Eric Flowers

editor@tsweekly.com
Posted inOpinion

Don’t Pre-Judge Incoming Councilors

As a regular reader of The Weekly Source, (sic) I was disappointed with the editor’s suggestion (November 20, 2008) that Central Oregon Builder’s Association (COBA)
Eric Flowers

As a regular reader of The Weekly Source, (sic) I was disappointed with the editor's suggestion (November 20, 2008) that Central Oregon Builder's Association (COBA) and Central Oregon Association of Realtors (COAR) essentially bought the election of the Bend City Council and are therefore expecting payback. While the true reasons voters voted as they did may never be factually known, the major reason may have been the incumbent councilors were incredibly poor stewards of public money.
During the past eight years our city population increased by 55%. During this time the city council increased general fund expenditures 110%, and increased the general fund debt 280%! The city council also authorized borrowing by their newly created urban renewal districts, which would have AGAIN more than doubled the general fund debt, without the vote of the people. Just last spring Mayor Abernethy noted that the council had added or beefed up 23 different programs and Councilor Friedman said he'd known about some of the underlying problems with the city's budget for at least a year. While it seems reasonable, he shared his concern with other councilors, corrective action was not taken.
The most highly visible financial failures of the pre-election city council are:

Posted inOpinion

Keep Up the Good Work, Jim

Eric Flowers

Hi Mr. Anderson,
Recently during the ideal weather period of mid October I had a visit from long time friends who were actually college buddies and later biology teachers like myself. As we took advantage of the beautiful waterfalls and scenery of the area, we talked about how much of today's teaching of the subject seems to emphasize the microscopic, even the molecular nature of the plant/animal world much to the neglect of the total organisms.
With that comment in mind I shared some of your recent articles from The Source, and a thought occurred to all of us.

Posted inOpinion

Congratulations, Jodie – and let’s set the record straight.

As I have already told Jodie Barram, I am happy for her and I think she will do a good job in filling Bill Friedman’s
Eric Flowers

As I have already told Jodie Barram, I am happy for her and I think she will do a good job in filling Bill Friedman's council position. I have worked on the Bend Planning Commission with Jodie for many years, and have found that she takes a cautious and reasoned approach to her decisions. I look forward to working with her in some capacity with the City in the future.

However, I want to address some "misrepresentations" of my positions in Eric Flowers' article "One Way or Another: After losing election, Barram wins council appointment." First, while I do disagree with the current vision of Juniper Ridge, I have never said that I want to dismantle the City's Juniper Ridge Economic Development Plan. I believe there should be more industrial land and less research park. It will be the industrial land that will help create family wage jobs for all segments of the population. I have stated publicly that it is time to let the Juniper Ridge Management Committee do its task of guiding the future of Juniper Ridge. I wouldn't stand in the way of that process.

Posted inNews

Back To the Drawing Board: Homes for acres deal at Skyline hits the wall

Eric Flowers

A proposed deal that has divided conservationists about the best way to
preserve a large chunk of undeveloped forest land just west of Bend has
been shelved by the property owner as it weighs its options.

Fidelity
National Timber Investments, which owns the 33,000-acre tree farm known
as Skyline Forest had planned to ask the Oregon legislature to sign off
on an unprecedented plan that would have allowed the company to
essentially donate most of the forest to the Deschutes Basin Land Trust
in exchange for permission to build several thousand homes on the
remaining acres between Bend and Sisters. But at this point, the
company has essentially pulled the plug on the proposal because of
state planning hurdles and a lack of local support for the deal.

Posted inOpinion

A Noxious Shade of Green Energy

Everybody - well, almost - loves green energy. It holds the promise of cutting our reliance on imported oil, making our environment cleaner and reducing
Eric Flowers

Everybody - well, almost - loves green energy. It holds the promise of cutting our reliance on imported oil, making our environment cleaner and reducing global warming.
But all colors of green are not the same, and a wind energy project being pushed in southeastern Oregon near Steens Mountain is a rather noxious shade.
Actually, to be technical, it's three wind energy projects, not one. Under state law, any project that will generate 105 megawatts of power or more has to be reviewed by the state Energy Facility Siting Committee. So the developers of the Steens project, a Washington-based outfit called Columbia Energy Partners, have set up three dummy corporations and are presenting proposals for three separate "wind farms," each producing 104 megawatts.

