Takeout Guide: Central Oregon Pickup & Delivery
The Source Weekly’s Takeout Guide is our bi-annual guide to bars and restaurants in Central Oregon and what they offer for takeout and delivery. Look for the “2022 Takeout” section for each business, showing what their hours are and where you can get delivery options (ie, Doordash, Uber Eats, etc.) ⇓⇓ Click the image to see…
“Help Is On The Way”
The largest economic aid package in American history is expected to pass within days, following compromises from both sides of the aisle in Washington, D.C. According to Oregon U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley—who hosted a virtual press conference from Washington, D.C. with Oregon reporters this afternoon—Oregon will receive up to $1.5 billion in stabilization funds, of…
Asian in the Age of Coronavirus
As COVID-19 continues to affect Central Oregon, we’re experiencing a number of growing struggles, including shortages in toilet paper, masks, test kits, Lysol and other supplies. Also add rice to that list. Rice is increasingly becoming unavailable in grocery stores all around Central Oregon, and is even sold out on online Asian grocery stores. Since…
Adapting to the New Normal
Dear Friends of the Source Weekly, These past couple of weeks have proved to be incredibly difficult for everyone as we all try to make sense of the new restrictions on our former way of life. The disruption to the service industry, tourism, entertainment, events, retail and other businesses happened so quickly that we’ve all…
Deschutes National Forest Closes Campgrounds
The latest in the long list of closures around Oregon: campgrounds in the Deschutes National Forest. The closures are effective today, March 25. Forest supervisors announced the closures this morning, in response to Gov. Kate Brown’s “Stay Home Stay Safe” order issued Monday. All campgrounds in the forest will be closed through May 8, along…
Point of No Return
Local officials and hospital administrators say Central Oregon is at a turning point. People in the community can either obey orders and stay put, or patients suffering with severe symptoms of COVID-19 will soon overwhelm local hospitals. During a virtual press conference today with nearly 50 attendees, local officials—joined by St. Charles Health System administrators—urged…
Source Material
It’s safe to say that March has been pretty f*cked up from a lot of standpoints. But as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to go on, it’s important to remember that we will get through this no matter how uncomfortable things may get. Music has always been something to help people get through different moments of…
Bendite Lawnae Hunter nominated for ‘Stroke Hero’ Award
Last month, Central Oregonian Lawnae Hunter was named the Lifetime Achievement Award winner in the Women of the Year contest we held with the Bend Chamber. This month, Hunter is among eight finalists for another big award: The American Heart Association’s “Stroke Hero” award. The award, to be announced April 20, is centering around, “Honoring…
Stay Home, Save Lives Order Hits Central Oregon
On the heels of Gov. Kate Brown’s “Stay Home, Save Lives” order issued Monday morning, the Bend Police Department and other agencies are beginning to explain to people how it all works. Brown’s order, an attempt to further restrict activity and “flatten the curve” in the spread of COVID-19, included the forced closure of more…
New Order Shuts Down Oregon Retail, Other Businesses
In an anticipated move, Gov. Kate Brown has ordered businesses, including retail to close. Here’s the governor’s press release, issued at 10:30 Monday: “Governor Kate Brown today issued Executive Order 20-12, directing everyone in Oregon to stay at home to the maximum extent possible and adding to the list of businesses that will be temporarily…
Masking Together
This past Tuesday, the Facebook group Central Oregon Emergency Mask Makers literally didn’t exist. As of this writing, on Sunday, it had 1,041 members, after being created just Wednesday. The group’s sole goal: To get more masks, visors and other protective equipment into the hands of people who need it—but first and foremost, to do…
Things are Getting Weird
A handful of seemingly unrelated incidents in Central Oregon this weekend have a connecting thread: They’re all things that local law enforcement has to deal with, even while they attempt to maintain the maximum social distancing possible. “As the assault transitioned to outside the vehicle Mastalir began to slam the driver’s head off of the asphalt…
Living in a Gamer’s Paradise
Holing up in your apartment and not going out with friends might sound like a nightmare for some. But for video gamers? They were born for this. Starting a new video game is like diving into a good book. You’re submerged into a new world and can spend hours on end enjoying the time with…
Hotspots for Kids in Bend-La Pine Schools
