouse of a current Bend City Councilor.