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How Ashland Didn't Get Bent Out of Shape
It doesn't have a major ski area. It doesn't have dramatic mountain views. It doesn't have a river running through it. (The best it can
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Well, it could be worse. Southern California’s Inland Empire managed to generate a self-feeding real estate development cycle, without any amenities whatsoever:
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/08/inland-empire-gold-mine-was.html
The good quote:
“You have to think of it like a gold-mining town in a Clint Eastwood movie,” Mr. [John Husing, an economist whose expertise is Southern California] said. “Money comes to a place where there has never been any, and next there are tool stores, a saloon, a general store and so on. But the saloon doesn't exist without the gold mine, and the gold mine here was construction.”
I would hope that Bend can level off. There are tourist and retirement destinations that manage a steady state, with immigration matching (to put it roughly) die-off. (I can say that, because it might be me who brings money, lives, dies.)
And I’m sure developers everywhere are both burned and debt-burdened right now. It could be a generation before it begins again.
Did you hear that they actually bulldozed some “brand new luxury homes” down in the Inland Empire?
http://www.instantriverside.com/riverside-ca-news/victorville-homes-destroyed/2009/05/06/
Hope you find something there soon.
Bruce, I agree, Bend thinks it’s greater and bigger than it is. I’ve lived here for four years and I realized very quickly that Bend is not what it is cracked up to be. I mean, it’s ok but just nothing special to me. But you can’t move to Ashland because then I wouldn’t have the pleasure of reading your great blogs. So as nice as Ashland is, you just can’t leave us Bendites behind! What would we do without your insights? 🙂
Well, they do have a ski area. And an interstate. And a four year college. And they can let Medford do all the ugly stuff.
Loyal Reader: “But you can’t move to Ashland because then I wouldn’t have the pleasure of reading your great blogs.”
Thanks for the kind words, but after 24 years I think I’ve given Bend enough. And we’re sick and tired of winters that drag on for seven months (or more).
Dunc: “And they can let Medford do all the ugly stuff.”
That’s a good point. Ashland has Medford to absorb all the crap … and boy, DOES it.
I remember years ago there often was a fear expressed that Bend would become “just a bedroom community for Redmond.” My reaction at the time was — and still is — “So what?” What would have been so terrible about letting Bend be a pleasant, compact, attractive little residential community and letting Redmond have all (or the bulk of) the ugly industrial and commercial development, and the traffic that goes along with it?
It’s like Greenwich CT and NYC. The former is a bedroom community for the latter. Which would you rather live in?
But the GOBs here were (and are) locked into the grow-grow-grow mentality; there’s NO kind of growth they’d ever turn away. (And the GOBs run Bend, no matter who sits on the city council.)
Another favorable impression I formed of Ashland is that it seems less pretentious, less full of itself than Bend is. There didn’t seem to be nearly as high a percentage of glitzy, frou-frou boutiques and restaurants, for instance.
During the three nights we stayed we dined at three of the town’s reputedly top restaurants. In none of them did our dinner cost over $100 (not including tip). At the most expensive place, for under $100 we had a three-course meal (salad, entree and desert), two cocktails and two glasses of wine. The wine-by-the-glass prices in all the restaurants don’t seem as absurd as they are in Bend, either — typically $5, $6, or $7 a glass instead of $11 or $12 as in many Bend restaurants.
A lot of merchants and restaurateurs in Bend seem to have bought into the idea that Bend is Aspen II. It ain’t.
Incidentally, the realtor mentioned in the post told us that in her experience, clients from Northern California tended to prefer Ashland and those from SoCal tended to prefer Bend. If true, that would help account for the differences in ambiance and political climate.
Ashland is great! The Railroad tracks act as a hippy / crusty through-fare. Anywhere you need to get in town is a 10 minute walk down the tracks.
FIY…. The Ashland Food Co-Op is an awesome place to get groceries. It’s tucked away, it has awesome food, and it’s packed full of really cute hippy chicks. I think you’d dig it.
