Bill Moseley just threw his hat in the ring to be Bend’s next mayor.
The current City Councilor—and founder of the Bend-based software company, GL Solutions—announced his candidacy June 12.
“We are loving Bend to death,” Moseley said in his announcement. “Moderate tourism and growth can be good for Bend, but our current rate of nine new people moving here each day is unsupportable.”
Moseley was elected to the City Council in 2016. In Moseley’s announcement for mayor, he said he plans to make housing costs, road congestion and community livability the central issues of his campaign.
Moseley currently serves as the Council liaison to the River West and Summit Neighborhood Associations, and also serves as Council representative to the Downtown Bend Business Association Board.
“Our middle class is shrinking, and an increasing number of people can’t afford to live here,” Moseley said. “Let’s retain what we love about Bend before it’s too late.”
In May, voters in Bend voted in favor of changing the City Charter to allow for a directly-elected mayor. Previously, current city councilors selected Bend’s mayor from among current councilors.
The deadline for candidate filings for the November election is Aug. 28. Three others have thrown their hats into the ring so far as well. Bend City Councilor Sally Russell, Charles Baer and Brian Douglass have filed.
This article appears in Jun 6-13, 2018.
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So, what’s he gonna do to stop people from moving to Bend? Build a Trumpian wall? Seriously, Bill, you cannot stop people from moving wherever they want to move in this country. What is your solution? –Michael Funke
I’m merely a proponent for reasonable growth. What’s reasonable? Growth thats at a pace that allows us to balance the supply and demand of housing supporting affordability and livability. I’ve actually very strongly and successfully advocated for the city to implement the approved UGB ASAP. I’ve encouraged and obtained council support for the roads and sewers we need to do that. I’ve supported the Bend Central District. All those things add supply.
What about demand? Well, tourism promotion needs a hard look. When I was the BEDAB chair, we found that people who moved here started as tourists first. I did successfully get Visit Bend to set aside a small amount of tourism promotion money into a rainy day fund for when we hit a downturn, instead of using it on promotion in the middle of a peak economy. Its not enough. Will less tourism promotion stop all tourists? Thankfully no, as part of our economy depends on tourism. But, it will lower the extreme growth rate to a slower growth rate we are more likely to handle.
That will not stop growth. I don’t propose that we stop all growth. It will simply bend the demand curve down a bit so that housing supply and neighborhoods can catch up. I want some common sense attempts to shape our beautiful city. Is their another option than trying? I hear people being fatalistic about growth all the time. I’m not that kind of person. I will try as hard as I can, even if the challenges are great.
–Bill Moseley, Bend City Councilor
That’s not a reasonable answer. How do you slow the “pace”? Limiting tourism funding won’t stop people from moving here. People are escaping the big cities to their quaint mountain town that is quickly becoming a congested mess by overpriced homes and developers building at a record rate. Why not stop the building and developing? Building expensive new homes and hotels is only increasing the population with the wealthy. This will take a great deal of vision. Someone with experience with adapting an archaic infrastructure into something that is livable for a town this size. We’re stacking homes and businesses on every plot of land they can find. Home developers are buying up all the land and stacking homes, condos, and apartments on as many tiny lots as they can. How are you going to stop that?
I”d like to know your plan, Mr. Moseley, for transportation and reducing traffic and sprawl.