In a joint letter sent to Bend City Council earlier today, community visioning group Bend 2030 and the Central Oregon Builders’ Association ask Council to consider street funding options beyond a gas tax. At the August 5 Council meeting, four City Councilors voted in support of putting a gas tax on the March ballot and […]
City Council
Posted inNews
Running on Empty?
Opponents: Council vote threatens to stall transportation funding
“We have a historical funding problem with street maintenance,” explained Mayor Jim Clinton at the City Council meeting on August 5. “The only solution I see is to ask voters if they want to use a fuel tax to solve that structural problem.” Over the past several weeks, the idea to implement a gas tax […]
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City Moves Forward with SDC Exemptions for Affordable Housing
Side Notes 8/12-8/19
At its August 5 meeting, Bend City Council voted to move forward with an incentive plan aimed at encouraging the development of more affordable housing units. In its second and final vote, Council approved an ordinance that will waive some system development charges—the fees that help pay for infrastructure costs associated with new developments—for affordable […]
Posted inBest Of Central Oregon
Best Reason to Attend a City Council Meeting
Barb Campbell and Casey Roats
Unless there’s a particularly hot topic on the agenda (like, oh, vacation rentals), attendance at bimonthly City Council meetings can be pretty sparse. Especially when you subtract the people required to be there—select City staff, people testifying on agenda items, reporters. But sometimes, things get a little spicy. And for that, we can usually thank […]
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Smoke Signals 7/29-8/5
Politicians on Pot
Bend City Councilors will be making local rules that impact the time, place, and manner in which recreational marijuana is grown, processed, and sold. So we asked them about their past, present, and future marijuana use. Here’s what they had to say (or not). Councilors Sally Russell, Nathan Boddie, and Barb Campbell did not respond […]
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Pounding the Pavement
City considers a gas tax to fund transportation improvements
Driving across Bend is a little like playing Minesweeper, only the potholes don’t explode. So it’s not surprising that, in a recent survey by DHM Research, 61 percent of respondents described road conditions in Bend as “poor” or “very poor.” And data backs up that gut feeling. Because road damage has outpaced funding for repairs, […]
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Interview: Bend Police Chief Jim Porter on the expansion of the civil exclusion zone
The Bend City Council recently approved an ordinance expanding the civil exclusion zone to cover downtown. We talked to Bend Police Chief Jim Porter to get the inside scoop on how the ordinance came about and how police plan to execute it. Source Weekly: Where and how did the conversation about expanding the civil exclusion […]
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Side Notes 7/1-7/8
City Council talks transportation funding
A local gas tax is creeping closer to the November ballot. At a special meeting of Bend City Council on Monday, councilors discussed the results of a survey by DHM Research that found 63 percent of respondents support a 10-cent gas tax. It’s no secret that Bend’s roads are in bad shape. Survey respondents confirmed […]
Posted inOpinion
Exclude The Exclusion Zone
At City Council last Wednesday, an ordinance to expand the so-called “civil exclusion zone” was essentially re-introduced. Currently, the City allows police to “exclude” for 90 days persons accused of certain criminal and civil violations from specific areas downtown; the alleged violations can be as innocuous as littering, graffiti, or underage drinking. Based on recommendations […]
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Persona Non Grata
City Council votes 5-2 to expand downtown exclusion zone
As the weather heats up, so too does crime. And this summer, the Bend Police Department is hoping to nip bad behavior in the bud with an expansion of the city’s civil exclusion zone. But the move, which would allow police to ban individuals cited or arrested for certain crimes from the downtown area, is […]