Source Weekly Update Podcast 2/28/20
In this week’s podcast: Is the City of Bend getting all the taxes it’s due from short-term rental properties? Plus, the never-ending saga around dredging Mirror Pond…
No Confirmed Coronavirus Cases in Oregon… Yet
Oregon doesn’t yet have any confirmed cases of the COVID-19 strain of coronavirus… but in case you want to keep up on the latest, the Oregon Health Authority is making it easier to track. The Oregon Health Authority announced Monday that it will update its monitoring of COVID-19 cases (and potential cases) every Tuesday, through its…
New Restaurant, Same Head Chef
When Bad Wolf Bakery and Bistro shut its doors in September, head chef Spencer Montoya found himself displaced. He moved on to a pizza parlor, but continued looking for an innovative restaurant that would allow him the opportunity to express himself. Fortunately for Montoya, he soon caught wind of a new restaurant opening—in the very…
Healing and Loving the Land
Several years ago, while conducting some fence lizard business at the Deschutes Land Trust’s Metolius Preserve, I ran into Amanda Egertson, the land trust’s stewardship director. She was conducting a restoration project on the preserve with a vigor I found remarkable—planting grass over and over and over, day after day. The Metolius Preserve was once…
Corona Cruise
Editor’s note: This story was updated with new information Feb. 20. When Eugene-based comedian Frank King left for his last series of paid performances aboard the MS Westerdam of the Holland America Line, he had no way of predicting the series of events that would soon unfold. Recent, worldwide panic regarding the coronavirus outbreak has…
The Artist Behind the Mural
Kaycee Anseth has worked as an artist in Bend since she moved to the city 15 years ago. In that time, she’s contributed her time and talent to the city’s growing artistic community: The Franklin Avenue underpass mural, located in the Bend Central District, is just one of many places to see her work. Dozens…
Get It Right with Cap and Invest
Big problems require big moves. We have no doubt that legislative action to help curb Oregon’s greenhouse gas emissions is the right thing to do—and that the time is now to take action. But as the Oregon Legislative Assembly slides into its third week in a short session that lasts just five weeks, we have…
Black History, Via Comedy
According to a 2019 United States Census Bureau report, Bend’s racial composition is 92.7% white. African Americans make up 0.6% of the city’s population. As it turns out, there may be valid reasons behind the long-time lack of racial diversity. The last of three Oregon black exclusion laws was repealed in 1926; these laws were…
Corn Stars
While cornhole might seem like a low-commitment game to drunkenly play on the lawn, for some, it’s a way of life. Renee Yocum moved to Bend from Lake Oswego with her husband Chris in 2018. Soon, they were playing cornhole daily at Avid Cider Co. “I enjoyed the game so much that I slowly got…
Book Chapel
Walking into Bend’s newest bookstore, Agia Sophia, the first sound I hear are those of relaxing, ancient Slavonic chants. An immediate feeling of calmness pervades me as a friendly, loquacious priest, fully garbed in a cassock, greets me. Within minutes Father Damian Kuolt, the cheerful owner, offers me a cup of coffee and a slice…
'Parasite' is Just the Beginning
As I’m sure anyone who pays much attention to film has probably noticed, “Parasite,” the South Korean film from master filmmaker Bong Joon-ho, swept the 2020 Oscars by winning the four top awards: Best International Film, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, while making history as the first-ever foreign Best Picture winner. That’s not including…
Big Town, Small City
Today the industrial neighborhoods east of the train tracks, just four or five blocks from downtown Bend, are largely run down and neglected. Few people live there, and most of the buildings were built in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, with function, not aesthetics, in mind. But now the City, environmental groups, developers and citizen…
A Quarter-Million Legal Weed Jobs
Leafly released its fourth annual Cannabis Jobs Report last month, and despite the troubling news of hundreds of recent industry layoffs, cannabis remains a fast-track growth industry. The numbers and industry expansion are impressive, but are still just a fraction of what’s possible when cannabis is eventually made legal. For now, the combined regulated medical…
Killin’ Pain
Want to know what you’re going to hear if you go catch Tommy Castro and the Painkillers next week at The Belfry? Check out “Killin’ It Live,” the latest album from the multiple Blues Music Award winner and his band. “It’s a little bit of a calling card in a way—’hey, this is the show,…
“We Don’t Always Just Look Ridiculous”
“I’m coming in hot,” said Alex Petropulos, drummer for Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, as we hopped on the phone for our interview. It was a sh*tty Valentine’s Day morning in San Francisco. The band woke up and found all of their ski gear stolen (a Bendite’s worst nightmare). Petropulos actually stumbled upon a group of…
Free Will Astrology—Week of February 20
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In 1908, British playwright W. Somerset Maugham reached the height of success. Four of his plays were being performed concurrently in four different London theaters. If you were ever in your life going to achieve anything near this level of overflowing popularity or attention, I suspect it would be this year.…
Due Diligence: The Homework of Buying a House
Fourteen years ago, I was riding around a northwest Bend neighborhood with my mother, looking at homes and the general area. We found ourselves near the local high school as students came out and parents were pulling in for pickup. My mother pulled to the side of the road and we sat for a few…
Flee Infestation & Mop! In The Name Of Love
Flee Infestation Disturbingly, I’ve had two close female friends “ghost” me in five months. I’ve known each for 15 years. (They don’t know each other, and one lives out of state.) I’ve tried repeatedly to contact each, asking “Did I do anything to hurt or offend you?” No response. I just want the truth so…
Happenings for Local Artists
Last week brought some great news for local artist Greg Amanti, who won the grand prize award in the New York Center for Photographic Art’s Juried show, “Water.” Amanti’s composition, “Italian Conversation,” was selected by juror and photographer Mark Sink—well known for his images of Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and more. It’s not a surprise…
Chow on the Cheap
For a city of fewer than 100,000 people, Bend has a plethora of food options. But finding lunch options that don’t require dinner-price payouts? A bit harder to come by. Since we count ourselves among the hard-working, budget conscious downtown workforce that doesn’t always want to resort to cold sammies compiled in a community kitchen,…
The Spirit of Oregon Beer
This Saturday marks the 12th annual iteration of the statewide brewery open house, Zwickelmania. Organized by the Oregon Brewers Guild, Zwickelmania gives beer lovers an intimate peek behind the curtain and into the cellars of breweries around the state. This year, the Oregon Brewers Guild once again organized a state-wide collaboration beer for the occasion.…
Letters to the Editor
Editor’s note: It’s no secret that the word “growth” has been, and continues to be, the word that defines Central Oregon most succinctly. It plays out in our coverage this week in a few ways; in Laurel Brauns’ feature story that checks in on progress within Bend’s Central District and Core Area, for one. It’s…
