Mirror Pond
Yes Mr. Taylor, Mirror Pond has been "an iconic piece of property in Central Oregon for many years" (Source Opinion 6/14/18), and that is one of its biggest negative features. It was a choice recreational environment back when ladies in long, puffy dresses holding parasols picnicked with bow-tie clad gentlemen in bowler hats.
But now Bend is an adventure mecca where people bicycle, run, hike, ski, paddle and relax by sipping beer on brewpub patios. Picnicking in Drake park is decidedly NOT what attracts visitors to Bend, nor is it why people move here. A clean, rushing river through the heart of town would be much more in harmony with how people recreate today.
But since we cannot have a rushing river due to that damn dam, I strongly advise Bend city councilors and Bend Park and Recreation board members to avoid spending one cent of taxpayer-provided funds for dredging Mirror Pond if you want to keep your positions, because you will be voted out if you spend any of OUR money on this ridiculous boondoggle.
Furthermore, the claim by members of Mirror Pond Solutions that stormwater runoff from Bend's eleven inches of precipitation per year has put more sediment into Mirror Pond than the river itself is laughably absurd. And it doesn't take unnatural fluctuations in river flows to erode sediment and move it downstream. It is what rivers do [Google Grand Canyon]. Beware capitalists con artists—they are almost as bad as political ones.
—Eddie Kinnamon
In response to, "Bill Moseley is Running for Mayor," on 6/14
That's not a reasonable answer. How do you slow the "pace"? Limiting tourism funding won't stop people from moving here. People are escaping the big cities to their quaint mountain town that is quickly becoming a congested mess by overpriced homes and developers building at a record rate. Why not stop the building and developing? Building expensive new homes and hotels is only increasing the population with the wealthy. This will take a great deal of vision. Someone with experience with adapting an archaic infrastructure into something that is livable for a town this size. We're stacking homes and businesses on every plot of land they can find. Home developers are buying up all the land and stacking homes, condos and apartments on as many tiny lots as they can. How are you going to stop that?
—Derek Sitter, via Bendsource.com
I'm merely a proponent for reasonable growth. What's reasonable? Growth that's at a pace that allows us to balance the supply and demand of housing supporting affordability and livability. I've actually very strongly and successfully advocated for the city to implement the approved UGB ASAP. I've encouraged and obtained council support for the roads and sewers we need to do that. I've supported the Bend Central District. All those things add supply.
What about demand? Well, tourism promotion needs a hard look. When I was the BEDAB chair, we found that people who moved here started as tourists first. I did successfully get Visit Bend to set aside a small amount of tourism promotion money into a rainy day fund for when we hit a downturn, instead of using it on promotion in the middle of a peak economy. It's not enough. Will less tourism promotion stop all tourists? Thankfully no, as part of our economy depends on tourism. But, it will lower the extreme growth rate to a slower growth rate we are more likely to handle.
That will not stop growth. I don't propose that we stop all growth. It will simply bend the demand curve down a bit so that housing supply and neighborhoods can catch up. I want some common sense attempts to shape our beautiful city. Is there another option than trying? I hear people being fatalistic about growth all the time. I'm not that kind of person. I will try as hard as I can, even if the challenges are great.
—Bill Moseley, via Bendsource.com
Protest in Bend
"Go home," a sickly looking man hollered from his car idling at a red light.
I was standing on "Walden corner," (Wall & Greenwood) carrying a sign. Written on one side, "Stop Gun Violence." Written on the other, my response to the morning news, "Impeach Trump: No One is Above the Law."
"I am home," I called back. "I live here."
"Don't you know all the good things that are happening?" he hollered back. The light turned green. The exchange was over.
"What good things" I wonder out loud.
"What good things?" my companion echoed.
We run through a partial list of "good things" happening: Affordable Healthcare gutted (Greg Walden worked hard for this). Environmental regulations thrown out. National Monuments shrunk. Millionaire heads of Federal agencies working to disable them. President, administration, and groupies presenting untruths as truth. The press excoriated and defamed. School funding cut. Despots admired. Allies spurned. Corporate taxes cut causing a ballooning deficit.. Nepotism in the White House [Trump can't be president without his family as security analysts, advisors, confidants, ambassadors, diplomats, negotiators and policy advisors [Republicans would be howling if a Democrat were to do the same]. Children of asylum seekers torn from parents and housed separately, some in cages. Health & Human Services acknowledging failures of timely reunion of children and parents after the parents have been deported.
What good things? American values I believed were written in stone, under siege
—Nancy Bright
Nancy: Thanks for your letter. While I acknowledge that we share a concern about those many good-things-not-good-things, I also acknowledge that each of the other letters printed this week are political hot potatoes to which I can't award a Letter of the Week. So... consider this, by way of political circumstance, to be an actual "good thing" happening to you this week! Come on in for your gift card to Palate.
— Nicole Vulcan, Editor
