Kick us when we’re down, why don’tcha? As if the situation (economy-wise and weather-wise) wasn’t dismal enough in Bend already, the Seattle Times takes a brutal shot at us on today’s front page.
In a story headlined “Oregon’s ‘New West’ tumbles, another sign of hard times,” Bend is depicted as an empty shell left behind on the shore by the receding real estate tide.
“This town that helped define the booming New West economy has hit tough times,” the story reads. “Once tied to timber and home to one of the nation’s largest pine mills” – actually it was TWO of the nation’s largest pine mills – “Bend reinvented itself in the last few decades as an outdoor-recreation mecca. Tens of thousands of new arrivals were drawn to the mountain-rimmed high desert for a lifestyle that included skiing, fishing, golfing and hiking.
“This year, Oregon as a whole has been socked by the nation’s economic turmoil. … And Bend is one of the state’s roughest spots, with 12.6 percent of the work force in the city and surrounding Deschutes County without a job.
“Most of Bend’s new economy – similar to that of some hard-hit communities in Nevada and Arizona – was built on a homebuilding boom. As the real-estate market crumbles, carpenters, plumbers, masons, mortgage brokers, real-estate agents, architects and others must figure out a way to make a living at a time when there is no need for big new subdivisions.”
After running through some of the usual sad stories about homeless people and broke builders, the piece quotes Kirk Schueler, president of Brooks Resources: “The real-estate market partly was a symptom of the disease. And the disease, I think, mostly was easy money. And you couple easy money with the speculative mindset, and you got the cocktail that results in where we’re at – huge overbuying, high leveraging. We were hot. We were Bend. … Once the kerosene got on the fire, it took off.”
We suppose it would be impertinent of us to ask who was pouring the kerosene on the fire.
Even more entertaining than the story, however, are some of the comments, which don’t show much sympathy for Bend or those of its citizens who got burned. Here’s one from a reader in Texas:
“Ha! To me, it sounds like Bend, Oregon has morphed into Bend Over. I am absolutely mystified at how anyone could be so obtuse as to honestly believe that the kind of absurd, extravagant growth in the so-called value of real estate in an end-of-the-road hamlet like Bend could continue for longer than it takes an elephant to break wind. Sympathy would be wasted on people so far off the beaten path of sanity and reality. The only cure for their terminal bubble-itis is a horrific crash, which is precisely what they’re getting.”
Ouch. But at least we don’t live in Texas, dude.
In a lighter vein there’s this observation from San Francisco: “Bend is boring, too many people pretending it’s Malibu, CA with coffee shops on every corner, flip-flops, and thousands of people driving around going nowhere.”
How anybody could possibly confuse Bend (current temperature 54 degrees) with Malibu is bewildering, but otherwise we think that comment is pretty much on the money.
This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2009.
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The Bend visitors’ bureau is fond of saying that one fluff article in a publication like Outside magazine naming Bend as “best mountain biking town” is worth thousands of dollars in advertising to build the local economy.
So how much does a well-reported article like this about our Potemkin economy do to damage Bend’s image?
Worst thing for Bend marketers: BEND CAN NO LONGER BE MARKETED AS “UPSCALE” after this article, along with the OPB radio reports that have been playing for months, along with the many, many other reports to come as it’s recognized that Bend is the epitome of the housing market bust and 99% of people here are living FAR from upscale lifestyles.
I was in Seattle when the front page article hit the news stands and on the front door steps at the Pensione. There are some good thing to say about the big city. The weather and affordability are not two of the them. Sure feels great to be back home in Central Oregon
Maybe not Mecca since there’s a lot of fighting going on there. But it’s definitely a step up from Seattle! Let’s see…we don’t have traffic here. There’s reason number one to love Bend.
Have you EVER sat in a traffic jam in the rain feeling a little cold and damp, windshield wipers flapping, crawling along with your foot on the brake only letting up on it long enough to go another three feet? Not in Bend, you haven’t. But in Seattle, too many times to count.
Mr. Prez were is Bends BAILOUT $$$$$$$$$$
If you get bored in Bend you are a lazy pig……
Oh wait fat guy is sitting in front of his TV as an arm chair quarterback, ex high school flop with no hair on head just back!
Tourism and construction have been and should remain important parts of Central Oregon’s economy. But the level of reliance we have on them is absurd and largely to blame. Don’t expect the tourism bureau, the chamber, or the builders and realtors lobbies to ever recognize this much less actually propose to do something about it. With how hard this hits all of them, you’d think they’d take the issue more seriously.
“There are some good thing to say about the big city. The weather and affordability are not two of the them.”
I’ll concede the affordability, but I might give you an argument about the weather. Sure, Seattle is wet — but at least you don’t freeze your ass off eight months out of the year there and you can grow something besides juniper bushes and bark dust.
Apropos of the above, the lede on The Bulletin’s weather story this morning is amusing: “Cold weather is returning to Central Oregon …”
“Returning”? Hell, when did it ever LEAVE???
I guess when the thermometer soars into the 50s here, that’s considered a heat wave.
The people of Bend did far more than reinvent “… itself in the last few decades as an outdoor-recreation mecca…” Geeze, Seattle, get real. Yes, there are greedy people here just like many other cities in this country. And those people are at least in part culpable for the consequences we are now faced with.
