Letters to the Editor, Week of April 9

Critique of Land Use Planning in Bend

The term “crisis” is often used to describe the current housing situation in Deschutes County. By definition, a crisis is an unstable period that threatens to result in highly undesirable outcomes. While there is a current imbalance between housing supply and demand, it doesn’t rise to the level of a crisis. What is becoming an undesirable outcome is traffic congestion.

We are ignoring that housing construction means increased traffic volumes. According to the Institute of Transportation Engineers, each single-family detached home generates, on average, 9.5 daily trips. Apartments and senior housing tend to generate slightly fewer trips. These could be walking or bike trips if the destination is close by. The City of Bend’s long-term plans forecast an additional 33,000 housing units, which translates to approximately 200,000 more daily trips.

Unfortunately, new homes are not being constructed in ways that encourage walking. We are missing opportunities, such as the absence of housing above the new Costco, which could have prioritized workers at the store. This approach has been successful elsewhere. Bend missed the boat.

Local zoning codes include language about “encouraging” development that combines shopping and employment, but such efforts are not evident in practice. Cities and counties should adopt stronger requirements for mixed-use developments instead of accommodating developers who claim that certain projects are not financially feasible. It is necessary to shift from merely encouraging to actively requiring mixed-use solutions to address both housing and traffic challenges. And put the brakes on the crisis mentality.

—David Morrow AICP

Time for Change on the Deschutes County Commission

For more than 15 years our county has suffered under the direction of Tony Debone. Direction that has sacrificed our open lands to rich developers – political supporters – who have lined their pockets at the expense of our community. Supporters who used political influence to make more money for themselves, while the integrity of our precious open land was compromised.

We deserve better.

Fortunately, in this election, we have a great alternative. Jamie Collins has spent his career serving our nation in the military. His assignment – disaster prevention and relief in Oregon and around the world. His background – PhD in climate science. This extraordinary man will stop conversion of open land to residential development. He’ll put people before politics and restore ethical leadership to our County Commission.

Jamie deserves our support. I hope you will join me in supporting Jamie Collins in the May primary as the new “STEWARD” for protecting our land and people from those who can be bought off!

—Mike Garcia

Is Trump the Boy Who Cried Wolf

Louis Capozzi asks in the March 26th issue of The Source Weekly that since Trump has repeatedly lied about most every issue he has commented upon, how are we to know if Iran is truly a threat to America and the world? Well, Louis, the best way is to stop getting your information from mainstream corporate news sources which are not allowed to use the word “genocide” when discussing Israel’s actions in Gaza. Israel is continuing to commit genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza, the West Bank, and now Lebanon in its long-held goals of a one-State solution and territorial expansion for “Greater Israel.” If news sources cannot acknowledge what we have obviously been witnessing the past couple of years—and is prohibited from calling a duck a duck—they simply are not credible news sources. If Louis wants the truth, he should watch or listen to Progressive News on the TYT independent network or other non-corporate news sources like Drop Site News where the word “genocide” is not taboo when discussing Gaza.

Louis states as factual—because that is what mainstream corporate media tells us—that Iran is “the world’s major sponsor of terrorism.” But that in itself can be considered a lie if Iran is actually the world’s major sponsor of self-defense against a uber-militaristic, nuclear-armed nation that is intent upon stealing land from its neighboring nations so it can become a “world superpower” (Netanyahu’s own goal and words). Israel is worse than being merely a sponsor of terrorism, it is a nation committing terrorism itself! Louis ends his essay by saying that since Trump lies about everything and we cannot know the truth, the U.S. should play it safe and continue to attack Iran to make sure it cannot develop atomic bombs.

I have a better and much more affordable idea: why doesn’t America sever its alliance with and support of the nation that has continued to sucker our politicians into supporting its decades-long occupation, blockade, and ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank with hundreds of billions of our dollars, and use that money for America instead? If America stopped enabling Israel’s offensive warfare against its neighbors, Iran and other Muslim nations would have no reason to “hate America.”

In biological terms, an alliance is a symbiotic relationship where both parties benefit; but Israel’s relationship with America is actually parasitism, where one party sucks the lifeblood out of the other with no return benefit other than the lie of holding back the camel-riding, sword-waving, atom-bomb-making Muslim hordes that are obsessed with destroying Western civilization.

So Louis, if you want the truth, make sure that the news sources you are watching or reading or listening to are not restricted from saying or printing the word “genocide” in regard to what our eyes have nauseatingly shown us is occurring at the hands of our parasitic “special ally” Israel. Israel is a grown-up nation that is more than capable of providing for its own defense, and America sorely needs its dollars for itself!

— Eddie Kinnamon

Concerned About Measles

I am very concerned about the measles cases in Oregon. My concern is tempered by the knowledge that no Oregon county has school age herd immunity to measles (Oregon Live 3/31/26).

Oregon has the third highest opt-out rate for schoolchildren in the country, facilitated by the 2013 law that allowed personal opt-outs online. To complicate matters, vaccine hesitancy has not been helped by confusing CDC messaging. For many (all infants under 12 months, all pregnant women, all immunocompromised people) the lack of herd immunity is a huge and potentially life altering if not life ending problem.

Additionally, the Oregon Health Authority made the questionable decision to withhold specifics about new cases (age, location, and connectivity to other cases). This prevents people from assessing their own risk of exposure which for any of the above-mentioned groups could be hazardous. Wouldn’t you want to know that the virus had been floating around your pediatrician’s or obstetrician’s office? Or in the hospital or clinic where you receive care? Measles virus can linger for two hours after someone infected, but yet to be symptomatic, sneezes.

I urge people to vaccinate yourselves and your children against measles immediately or Oregon will stand out nationally and not in a good way.

—Mimi Jones, RN