With schools closed at least through April 28 statewide due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students have spent the last week in something of a “emergency weather closure” mode, as it pertains to staying home and doing no school work. With spring break scheduled for next week, that pattern continues for another week. But starting the…
Nowhere To Go
For some homeless people in Bend, adhering to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s directive to stay 6 feet away from other people may be impossible. They sleep in tight quarters in shelters or may interact frequently with others at outdoor tent encampments. They cannot “stay home” if they are experiencing symptoms. A vast…
A Pivot to Telemedicine
Adaptability in the age of COVID-19 is coming in the way of telemedicine. Over the past several weeks, Oregon leaders have announced numerous, increasingly stringent orders around social distancing to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Earlier this month, Gov. Kate Brown banned groups over 250. She narrowed that this week, banning groups of over…
A Plea for PPE
As a global pandemic rages on, its myriad effects—beyond more cases of COVID-19—are being felt right here at home. One of those effects: The global shortage of personal protective equipment used by health care workers, first responders and more. Here in Central Oregon, it has the local hospital system very concerned. Thursday evening, St. Charles…
Oregon State Parks and Wildlife Areas Announce Camping Closures
Hold off on those upcoming camping plans. This morning, Oregon Parks and Recreation, the Department of Forestry and Department of Fish and Wildlife came together to announce temporary closures for camping in state parks, forests and wildlife areas. Here’s what these temporary closures will look like from each organization. Parks and Recreation For current guests…
A Push to Keep M&J Tavern Locally Owned
Even before the spread of coronavirus in the state of Oregon, there was always a push to make sure we were supporting locally in Central Oregon. Now times have gotten even tougher for local businesses. On March 9, CJ Hitchcock of the M&J Tavern posted a GoFundMe campaign with a very honest message of what…
At Least We Can Still…
Editor’s note: As we publish this, it comes with a caveat: This is not a call to leave your own community and to knock a trip off your bucket list to somewhere you don’t live. As the American Alpine Club’s post yesterday reminded us, many places we recreate are “rural or gateway communities” that have…
Callous In Wonderland & Waking The Dad
Callous In Wonderland At family gatherings, my sister-in-law makes critical remarks about my appearance, like my shirt’s very low-cut or I might want to lose weight before wearing the dress I have on. She only does this in front of others, and she says she just tells me because she cares about me. It doesn’t…
“Gypsy” marks company’s theatrical debut
Editor’s note: As of press time, “Gypsy” is still scheduled to continue its live performances. But in response to concerns around the spread of COVID-19, the producers are also working to offer live-streaming of the performance. Check the company’s website at twotwistedsistersproductions.com for the latest. Arthur Laurents’ Broadway musical, “Gypsy,” the story of 1930s burlesque…
Who’s Running
Oregon’s senators in Washington, D.C., have long heralded the state’s vote-by-mail elections system as a model for other states to follow. Now, with coronavirus concerns keeping lots of people at home, that system appears even more valuable. As of now, state elections officials have not announced any changes to Oregon’s elections timeline due to widespread…
A Push for a Performing Arts Center
Performers in Bend know the drill: Find a space that might work, then hope and pray it stays open, has good sound and can be easily accessible for your audience. The ongoing population growth in Bend has also meant a growth in performers and audiences. The problem: not a lot of growth in venues. A…
Planting Seeds for the Future… or Just Dreaming of Spring
My first seed catalog of 2020 arrived in late November. The timing could not have been better. Thanksgiving sticks a fork into the growing season, and ushers in a quiet time of rest, contemplation, hot beverages and reading material. (Editor’s note: Coronavirus panic does that, too.) Gardening is a thoughtful pursuit, and seed catalogs are…
The Bartenders' Blight
Per Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s Monday announcement, bars and restaurants statewide are limited to take-out and delivery only for the next four weeks. While local servers and bartenders are now generally laid off “until further notice,” the service industry as a whole is taking a scary and security-threatening blow. The teachers, bartenders, servers, venue janitors,…
What Can Local Legislators Do?