However, there are lots of honest, NON-greedy people here who love Bend because of the outdoor lifestyle, it is a great place to raise a family, etc., etc, etc. And we got stuck with the results of the greedy folks actions. Please quit talking like we brought it on ourselves. We didn’t.
I would love to, for once, see people refrain from stereotyping others because of where they live, what they do for a living, and what is going on around them. For the record, my husband is a contractor, and he has never created a big sub-division, got rich over the backs of others, all those things that they get accused of, just because of his chosen career. We live within our means and that means it takes two careers for us to keep our 19-year-old and 10-year-old cars running. We don’t live on the west side and we almost never eat out. Merenda who?
So, back off and quit adding insult to misery.
If you don’t like Bend then go back to California where you snobby ingrates belong. And take your grandparents too!
“If you don’t like Bend then go back to California”
Ah, if only I could!
POB I agree. It’s a good thing you live within your means because your not missing the fact that Merenda’s, Deep and a few of the other (over priced for the quality of food) high end restaurants have now closed. People don’t come to bend because it’s city life. If they do they need to research a little better. This is a great place for people and families who want to enjoy nature and get out and do things. That don’t include shopping at Nordstrom’s. There is more to Bend than the greedy who are always trying to profit off it. If you don’t like it hear MOVE!
Please do go back to Cal HBM, I’m sure you can figue out a way. Bend will recover just fine, it will just take a good long while. Any town built on tourism and building was bound to be hit by the economic crisis, but Bend is a beautiful place (a little over rated), and will recover just fine (may take 3-5 years). I was involved in real estate but bailed about 3 1/2 years ago when I saw the greed being brought on by real estate investors, and like many, many people in Bend, knew it would crash. So I sold my properties and plan on returning this year. There are many great people and Bend will be on the map for years to come. You who choose to belittle are ignorant, were probably part of the problem as far as investors who were greedy and got burned, and I’ve got no sympathy for those who kick while people are down. And please go back to Cal HBM, your attitude is not needed among the good people of this beautiful place.
RB: Thanks for the post I couldn’t have said it better, I for one am tired of the bad attitudes and complaining about how bad Bend is. Seems like everyone loved the place when they were making big bucks off real estate and tourism, now that we have hit on hard times it’s now called a an “empty shell on the beach” from a Seattle paper, give me a break !!!
Seattle isn’t gong to escape this recession/depression, case in point Microsoft and Boeing, I would imagine there will be more to come, maybe the Seattle Times should stick to reporting on their own economic problems.
“And please go back to Cal HBM, your attitude is not needed among the good people of this beautiful place.”
My attitude is called “realism.” And it’s needed here badly, although it’s rarely appreciated.
Bend is a nice place in many ways; I wouldn’t have moved here and stayed here for more than 23 years if it wasn’t. But pretending that it’s “paradise” or that it’s uniquely beautiful or offers unique recreation opportunities is just stupid.
Aside from outdoor activities, there’s very little to do here in the way of recreation. And aside from alpine skiing, there’s NOTHING in the way of outdoor recreation here that you can’t do in hundreds, if not thousands, of other places — in many of which you can do it year-round.
Every place has negatives and positives, including Bend. I’ve finally gotten to the point (maybe it’s my age) where the negatives of Bend — the isolation, the parochialism, the aforementioned lack of anything to do other than outdoor recreation, and above all the endless winters — outweigh the positives.
And another thing: I’m always hearing how Bend is “a great place to raise kids.” What makes it so damn great? Drug and alcohol abuse are rampant, and the schools are mediocre at best. How many National Merit Scholars have our high schools produced in the last, say, 10 years? How many of our graduates get accepted by top-ranked colleges (Ivy League or comparable)? How many even go to ANY college?
It takes more than an “outdoor lifestyle” to make a place great for raising kids.
Bend has been going through a severe identity crisis for more than 10 years now. Weather, climate, scenery, “mountains” and Mt B are great! Common backgrounds and threads have been displaced by the groovy greedy, coupon clippers and GATED communities. Class apartheid reigns. Where are the people we once called neighbors?….Utah?
HBM:
Drug and alcohol abuse are rampant, and the schools are mediocre at best. How many National Merit Scholars have our high schools produced in the last, say, 10 years? How many of our graduates get accepted by top-ranked colleges (Ivy League or comparable)? How many even go to ANY college?
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Good questions, all of them.
Speaking of over-rated, Sisters’ realtors have been flogging that dead horse for years. In 1999, Sisters average house price was less than Redmond, and less than Bend. Today, even after the drop, it is still way above Redmond and Bend, and just under Sunriver, all because of the RE mantra… “..located in the prestigeous Sisters School District!”
But even with that said, to answer your question:
Last years valedictorian (one of six) got a full ride to Notre Dame, and other got into some Top10 schools also.
This year, the top student is accepted into Harvard and Stanford, with a full ride at Santa Clara, and will probably go to Stanford. He will be the third SHS grad at The Farm in 8 years.
Here is the real question:
Are these Top Students because of the SHS teachers?
Or would they have gotten into Stanford if they graduated from Bend, Redmond or Lake Oswego, and just happened to go to SHS?