Opinion
Posted inOpinion

Setting the Record Straight

This week’s letter of the week comes from local peace activist and Vietnam era veteran Phillip Randall who points out that the campaign rhetoric doesn’t
Mike Bookey

This week's letter of the week comes from local peace activist and Vietnam era veteran Phillip Randall who points out that the campaign rhetoric doesn't always match up with reality. Everyone should be as diligent with their political fact checking as Phil.

Posted inOpinion

Make It Count: Our 2008 city council and local measure endorsements

Mike Bookey

Position ONE: Peter Gramlich
You know what Make It Count: Our 2008 city council and local we like about Peter Gramlich? Dude's a straight shooting, open-minded cool guy who believe it or not…gasp…actually seems to want to work for what's best for the city. This is a guy who, when discussing a proposed ban on fireworks at a council meeting said, "You know, I'm usually the guy who shows up with the fireworks," but didn't let his apparent love of novelty explosives cloud his ability to soberly discuss what became a pretty hot issue amongst the public.
While Gramlich is an incumbent, he's not technically running for reelection, seeing as how he was appointed to the council after John Hummel stepped down, but during his short time he's cemented himself as the council's most reliable progressive and quite possibly its least bullshit-believing member. Although Gramlich works as an architect, he's kept COBA out of his campaign coffers and says that growth is the city's number one issue, telling us, "If we don't do something to stop sprawl, it's going to happen."
The new dad who's married to BendFilm founder Katie Merritt (tack on a few extra cool points for that one) thinks that the city should have a say as to who gets to set up shop in Juniper Ridge (sorry Wal-Mart Superstore enthusiasts) and is fully backing stabilizing Bend's transit woes, even if the transit district ballot measure fails. Gramlich's opponent, Tom Greene, is an equally nice guy, but is running on some vaguely vanilla themes of "fiscal responsibility" and when asked to discuss his second important issue at a recent League of Women Voters forum…he drew a blank.
We realize local elections aren't popularity contests (as evidenced by former Source staffer Scoop Lewis' failed 2006 county commissioner campaign) and it's not Gramlich's semi-star status in town that's got us backing him - it's his reliability. Hell, he even has his complete voting record posted on his website.

Posted inOpinion

Glass Slipper: Project Homeless Connect and Volunteers

Mike Bookey

It's no secret that tough times have settled on Central Oregon.
Foreclosures are up and 401Ks are down. These are anxious days for our
republic and for our town. But times are a little bit tougher for some
and we as a community got a glimpse of that last weekend when more than
1,800 people in need, many of them children, showed up to Deschutes
County Fair Grounds for a helping hand during a one-day outreach event
targeted at Central Oregon's homeless population. That's a roughly
fifty percent increase in individuals seeking assistance from just last
year when 1,200 people attended the inaugural event

The evidence is clear: homeless is a serious problem in our community that is only growing worse.
A
survey conducted earlier this year found that more than 1,700 Central
Oregonians had no permanent housing or were sleeping in cars, the homes
of friends, shared motel rooms and, in the worst cases, outside. More
than a third of the homeless were children.

Posted inOpinion

Rock the Vote, Jailbait Style: Kids under 18 want a change, monster UGB, and “W”

Mike Bookey

Vote for Miley!Anyone remember tearing through the latest Scholastic News during grade
school? Or maybe being forced to read it by a merciless second-grade
teacher with frizzy hair? Either way, every four years, this youthful
beacon of learning and news (yes, the same newspaper where you first
learned that squirrels could, in fact, water ski) puts out a
presidential election poll. And the poll has correctly predicted the
results for the past 40 years. No dimpled chads or Supreme Court
decision controversy necessary. The vote, which has been going on since
1940 has only been wrong twice since its inception - once in 1948 when
outcome went in favor of Dewey, once in 1960 when Nixon clenched the
under 18 vote. So whom did the future leaders of our country choose as
the 44th President of the United States? The poll has Barack Obama
winning 57 percent to John McCain's 37 percent. Scholastic News reports
that almost a quarter of a million kiddos, grades 1-12, voted either
online or via paper ballot. Out of the battleground states only
Colorado, Indiana and Missouri went to McCain while Florida, Iowa,
Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania went to Obama. Interestingly, four
percent of students voted for people like Stephen Colbert, Miley Cyrus
and the Jonas Brothers.

