As much as things stay the same, sometimes they also change Scrolling through the Opinion page of BendSource.com at the end of the year gave the Editorial Board a bird’s-eye view of the issues important to us and the wider community. It’s a good exercise to help distill down the issues that pop up over […]
Editorial
Posted inOpinion
Interpretation of Tourism Tax Dollars Could Set Precedent
It’s no secret that having an adequate supply of workforce housing is an issue in Central Oregon. When a city such as Bend lacks a sufficient amount of low- to middle-income housing, the economy can suffer. Business owners in the service and hospitality industries can attest: It’s tough to find and retain quality employees when […]
Posted inOpinion
Bag Ban: A Litany of Laughable Arguments Against
As we reported in a web story last week, on Dec. 5, the Bend City Council had its first reading of an ordinance that would see Bend’s consumption of plastic bags cut down significantly. The new ordinance, up for a second reading later this month, would prohibit retailers from handing out plastic bags at the […]
Posted inOpinion
Climate Change Action Should Not Be Partisan—nor Ignored Locally
Editor’s note: The title in the online version of this piece has been amended from the print version, changing “bipartisan” to “partisan.” We regret this oversight in word choice. Ideally, the battle against the effects of climate change would be fought both on the local and national levels. But barring action by the latter, we […]
Posted inOpinion
Don’t Start Naming Councilors Names Yet
As 2018 fades from view, we see 2019 approaching with a host of new leadership. A new Deschutes County Commissioner will join the ranks. An avowed advocate for schools—in the form of a current Bend-La Pine Schools board member—moves to the Oregon House, representing District 54. In District 53, a younger, moderate politician replaces longtime […]
Posted inOpinion
Gratitude Should be an Everyday Thing
“With Native Americans you do not separate the spiritual from the rest of your life. You’re very involved with who you are, where you came from, and where you are going. We have special holidays or festivals, but every day is a day of thanksgiving.” —Gladys Widdiss, elder of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head […]
Posted inOpinion
The View From Paradise
I am no stranger to wide ranging and complete disasters. In the late ’90s I went through a category 5 hurricane that, in a 24-hour span, turned an island I lived on upside down. The devastation was total, but it was also familiar. We grow up with storms and bad weather. Hurricanes are an unruly […]
Posted inOpinion
Don’t let legal businesses get the short shrift
When Oregonians voted in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana, they did so, at least in part, to legitimize an industry that had benefited only the black market for decades. Voters saw that by legalizing the market and allowing producers to grow and sell marijuana out in the open, there would be a new stream of […]
Posted inOpinion
Nonprofits can and should listen to their communities. St. Charles didn’t.
Hospitals in the United States represent a prime example of the conundrum in American values. On the one hand, they’re institutions aimed at serving the greater public good of fostering health across a community. On the other hand, they’re tasked with managing complex budgets and sometimes making tough financial decisions—whether they’re for-profit or nonprofit institutions, […]
Posted inOpinion
No Voting System is Perfect
On Tuesday, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office reported the discovery of a batch of stolen mail on Bureau of Land Management land, including a number of unopened election ballots. For those not in support of vote-by-mail systems, this might seem like ammunition to help their cause. In this case, none of the ballots were opened, […]