Good for the city?
If you drive on the south side of Bend, you may have noticed the destruction of one of the last pieces of old growth forest in city limits on the corner of Murphy Rd and Hwy.97. One may think that perhaps homes are going in there-something our city claims to desperately need. But instead it will be turned into a "Luxury RV resort and storage" — nothing to benefit our community but rather a place for tourists and their huge motor homes to come and stay.
The commissioners claim they knew nothing about it although plans were submitted a few years ago. In those plans, old growth trees were supposed to be left standing but the property owner, Larry Kine, claims the city didn't respond so he went ahead and tore them all down.
The Eastside bypass was completed last year to make travel from one side of town to the other easier and it's been great — but now there will have to be entrance and exits for large motor homes, defeating the purpose of the bypass.
It seems that the "powers that be" are a lot of talk but their actions show otherwise. Allowing this resort and storage facility into what was once a wonderful neighborhood confirms that, as always, money talks and the needs of our community walks. Greedy developers get what they want while the commissioners claim they didn't know...meanwhile the housing crisis continues. But at least the ultra-wealthy visitors will have a new place to park their ultra-large motor homes...with no benefit to the locals... it's sad and disappointing that we can't put faith in our city leaders to take care of the people who already live here as well as what little old growth forest remains.
—Diana Cockerill
John Hummel
In your interview with the outgoing DA, I thought the distinction he drew between his progressive approach as opposed to a "traditional" approach was interesting and perhaps in improvement over "red/blue," "liberal/conservative" and other descriptions of the "great divide" in our current culture. But for me, our traditional way, the constitutional way of dealing with crime is for legislatures to define what constitutes a crime what should be the range of punishments for perpetrators. Crimes are reported, law enforcement investigates, and where warranted makes an arrest and presents the evidence to the state attorney for prosecution.
A prosecutor is generally required to do one of two things: reject prosecution for insufficient evidence or prosecute. Progressive prosecutors like Mr. Hummel believe there is a third option: They alone can fix the poor decisions of the legislature by picking which crimes they care to prosecute in the name of finding "a better way to do things."
Our media makes much of various "threats to democracy" in our political discourse. I can't think of a bigger threat than government administrators exercising powers they have not be delegated.
—John Woods
RE: Hunnell Camp Scheduled for Closure, News, 1/5
How ironic is it that Hunnell Road borders the abandoned KOA campground with spaces for 100 campers that was bought years ago by Walmart for a never built Supercenter and has sat empty for 10 years!
—Scott Nelson via facebook.com
Scott Nelson, the irony and history is lost in the present-day collateral damage caused by this road of homeless vagabonds. I have friends that work at Lowe's and they are astonished by the magnitude of theft that shows up daily at their store. All on video and documented but nothing is done to stop them.
—Rob Ryan via facebook.com
TIME
Congress! Establish STANDARD time permanently. People and jurisdictions will adjust as necessary. End the madness of clock-changing.
—J. Scott
Letter of the Week:
J. Scott: Every day I cruise my weather app, watching for the time of sunset to creep up to one... minute... later... each day. It's exhausting work, I tell you, and my dogs are pretty much tired by all this walking-after-dark-wearing-a-goofy-glow-stick business. So, I'm with you, 100%! It's not going to make the days any longer in the winter, but hey, at least us working stiffs could have a soul-lifting walk after work. Come on by for your gift card to Palate!
—Nicole Vulcan
