Editor's Note: In this week's issue

Each year, we visit one of the cities near Bend, and dedicate our issue to that city.
Last year, we examined how Redmond is economically rising and fashioning a distinct personality. And, this year, we traveled to Sisters—one of the region’s oldest “settlements.” We had so much fun heading out to the “field,” that each of us checked out real estate in the area.
And we’re not the only ones. Sisters is booming.
Imagine if Los Angeles doubled its population over the past decade. It would be mayhem! Okay, perhaps not an apt comparison, but over the past 10 years or so, Sisters has gone from 1000 to 2000 residents. While that is only the population of one apartment building in LA, 1000 more people in Sisters has brought big changes.
No, Sisters is not yet a big city (although some old-timers there may complain about the growth), but Sisters does have an impressive amount of culture and activity for a city its size (certainly, if the US Census calculated cultural index like per capita mandolins and guitars, Sisters would rank high). Oh sure, some of Sister’s culture is decidedly not big-city urbane, like the rodeo, but some of the culture definitively could go toe-to-toe with any restaurant in Portland or San Francisco (see our review of Cottonwood).
Thanks for the hospitality, Sisters. Oh yes, we’ll be back. And we’re bringing our friends.

This article appears in May 6-13, 2015.