Dredging Mirror Pond won’t come cheap. Which means it might not come at all. Today, during the Mirror Pond Management Board Meeting, we learned there’s 380,000 cubic yards of silt (affectionately referred to as “goo” or “warm Jell-O”) in the bottom of the man-made lake near downtown Bend. At $30-$50 per yard of silt removed […]
James Williams
Posted inNews
Sherpas vs. Climbers: World’s Highest Altitude Brawl
Jon Griffith Ever since the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster, chronicled in Jon Krakauer’s “Into Thin Air,” it’s become clear that the world’s highest mountain needs a break. Too many people on the same route has led to excessive trash, dangerous climbing conditions and a general disrespect of local Sherpa culture, experts say. But lately Everest […]
Posted inNews
For Those About to Rock
Music at the Century Center is back. For now.
Last August Dave Hill called off the Bend Roots Revival, a local music festival scheduled for September. It had been a difficult summer for Hill, the owner of the Century Center. The gray-haired, goatee-sporting businessman had listened to complaints from residential neighbors and, in August, had a run-in with Nosler, a neighboring bullet manufacturer. Nosler appealed […]
Posted inOutside
Diving For Cantaloupe
Korean War orphan to Mt. Bachelor king
John Gannon is a slight man, thin and a little bowlegged. The front and sides of his thick dark hair are streaked with grey, but the Korean's relatively creaseless face and quick smile make him appear much younger than his claimed 64 years. “Claimed,” because Gannon—whose journey from war-torn Korea to the United States is […]
Posted inNews
Bite of Bend Music Lineup
Music, food, drinks, sunshine—what’s not to like? The eleventh annual Bite of Bend food festival is back, June 29 and 30—but it involves much more than delicious small plates and top-flight chefs. There’s a 5K Beer Run, cocktail competition, Farm-to-Fork food events and an impressive lineup of live music. See y’all there. Saturday11am — Boxcar […]
Posted inNews
RIP Richie Havens
The man whose career took off after providing the opening act at Woodstock, has died. Richie Havens, aged 72, had a heart attack at his home today, but he’ll be remembered for this amazing moment of American musical history: Havens was the first on at Woodstock and, after he ran out of songs (and stalling […]
Posted inNews
Dam Near Done
The Newport Avenue dam is going away; it’s just a matter of when
The Newport Avenue dam is at the end of its life cycle. Everyone knows it—even PacifiCorp, the utility company that owns the 102-year-old dam, which creates the pond at Drake Park near downtown Bend. What many don’t know, however, is that the dam cannot remain if it ceases to function as a hydroelectric facility. Those […]
Posted inSpecial Issues & Guides
Use All You Want
When it comes to water rates, Bend has it wrong
Conserving water in the High Desert should be a no-brainer. But the problem is, according to local conservationists, the city’s water-billing strategy is severely flawed. Rather than rewarding conservation by charging for per-gallon use, ratepayers are charged a monthly flat fee—no matter how much (or little) they use. The result is that water conservers are […]
Posted inNews
Read This 2013 Pulitzer Prize Winner
This year’s Pulitzer Prize winners were announced earlier this week and I was glad to see New York Times writer John Branch listed for his feature piece, “Snow Fall, The avalanche at Tunnel Creek.” It’s a moving, in depth analysis of the “sidecountry” avalanche that killed three of the 16 experienced freeskiers who were spending […]
Posted inNews
Outta the Airstream and Into a Building: Spork to open in May
And Cuppa Yo is right next door. Good news, Spork fans: The owners of the popular global-street-food-serving Airstream trailer are moving their operation inside a vacant storefront on Newport Avenue, next door to Cuppa Yo. Co-owner Erica Reilly hopes to be up and running by late May. Reilly, along with co-owner and chef Jeff Hunt, […]
