The mysterious proprietor of the BendBubble2 blog – I Hate to Burst Your Bubble, alias Homer, alias Butter, alias Paul-Doh – announced Sunday that after almost three years he’s hanging it up.
We have to give Homeboy props for being one of the first, if not THE first, to declare publicly that the emperors of Bend real estate were absolutely buck naked and our boom was a creation of smoke and mirrors as phony as the tourist industry’s claims of 300 days of sunshine and golf in January.
And for three years Homer continued to write perceptively, provocatively and often entertainingly (if you didn’t object to the blood-curdling obscenities) about our local real estate mess, how it got that way and where it’s going. A sample (heavily censored) from this week’s entry:
“This place has been CUT UP into ANT-SIZED plots of dirt, NEVER TO BE UNDONE, in an attempt to profit as much as is humanly possible from what is now an asset that only a (BLEEP)ING PSYCHOPATH would want – a house. But not just a house, a house that is practically INSIDE the (bleep)ing house next door.
“(BLEEP) you (bleep)ing builders, and the Bend City Councilor SELL OUT MOTHER(BLEEP)ERS for doing this. There is no UNDO button for this. These (bleep)holes will act as a blight FOR DECADES on this town.”
As a regular reader, my only gripes were that some of his weekly stream-of-consciousness rants were so long as to be virtually unreadable, and he refused to moderate comments so that his site became a sanctuary for every anonymous nutbag in Central Oregon, and far beyond.
So thanks, goodbye and good luck, Homer – if this really is goodbye. I have a feeling you’re going to pop up in a new incarnation someday, somewhere.
This article appears in Nov 19-25, 2009.
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Now…. THAT’S what I am talking about!!
An injustice here has indeed been done.
I’d like to see every other McMansion leveled to make room for a yard each one of these new homes lack. …That would be a good start at least…. or, prices dropped so folks could afford them, albeit without privacy.
Thank you Mr Miller for fueling an absolutely positive point of view!
:)…
And, Thank you Homer… -Rant on… Please!!
Agreed on IHTBYB’s insightful postings; agreed on his inability or disinterest in self-editing a few thousand words out of his posts — but hey, it’s his blog; and agreed on his unmoderated comments section: unbelievably toxic and foul in there. But the guy said it the way he saw it, and he saw it the way it was. Damn pity he limited himself to such a small pulpit to preach from.
“I’d like to see every other McMansion leveled to make room for a yard each one of these new homes lack”
AMEN! (Can’t happen, of course … unless a tornado comes through and somehow selectively removes every other house.)
Full disclosure: I have a personal reason to resent developers who packed McMansions onto lots the size of bath mats — and the city officials who allowed it. Our home in southeast Bend used to have a beautiful view off to the south before Pahlisch built its Sun Meadow monstrosities right next to us. We knew when we bought our place back in 1985 that the land to the south was developable and no doubt someday would be developed — but the zoning didn’t allow two-story houses with 5-foot easements. Pahlisch went in and asked for a change to allow incredible density, and got it. Whatever developers want in this town they get — even if they’re from out of town.
I think Sun Meadow was a turning point, though — people looked at it and said, “WTF are we allowing this kind of crap for???”
Like Homer says, once it’s built we’re stuck with it. Once a town has been trashed by ugly development it can’t be untrashed — and Bend has been trashed.
Hmmm…. -Maybe “Cascade Views” should be changed to “Cascading Views”..?!..
Sorry to hear about your ‘hood,, one great reason why we are still renters.
Press on Mr. Miller,, Press on!!
I for one am giving a thanks for his blog. Insights kinda got diluted by ugly comments (my point of view) but the info provided was likely 90% accurate, provided great housing links, and kept me out of the market every time I felt like putting my toes in the water. I avoided the “Sh$$shacks,” and got quite a few laughs from his references to the “Calibanger” stereotype.
Thanks,
Calineuria (i.e. golden stonefly~ not a Calibanger)
1/2 an acre with irrigation in town for 72 SF… 🙂
One of my favorite articles in the The Source was the one Scoop Lewis did on the upcoming real estate bubble a few years ago. He drove all over town in his Yugo and couldnt find any bubble. He tracked down some prominent real estate agents and asked them about the bubble and they all screamed and ran away.
Damn, you’re right — Scoop almost got the scoop on the bubble!
If people really object to small teeny weeny lots they have to understand why Bend has them. To not have such in the future you have to do one of two things: either move to one of the other 49 states, or change Senate Bill 100 passed in 1973 and followed by no other state in the 36 years since. This law and what it has morphed into is the reason for such small lots. Oregon cleaverly crafted a law wherein Salem makes land use decisions and not local government. Local governments’ only role is to police what Salem has decided is best. Density plans are required to be submitted to Salem; quite simply Salem demands smaller and smaller lots. By example, only a few miles outside of Boston you will still see new large lot developments and the same is true with our northern neighbors in Washington, and even California. Again, if you don’t like it, move, or preperably change the law. I prefer the latter, but good luck!!!
the alternative to small lots is horrific sprawl, which has ruined the 49 other states
The reason it’s called bendbubble2 is because there was a bendbubble1. Homer’s goin’ nowhere.
Jack Rinn: That’s bogus. Pahlisch didn’t have to cram two-story McMansions on tiny lots; it ASKED TO HAVE THE RULES CHANGED so it could do it.
On the other side of Brosterhous Road, the Palmers developed a subdivision of smaller, one-story homes that, for my money, are much more attractive than the Pahlisch monstrosities. The lots are small, yes, but the houses are in proportion to them. The Pahlisch Sun Meadow development is just absurd-looking.