The Boot

Well, they went and did it again.
Two years ago, following the calamitous bust of the real estate bubble, the Bend City Council voted to give local builders and developers a break on their SDCs. SDCs – Systems Development Charges – are fees paid to help cover the cost of improvements to roads, sewer systems and other stuff made necessary by development.
Under the resolution the council passed, a builder doesn't have to pay SDCs up front. Instead he can wait nine months or until an occupancy permit for the new structure is issued, whichever comes first. The city gets a lien on the property in case the builder doesn't pay up. The deal essentially amounts to a nine-month, interest-free loan for the builder.

There are few symbols – save Old Glory and maybe a slice of apple pie – more symbolic of mainstream American culture than McDonald's sweeping yellow arches.
While there is nothing wrong with McDonald's per se – we enjoy a basket of fries and Big Mac as much as the next person, maybe more – there is a big problem with America's dietary relationship with McDonald's and the rest of the fast food industry that McDonald's has rightly or wrongly come to represent. That relationship is more like dealer and junkie than that of restaurant and customer, something that Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock noted a few years back when he reported that McDonald's refers to its frequent customers, as “heavy users.” It's a relationship that McDonald's courts with its aggressive marketing toward children (McDonald's distributes more toys than the nation's biggest toy retailers in any given year) and its oversized portions.

If you're an American worker or taxpayer, the headline at the top of The Bulletin's front page on Sunday made your blood boil – or should have.
“Stimulus jobs go to foreign workers,” it said. Underneath it, a subhead elaborated: “Oregon contractors hiring for forest work, say qualified locals unavailable.”

This probably is a historic first: This week's edition of THE BOOT was inspired by a bit of imbecility involving Oregon's liquor laws, but we're not giving it to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.
The OLCC, it seems, is just an innocent pawn in this story, which involves the regulation of home brewers. Oregon's liquor control law – enacted shortly after the end of Prohibition some 70 years ago – forbids anyone not licensed by the OLCC to make alcoholic beverages but carves out an exception for “the making or keeping of naturally fermented wines and fruit juices or beer in the home, for home consumption and not for sale.”

We've seen businesses perform some amazing acrobatic feats with numbers, but the cast of Cirque du Soleil couldn't top the stunt that Wayne Purcell, Brett Evert and some other Bend hotel owners are trying to pull off.
About 10 years ago, when the city decided to raise its transient room tax to 9%, the hotel owners pleaded for – and got – a $10-per-person credit for the supposed cost of providing complimentary breakfasts to guests. For example, if a couple rented a room for $100 a night, the hotel could knock off $20 for the meal credit and thus owe room tax on only $80.

It's good to know people in high places. Just ask Keith Cyrus and his family.
Cyrus, the descendant of five generations of Central Oregonians, is a member of the Deschutes County Planning Commission. He also is the developer of Aspen Lakes, a tony golf course subdivision near Sisters.