Posted inOpinion

White House Washing: X-mas decorations, recession bulletins, and more

Have a white washed ChristmasMuch to the chagrin of Blue America, the whole impeach Bush thing never got beyond a bumper sticker slogan. But there
Eric Flowers

Have a white washed ChristmasMuch to the chagrin of Blue America, the whole impeach Bush thing never got beyond a bumper sticker slogan. But there are still apparently some hard feelings as evidenced by the decision this week to censor one of the decorations submitted by Congress for the White House Christmas Tree.
Seattle area artist Deborah Lawrence found out earlier this week that her congressionally commissioned Christmas bulb won't be hanging this year on the Bush Christmas tree. Lawrence was one of dozens of artists tapped by Congress to submit decorations for the tree. She chose to use her submission as a tribute to her local Congressman, Rep. Jim McDermott, a left-leaning statesman who had pushed for an impeachment of Bush. Lawrence's submission, a nine-inch bulb covered in swirling red and white strips with text alluding to McDermott's support for Bush's impeachment also referenced Washington's 1919 labor strike and the state's suffrage movement. But it's the impeachment references that caught the attention of the public after McDermott started telling her friends about the political message on her submission, which was initially accepted by the White House.

Posted inNews

One Way or Another: After losing election, Barram wins council appointment

Eric Flowers

In what may be one of its last official actions, the lame duck city
council named a fellow "progressive" to fill a vacancy created when
councilor and former Mayor Bill Friedman died earlier this month after
complications from back surgery.

On a "party line" vote councilors
took Jodie Barram over Don Leonard and Robin Vora. The three candidates
had been culled from a list of more than a dozen applicants for the
open spot. It's one of five positions that has been or will have to be
filled between November and January through election or appointment as
part of an unprecedented turnover on the city council.

Posted inNews

A One-Way Trip?: Bend’s transit supporters weigh next move in the face of cuts

Eric Flowers

Chase Hovan is the kind of bus rider who drives Annis Henson crazy.
An 18-year old COCC student who is learning to play piano and studying music production, Hovan uses the bus to get to and from his classes almost everyday. Standing at a bus stop outside the local Ace Hardware store on Third Street, Hovan has a snowboarder-style hoodie pulled up against the morning chill. A shock of red hair sticks out from underneath his ball cap; he could probably pass for boarding star Shaun White - or at least as his brother.
Asked what he thought of the fledgling bus system, Hovan was quick to speak for its necessity.
"It's awesome," he said. "I don't know what I would do if I didn't have it."
But when asked if he voted to preserve the bus with a local property tax increase just a few weeks ago, Hovan conceded that he had not.

Posted inCulture

Life Goes On: Keeping it positive with Mike Leigh

Hot for teacher?The title Happy Go Lucky is kind of misleading. It implies a cutesy-fresh-feeling, sunshine approach to life, but it’s far from cute-it’s about
Eric Flowers

Hot for teacher?The title Happy Go Lucky is kind of misleading. It implies a cutesy-fresh-feeling, sunshine approach to life, but it's far from cute-it's about real problems for real people and the ability to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Central character Poppy (Sally Hawkins) maintains a positive outlook throughout the movie. Her bike is stolen near the beginning and her only lament is that she didn't get to say goodbye. Poppy's a 30ish, single, North London primary school teacher whose passion is going to pubs and bouncing on a trampoline. Poppy's a wiseacre, unable to stop joking and always putting a spin of hope and optimistic sarcasm on everything. It's a struggle for her to take things seriously, though her caring demeanor is never nauseatingly sweet. She drinks, hangs out, is accosted by life and shrugs it off as "things just happen, move on and have fun with life." She's almost nervously out of sync with the rest of the world. After the bike incident she decides to learn to drive. We then follow Poppy and the various people she encounters, focusing more on life lessons than getting all hung up in plot.

Posted inFood & Drink

Quick Bites: Tough Times: Restaurant industry continues its slide

It’s been a brutal year for the restaurant industry. Nationwide, restaurants and bars shed more than 11,000 jobs in October as the country marched deeper
Eric Flowers

It’s been a brutal year for the restaurant industry. Nationwide, restaurants and bars shed more than 11,000 jobs in October as the country marched deeper into recession.
Last month’s dismal numbers represented the fourth straight month of job cuts for the restaurant industry – something that hasn’t happened in 45 years, according to the National Restaurant Association. While consumers have been cutting back on eating out as their discretionary income dries up, the industry has been able to mask some of the slumping performance through price increases, but even that couldn’t hold a drop in sales revenue last month – the first backslide that the industry has seen in 17 years, according to the restaurant association.

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