Posted inOpinion

Bread & Circuses for All

This week’s letter of the week offers another view on the current financial crisis and finds an interesting culprit behind the collapse – you and
Mike Bookey

This week's letter of the week offers another view on the current financial crisis and finds an interesting culprit behind the collapse - you and me. We're not sure if we totally agree with the premise.

Posted inOpinion

Stop Face Paint Discrimination

As a regular reader I find your advice and opinions on our surrounding area quite to the point and very sound. For this reason I
The Source Staff

As a regular reader I find your advice and opinions on our surrounding area quite to the point and very sound. For this reason I come to you with a simple story of basic acceptance.

Posted inOpinion

Don’t Fall for Urban Renewal

Deschutes County Commissioners recently voted not to approve the City of Bend’s request to form an urban renewal district to fund development at the Bend
Eric Flowers

Deschutes County Commissioners recently voted not to approve the City of Bend's request to form an urban renewal district to fund development at the Bend Airport. The primary reason was that it would rob other governmental agencies, like the sheriff's department and 911, of much needed revenues.
Unlike the county's considered approach, the present City Council of the City of Bend is now promoting Urban Renewal Districts (URD's) with abandon. They ignore the problems created by URD's. The major problems with URD's are threefold. First, they are authorized to borrow large sums of money, without a vote of the people. Second, they divert taxes from other governmental taxing authorities to be spent solely on city URD projects. And third, if the new taxes in the URD are insufficient to repay the loans, they must then be repaid from the city general fund (property tax) revenues.
The City Council in August 2005 formed the Juniper Ridge URD to include the 500 acres of Juniper Ridge that was in the city and zoned for industrial uses. It also included a second area, of 200 acres west of Highway 97, and not connected to Juniper Ridge. That area includes Lowes, the Wall Mart site and neighboring properties. These were included solely to increase the tax base for the district, as they clearly have no connection to Juniper Ridge and obviously no need for assistance.

Posted inOpinion

The Boot: The Chamber’s Political Platypus

When the first stuffed specimen of a platypus was brought back from Australia in the late 18th century, the scientists who examined it were convinced
Eric Flowers

When the first stuffed specimen of a platypus was brought back from Australia in the late 18th century, the scientists who examined it were convinced it had to be a fake - the creation of a clever taxidermist who sewed a duck's bill onto the body of a small, beaver-like mammal.
Here in Central Oregon in the early 21st century, the board of directors of the Bend Chamber of Commerce has come up with its own peculiar hybrid animal to confound the analytical efforts of political scientists.

Posted inOpinion

Suck On Our McMansion, Valley Snobs!: OPB Comes to town, drawing a blank, and hands off our Boot

You’re not so bad!Upfront is a sucker for a little OPB radio, so when we heard that the newish Portland-based radio program, Think Out Loud,
Eric Flowers

You’re not so bad!Upfront is a sucker for a little OPB radio, so when we heard that the newish Portland-based radio program, Think Out Loud, was going to be taping live at the CTC downtown, we tore ourselves away from YouTube and high-tailed it downtown for a cup of coffee and the company of our progressive buddies.
Think Out Loud is a radio call-in show that discusses the many issues facing the great state of Oregon, and the topic of this live taping was, natch, how Bend is losing its shorts after years of ruling the real estate world. Guest panelists included a clean-shaven, articulate mayor Bruce Abernethy (this small town mayor knew how to use the seventh letter of the alphabet!), the folksy Andy High from COBA, and crowd-favorite Corky Senecal from NeighborImpact , who is not only an advocate for Bend's homeless, but also has one of the best names ever. The OPB crowd, about 80 folks who on the whole aren't fans of hair dye, hair products, haircuts, or contact lenses, clapped most enthusiastically when Ms. Senecal spoke of creating "livable wage jobs" in Central Oregon. (But make sure the City of Bend has a plan intact before we turn Bend into Phoenix again. And somebody better fix those damn potholes!) Overall, the crowd seemed pretty tame, only gasping once when online host Dave Miller tried to stir it up by reading a comment from a Valley listener who characterized Central Oregon residents as just a bunch of greedy right-wing nutters who love our McMansions and ripping up the Badlands on our ATVs. Mr. Abernethy did a good job of pointing out that Bend ranks number four in the entire nation when it comes to green resource living-only to be quickly called out by Think Out Loud host and Valley-lover Emily Harris, who accused Abernethy of perhaps overselling our potential for green collar growth like we did with the housing boom. Get used to it, OPB, when we do something over here-be it overbuild or save the environment-we go big or go home. Suck it! (P.S.- Thanks for free OPB mugs and T-shirts! Loves ya!)

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