The 2020 Oregon legislative session may have ended this month in a partisan showdown—but state legislators are working together now on solutions for Oregonians struggling with the fallout of closures from the coronavirus. Some members of the Oregon Legislature are meeting virtually as the Special Joint Committee on Coronavirus Response. The purpose of the committee…
Platypus Pub Extinct
On March 9, I joined a small group of regulars and beer industry folks gathered to pay their respects on the final night for one of Bend’s original beer bars, The Platypus Pub. Open in the basement of the old Nazarene church-turned-fine-dining-restaurant-turned-homebrew shop since 2011, the Platypus Pub was a lived-in, homey basement bar focused…
Everything is Closed
In one never-ending week, the world has transformed in ways most of us have never experienced before. Here in Bend and throughout the state, the order is to self-quarantine and save the tests for those who need it most. The coronavirus took the life of the first Oregonian on Friday, a 70-year-old man at the…
We Got This. We’ll Get Through This.
For the past 23 years, Central Oregonians have looked to us to share with them the “good stuff” coming out of our community. In addition to maintaining the most robust and comprehensive events calendar in the region, our newsroom is proud to bring locals deeper dives into the issues that mean the most—from housing to…
Salmon Run Goes Virtual
The 2020 Salmon Run was scheduled for April 5. Instead of canceling it entirely, local events company, Lay It Out Events, is finding a way to keep the run alive and support physical activity during the spread of COVID-19 by going virtual. Racers can run on the course LIOE had in place by downloading maps…
Going Viral
Hey, so…anything big happen this week? It’s been a rough one for people all over the world, and it looks like we’re going to have a few weeks of keeping to ourselves in our respective places—especially for those of us lucky enough to work from home—before all is said and done. Basically, we’ve got time.…
Back to the YAC
As I type this, all Oregon schools are closed, the federal government has declared a national emergency, and toilet paper is darn near a currency of its own. Still, legal wrangling over more marijuana farms in greater Deschutes County managed to sneak its way into the agenda for our County leadership. Ever since the Oregon…
Free Will Astrology—Week of March 19
We interrupt your regularly scheduled horoscopes to offer insights about the virus-driven turning point that the whole world is now experiencing. As you’ve probably guessed, all of us are being invited to re-evaluate everything we think we know about what it means to be human. I refer to this unprecedented juncture as The Tumultuous Upgrade…
Letters to the Editor
Editor’s note: Gov. Brown wasn’t kidding when she said that right now, “Days feel like weeks.” Just hours after we put our last issue on stands, we got the news no one in Central Oregon wanted to hear: COVID-19 is here in our community. It seems like weeks have passed since that announcement, and in…
Rescheduled
Festival season and concerts aren’t always the cleanest. There is an incredible number of gross things I’ve seen at Lollapalooza that I’d rather not share. That being said, it makes sense that around the country, popular festivals are having to make decisions to combat the spread of COVID-19. Coachella has been postponed until October; SXSW…
Insect Apocalypse
“Apocalypse” is a Greek word meaning revelation—an unveiling or unfolding of things not previously known, and which could not be known, apart from the unveiling. “As a genre, apocalyptic literature details the authors’ visions of the end times as revealed by an angel or other heavenly messenger,” Wikipedia posits. Sorry, good people—I am neither an…
COVID-19 and Real Estate
Our news cycles, social media feeds and conversations are predominantly focused on the everchanging impact that COVID-19 is having on the economy, health care, social interactions, government guidelines and business. As a real estate professional, my phone and email is lighting up with questions about the impact of COVID-19 on the real estate market and…
