Big, Bad, Bend: Council approves kitchen sink UGB, |Bend Living lay-offs

Posted inOpinion

Big, Bad, Bend: Council approves kitchen sink UGB, |Bend Living lay-offs

Eric Flowers

Bend’s next super subdivision? Most folks have lost track of how long the Bend City Council has been working to expand the city's UGB - long enough for the anachronistic term "UGB" to actually resonate with any partially informed observer of local politics. Earlier this week the city council put the finishing touches on what it hopes will be a blueprint for the next 20 years of growth in Bend - a roughly 8,500-acre expansion of the city's geographic footprint which is intended to add more land for housing and commercial development.

By a 4-2 vote councilors opted to finalize the plan known as Alternative 4A, which Upfront likes to think of as the "kitchen sink" alternative - as in it includes everything that landowners and developers wanted plus the kitchen sink for good measure.
The plan has no shortage of critics, including some skeptical state regulators that have balked at the size of the land grab, which they see as a recipe for sprawl.

Posted inOpinion

A Million Lost Soles

Eric Flowers

On January 20th, Americans and the world will celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama. But perhaps equally important, because Barack's legacy has yet to be written, on January 19th George W. Bush will spend his last full day in the White House. With the brilliant act of the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at W out of shear frustration and anger, the world has been shown the way to say a fitting farewell to George the Second and his incredible Reign of Error (special thanks to Robin Williams!).

Posted inCulture

Getting Behind the Camera

Mike Bookey

Annie Leibovitz is, of course, a photographer, not a writer. That's why her new book, At Work, might surprise some who crack the 240-page hardcover and find that the vast majority of the pages are covered in black type, not the iconic images the esteemed American photographer has captured over her 40-year career.

Fear not, there are plenty of photos to behold in the book. But this isn't a coffee table book, rather a platform for Leibovitz to tell the stories behind the photographs she's taken over the years. At Work provides priceless tales of Leibovitz's work with some of the most well-known individuals in the world - ranging from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Queen Elizabeth, and damn near every major rock star you can think of.

Posted inOutside

Where is the Next Bend?

Pam Stevenson

Feeling out FernieWhy did you move to Bend? If you're like most people I know, you took a paycut in order to have Phil's Trail in your backyard or to get in a run along the River Trail at lunch. You're now drastically underemployed so that you can ski midweek at Mt. Bachelor or climb Monkey Face on a regular basis.
But Bend has changed a lot since you moved here-our real estate still qualifies as some of the most overvalued in the country, there's more traffic on the roads and the trails and more subdivisions between you and the forest. Some other communities, fearful of becoming what Bend is now, have printed bumper stickers like "Don't Bend Walla Walla." Some Bendites, discouraged with the changes, have searched for the "next Bend" - the next great place with a similar outdoor lifestyle, but without all the hoopla.

Posted inCulture

Looks like a Whiteout!: Shaun White Snowboarding

Shawn Wallbaum

Even as Central Oregon snowboarders have been praying for snow, there has been something available in the video game world to get them through the drought. Shaun White Snowboarding comes at a time when snowboarding games like SSX and 1080 have all but disappeared. Why it has taken so long to fill the gap is a mystery, but developer Ubisoft has taken the reins. The game was created using the Assassin's Creed game engine - a wise choice - and will be released on the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The Wii version was created separately from the other two versions and is capable of using the Wii balance board.

A lot of sports games are released with a star's name and face attached, with little or no input from the celebrity. Shaun White Snowboarding, however shows much of his personality and the laid-back humor of the sport of snowboarding. At this year's E3 he even gave a demonstration of the game. The characters in the game are stereotypically goofy, similar to the ones in the SSX games, but the attitude and mood seem to blend nicely. Even the snowboarding gear on the characters is used with permission from real life sponsors. The music is almost a character in the game itself; classic rock and indie artists thump your speakers while you tear up the slopes.

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