Letters to the Editor

RE: Affordable Housing. Take Me Home, 9/7 It’s a complicated issue but let’s also talk about Short Term Rental Permits if you want to discuss affordability. A reason for lack of affordability falls on the city for allowing people to acquire short term rental permits, aka STR’s. It is a big business for Airbnb and […]

Global Warming From the “Built Environment” After reading an article about Global Warming in “The New York Times,” I thought I would send some figures reported in the article concerning environmental emissions. As Bend is one of the top four fastest-growing cities in the U.S., we are likely one of the top four causes of […]

A Tree Removal and Bright Light City? I’m curious, how can the City of Bend think we could even begin to call ourselves a tree city. For at least the last six years, I’ve seen nothing but the clearing of trees by our lovely developers. How have we let this happen? Bend is well on […]

St. Charles What kind of regional medical facility and the only hospital system in our tri-county area rejects taking care of 26,000 of our most at-risk residents? St. Charles recently complained about the extra time it takes to process Medicare Advantage claims and how sometimes these claims are rejected and that some patients have to […]

Adair’s Reversal On July 26, it seemed Central Oregon had a big win on its hands as the County Commissioners voted to approve Central Oregon LandWatch’s proposal to limit the kind of luxury destination resort development that has so adversely impacted the region. But on August 9, Deschutes County Commissioner Patti Adair singlehandedly triggered a […]

ADAIR FLIP-FLOPPED AGAIN; IT’S TIME FOR A RECALL On Thursday, Deschutes County Commissioner Patti Adair “flip-flopped” on her July 26th vote to stop new destination resorts in Deschutes County. This isn’t her 1st flip-flop; she also changed her view on a city-approved managed campsite for the south end of Bend. Regarding the managed campsite, during […]

Inflation Reduction Act Throughout U.S. history, we’ve joined across races and classes to ensure our loved ones have what they need to thrive. Unfortunately, Big Pharma prioritizes profits over everyday people. Between 2019 and 2022, many drug companies registered their largest profits in history. To partially counteract this, the Biden Administration passed legislation to make […]

Ignoring The Homeless Will Have Consequences in the Future I attended a county commissioners discussion on homelessness, and one would think that after all this time they would get it. It’s clear that many are oblivious and believe that homelessness is a choice. They feel the homeless don’t deserve help or empathy. It frustrates me […]

Guest Opinion: Stop the Hate Were you aware that July is disability awareness month? Do you have any awareness of what disabled people go through to survive and navigate this world? A disabled person’s risk of becoming homeless is much higher than the able-bodied. Our system allows medical bills to ruin people. My son has […]

Guest Opinion: We Can All Support the River To our community: We have entered that time of year when our rivers are as busy as our sidewalks, when we are reminded of the freedom we enjoy when we splash in cool waters and the privilege we have to play all day in our lakes, rivers […]