Two Dead at Hunnell Campsite
Update, 7/2/21: The Oregon State Medical Examiner confirmed that two people died from the extreme heat wave. Both were male, one was 64 and the other was 60. Two men died on Sunday at the camp on Hunnell Road as Bend surpassed its highest June temperature in recorded history, and on Tuesday its highest temperature…
Source Weekly Update June 24 2021 🎧
A fire in Warm Springs, a chance for Deschutes to collect marijuana taxes and a new parking program in Old Bend in this week’s Source Weekly Update. Source Weekly – Bend, Oregon · Source Weekly Update June 24 2021
Letters to the Editor 6/24/21
Editor’s note: Fires are already burning across the West. Record-setting temperatures are anticipated over the weekend. Festivals are starting to pop up around the region. Seems like a pretty average summer week in Central Oregon, right? As much as we’d rather not see “summer season” become ever known as “smoke season,” this year’s dry conditions…
Parking Pains
Since the start of the year, the City of Bend has been testing a residential parking permit program in a section of the Old Bend neighborhood. The intent behind the pilot program was to give the residents of the neighborhood parking spaces that wouldn’t have to compete with river floaters, downtown shoppers and event crowds.…
Noticias en Español
Una moratoria sobre los nuevos establecimientos de marihuana hizo que el condado de Deschutes no pudiera recabar impuestos sobre la marihuana. Un nuevo proyecto de ley podría cambiar eso. Un proyecto de ley que devolvería los impuestos recabados de la marihuana en el Condado de Deschutes ha sido aprobado por la Cámara de Representantes de…
Where’s That Weed Money?
A bill that would bring back taxes gathered from marijuana sales in Deschutes County has passed the Oregon state house and is awaiting a vote from the Senate. The County voided its ability to collect 10% of the taxes levied on marijuana sales when commissioners placed a moratorium on permitting new marijuana production facilities in August…
Support the Local Journalism Sustainability Act
If you’re reading this sentence, it’s probably because you value local news. So you may be surprised to hear that local news is collapsing around the country. The number of journalists has dropped 60% since 2000, and thousands of communities have either no newspaper or ghost newspapers that provide barely any local coverage. We at…
Making Central Oregon a better place to live
This week, we asked local leaders to weigh in on a simple question: What can we do to make where we live better? The responses range from advocacy for higher education to supporting housing for locals to protecting our wild spaces. Read on for more bright ideas for making Central Oregon a Better Place to…
Ready to Meet Community Challenges, Together
Important issues in Central Oregon such as affordable housing, traffic congestion, employment, public health and natural resource conservation require strategic planning and benefit from a coordinated and inclusive approach. Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council is the region’s council of governments, which works collaboratively with cities, counties and citizens to identify common needs, leverage resources and develop…
Reflect Attitudes and Behaviors Founded on Respect, Tolerance and Inclusivity
In February, the City Club of Central Oregon led a panel discussion on whether Central Oregon was as “welcoming” as many believe. No one mentioned that Bend became a “Welcoming City” in 2017 when it joined Welcoming America, a nationwide alliance of cities. Bend stood out from other cities in our region with a proclamation…
Prioritize Housing Options for People Living and Working in Our Community
As a Bend City Planner, I’m keenly aware of COVID-19’s impacts to increase demand on our housing market that has raised costs for both renters and homebuyers. In the last year, the median home price increased by over 35%. We hear from our friends and neighbors about their rejected housing offer, increased rent or the…
Cultivating Empathy to Make Central Oregon a Better Place to Live
As told to Editor Nicole Vulcan via phone: I think that I live in this naive notion in my head of empathy and understanding of differences, and that doesn’t mean you have to agree, or change someone’s opinion, but actively listening, and what that concept in itself means, and what it looks like—just to have a…
Using Technology to Further Expand Access to Education for Urban and Rural Communities
There’s no doubt that COVID-19 has created innumerable challenges, especially in education. However, these struggles have also offered institutions like Central Oregon Community College opportunities to innovate and expand access to education. If you visit COCC’s branch campuses in Redmond, Madras and Prineville, you’ll see this pandemic-spurred transformation in action. One of COCC’s primary goals…
Grow into a Community Where We’ve Bridged the Gap Between “Us” and “Them”
Where are you from? But where are you really from? We are perpetual foreigners in our own community. Our skin, eyes, and hair are always just enough out of place that Central Oregon could never be our home no matter how long we have been here. Long story short, we came together because we couldn’t…
Make Space for All People to Be Themselves in Our Outdoor Spaces
Recreating outdoors in Central Oregon is a part of our way of life. No matter who you are, what you look like, who you love or what you believe, there are trails, rivers and forests that belong to you. Isn’t it amazing that we all have the opportunity to enjoy so much natural beauty? I think…
The “Delta” in Higher Education
Throughout my career I’ve seen how a college degree gives a graduate the kind of agency over a future that was otherwise uncertain. In mathematics, “delta” represents a change in some quantity. For higher education, a measure of student success is the delta from the time a student enters college to the time they graduate…
Better Planning Delivers More Transportation Options
