Bend was flying high on dreams of becoming a hub of the aviation industry in December 2007. Textron Inc. – parent company of Cessna Aircraft Co. – had just bought Columbia Aircraft’s plant here for $26 million, promising to keep hundreds of good-paying jobs in town.
By late 2008, though, the flight plan had been drastically altered. Hammered by the nationwide recession – and by populist outrage over executives flying around the country on corporate jets paid for with taxpayers’ bailout money – Cessna was having trouble selling the half-million-dollar-and-up planes it manufactured in Bend.
The first “temporary” layoff notices went out in December 2008. As 2009 got underway, more followed. And then, on April 29, Cessna announced it was closing its Bend plant for good and the last 200 employees still working there would lose their jobs.
The shutdown appeared to catch Bend officials by surprise, but it shouldn’t have. The national economy had been circling the drain since the end of 2007. It was obvious that austere times lay ahead, and in austere times luxury purchases (such as $500,000 private jets) get cut first. And if Cessna was going to close any plants, it also was obvious that it most likely wouldn’t be those in its home state of Kansas.
But nobody was reading the signals – or if they were, they were blithely ignoring them. In late 2008, after the national recession already had been underway for a year, the Bend City Council voted to spend $1.5 million on airport improvements, based on rose-tinted visions that Cessna would expand and other aviation-related businesses would follow it here.
And in the spring of that year the city, responding to predictions by Cessna executives of “huge growth numbers in 2010,” voted to pay for the airport tower that Cessna said it needed. (Fortunately that spending was blocked by the Deschutes County Commission.)
As it turns out, Cessna probably would have pulled out of Bend eventually, recession or no recession. A Cessna spokesman told a Bulletin reporter after the plant closure announcement that it was “always the plan” to move the Bend manufacturing operations to a factory in Mexico. In fact, the shift already was under way.
It sounds like an all-too-familiar story: Fast-talking city slicker seduces innocent country girl with his fancy suit, big-city charm and vows of eternal love and happiness, knocks her up and goes back to his wife and kids.
So we’ve got a couple of BOOTs to pass out here. The first one goes to Cessna for stringing the poor Bend hayseeds along. For shame, guys, for shame.
But in the memorable words of our former president, George W. Bush: “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice … uh, uh, can’t get fooled again.” Is Bend sadder but wiser now? Has the Cessna experience taught it not to fall for the next fast-talking city slicker who breezes into town?
We’re not at all confident that it has. But in the hope of driving the lesson home, we’re delivering THE BOOT.
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2009.
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“It was obvious that austere times lay ahead, and in austere times luxury purchases (such as $500,000 private jets) get cut first.”
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Nowhere can anyone make (or buy) a jet for $500K. The Very Light Jets (VLJ) cost about $1.5M.
Did you mean turbo props that Columbia / Cessna make here in Bend? They are not jets.
Way to call it. Unfortunately, I fear that Bend has not learned it’s lesson – they are still holding onto the hopes that growth in Juniper Ridge will start any day now. They are also still pursuing an “affordable housing” option in Bend. If people had a job, there is plenty of affordable house right now. Let’s worry about the rising unemployment rate and how we can get companies to come to and stay in Bend.
And, Harry, let’s get off the semantics and look at the bigger picture.
Just another great example of Bend’s prowess and expertise with economic development. They have enough trouble losing lawsuits and funding Bat against voter preferences.
Juniper Ridge is an unmitigated disaster. While Obama would certainly approve of the massive debt load being accumulated at jr,reasonable bussinessman are aghast.
It’s far past time to pull the plug on this fiasco.
Scott Siewert
Talk about hayseeds in bend what about the idiot at Source who wrote the article, a $500,000 Jet indeed. Did he ever hear of Eclipse? The other moron said the Columbia planes are turboprops! Another damn lie!! These people should work for a politician for Christ’s sake.
PS: Even a Tennessee hillbilly like me has more sense than a west coast leftist.