The only think that keeps me from living there is the lack of a stable music scene. There are a few venues to play, but they have one of two problems. 1. The venue doesn’t have a sound system or a soft draw. 2. The one venue that does have a stage and sound system (Stillwater) has a massive amount of overhead/production expenses that comes out of what the band makes off the door……. also it has very little soft draw as it’s off the beaten path of down town. If anyone one knows of a good club to play down there, I’d love a new lead to chase down there.
Ashland is pretty, it’s cozy, it likes to party, and there are a whole bunch of hippies! I love the place…. when I lived there, I got a good job my first day of searching. But don’t move there if you’re looking to pursue your an aspiring band or musician…. Singer Songwriter types do really well there.
Anyway, that’s my two cents on Ashland, OR.
Ashland does know how to party hard, and that’s while I’ll always love the place.
Good blog!
-Shane Thomas
Thanks, Shane. I’m not an aspiring musician and I’m WAAAAAAAAAAY too old to be chasing hippie chicks (and I am not now and never was a hippie) but I do like the vibe of the place much more than Bend’s.
Ashland is boring. Skiing = mediocre. Rock climbing = practically nonexistent. Cycling = mediocre. Downtown is OK, but not better than Bend IMO. But yeah, it has a cool Shakespeare festival and a large population of independently wealthy who do nothing but frequent it’s boutique shops. It works on Ashland’s scale. The problem with Bend is that they tried to become an island of high priced RE like Ashland without the controls on growth.
Bend is boring. Nothing to do but ski, ride bikes and climb rocks. The climate sucks (winter seven months a year, and “300 days of sunshine” is bullshit). And most of the city outside the small downtown core is butt-ugly.
BTW there’s a lot of theater going on in Ashland year-round besides the Shakespeare.
Bruce wrote: “Bend is boring. Nothing to do but ski, ride bikes and climb rocks”
LOL…that’s why I moved here. But there’s also the great river sports, and proximity to both deserts and mountains and striking distance to Portland. So what if some parts of town are ugly. Have you ever lived in a big city? Pretty much every city has undesirable and ugly areas. You don’t have to live in those areas or even go there.
To me, Ashland is boring. My brother lives there so I’m not unfamiliar with the town. As far as long winters, I actually prefer the Canadian winter and have lived in Canada for a winter season since I enjoy ice climbing as well.
“To me, Ashland is boring.”
So don’t live there. For somebody whose life revolves around outdoor recreation, it no doubt makes more sense to live in Bend. Bend has things you like to do; Ashland has more things I like to do. Different strokes, y’know?
Plus, as I said before, I like the vibe of the place. Although there may be wealthy people there they don’t seem to flaunt their wealth like their counterparts in Bend do. When I go there I hardly ever seem to see nearly as many ostentatious cars — Lexi and Mercedes and Cadillac Escalades and Hummers and Lamborghinis — as I do on the streets of Bend. Indeed, ostentatious displays of money seem to be frowned upon there.
Funny anecdote: While driving around with a realtor, we noticed a huge chateau-like place on a hillside on the outskirts of town. “What’s that?” we asked. “A hotel? A winery?” With a sort of sneer, the realtor said, “No, that’s just some people with delusions of grandeur.”
Then there’s the cultural vibe of the two places. In Bend you’ve got basically two cultures: the jock culture (of which you’re obviously a part) and the redneck culture. I don’t fit into either of those. And there’s really no arts culture, music culture or intellectual culture.
“So what if some parts of town are ugly. Have you ever lived in a big city?”
Hell yes, several of them. But Bend isn’t a big city, and I don’t want to live in a big city — or a small city with the ugliness of a big one. My wife and I moved here to get away from the ugly sprawl and congestion of Silicon Valley, and it’s pretty disgusting to see it being replicated here.
Ugliness doesn’t just happen — it is caused. It is caused by a lack of planning, or stupid planning, that basically allows developers to build whatever crap they choose wherever they want to.