Remember how nice it was when there were fewer cars on the road? As restrictions are lifted and new residents and visitors arrive in Bend, we are poised to experience the opposite: a tsunami of traffic, fumes and frustration as we flood our streets with cars. The best way to address this is to get…
Protecting Our Natural Environment is One of the Most Important Things We Can Do
I am one of many people who believe the natural environment and access to public lands are some of Central Oregon’s greatest assets, and protecting our natural environment is one of the most important things we can do to ensure our region remains this amazing place to live for generations to come. We must address the…
Harness a Little Bit of Your Stoke to Make Central Oregon a Better Place to Live
Making. /’mkiNG/ (noun): The act of causing or doing. Do you enjoy the vast expanse of public lands just beyond the edge of town? Whether your roots extend back generations or you are part of the pandemic-driven Zoom Town migration, living within minutes of such incredible public lands brings a rich quality of life to…
Work to Keep Central Oregon an Incredible Place to Live
When asked to write about making Central Oregon a better place to live, I pushed back. Central Oregon is an amazing place to live. The characteristics which drew me here more than a decade and a half ago remain. We don’t need to make this place a better place to live; we must work to…
Opportunities for Elevating Our Collective Aesthetic IQ are on the Horizon
Creativity patched many of us through the pandemic. If we were among those who accomplished nothing, we were, quite possibly, gestating ideas. Meanwhile, the thrum of maker and artisan industry continued on. Our very vibrant maker and performer scene here is in no danger of diminishing any time soon, as long as there are places…
Climate Change Puts Regions like Ours in Jeopardy, Impacting All of Us
I’ve been proud to call Bend home for nearly two decades, and my wife and I are thrilled to be raising our daughter here. In Bend, we know that clean air, water and land are more than a perk of living in this magnificent part of Oregon. They’re a bedrock of our local economy and…
Lettuce, Before and After Solstice
The summer solstice is in the rear-view mirror. Even though the hottest days are before us, the longest days are past. If you haven’t planted your tomatoes or melons yet, you might not bother. The plants will grow like steroid abusers, but there isn’t time for the fruit to ripen. Or maybe you’ll get one…
Beer for the Mountains, Rivers, Lakes and Forests
Mountains, rivers, lakes and forests have long been tools to promote beer brands. Now beer is being used to promote them. Eight Oregon breweries including Bend’s own Crux Fermentation Project have each created beers called The Oregon I Am in support of the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts. A land trust is a nonprofit organization…
The Third Act
COVID leveled the playing field when it came to Fear of Missing Out. After all, no one was having soirees or headed out on a camping trip or meeting at a brewery without you. No one was going to the symphony or theater or floating the river without you. During COVID there was nothing to…
Sample the Goods
Barbecue is kind of a big deal. Whether it’s Texas-style brisket or Korean-style galbi, most cultures have some type of tradition of cooking meat over an open fire—and they all spell deliciousness. All that deliciousness comes together this weekend for the Central Oregon BBQ Brews & Whiskey Festival—a new event debuting at the Deschutes County…
Celebrate & Support Oregon’s Indigenous Heritage
Just an hour north of Bend lies a striking structure that houses The Museum at Warm Springs. The museum is a cultural hub that has been preserving and sharing the traditions of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs since 1993. The annual membership drive is an effort to raise awareness about its mission and to…
A Q&A with Left Vessel
“Calming” and “thoughtful” are two of the first words that come to mind when I listen to the new Left Vessel album. It runs organically like a list of thoughts and feelings Nick Byron Campbell (Faded Rituals, Arizona) needed to get off of his chest. But the Bend-based musician doesn’t alienate others in his songwriting,…
Water Conservation at Home
The vast open skies and long, beautiful days of playing in the sunshine are top reasons many live in and simply love Central Oregon. Everyone has heard that Bend has 300 days of sunshine a year—maybe a slight exaggeration, but not far from the truth. The Bend Visitor Center says that, on average, Bend has…
Free Will Astrology—Week of June 24
CANCER (June 21-July 22): “I was so flooded with yearning I thought it would drown me,” wrote Cancerian author Denis Johnson. I don’t expect that will be a problem for you anytime soon. You’re not in danger of getting swept away by a tsunami of insatiable desire. However, you may get caught in a current…
Personal Journals
“I don’t know about you guys, but, um, you know, I’ve been thinking recently that…that you know, maybe, um, allowing giant digital media corporations to exploit the neurochemical drama of our children for profit …you know, maybe that was, uh…a bad call by us. Maybe…maybe the…the flattening of the entire subjective human experience into a…lifeless exchange…
Platonic Bomb & Hex And The City
Platonic Bomb A guy I know grates on me because he only has female friends. He apparently tried to get involved with each of them at some point but got rejected. Why doesn’t he find male friends instead of preying on women (under the guise of friendship) who probably trust him not to hit on…
Riding for the Environment
Started in 2012 by James Nicol, SnoPlanks has since become a fixture of the extreme sports world in Bend and beyond, with its handmade skateboards and snowboards. So it makes sense that its latest collab is with legendary surfer Gerry Lopez, aka Mr. Pipeline. The new line of boards is called Street Surfer. Designed by…
