City of Bend: You are Doing it Wrong

Being a Portlander, one of my favorite places to get out of town to for a few days is Bend, Oregon. It is part ski town, part hippster scence and part retirement area. The weather is great, the scenery is beautiful and Mt. Bachelor is just down the road.

Despite all of these great attributes, Bend has struggled in the past few years. Businesses have shut down, unemployment has skyrocketed, foreclosures are on the rise and their general economy often ranks in the top 10 worst in America.

I am over in Bend right now while my wife is here for work. I decided to find a nice coffee shop to work at this morning and ended up in a trendy looking section of downtown Bend. Unfortunately for business owners, downtown is dead. Empty commercial space lines most streets, restaurants sit virtually empty and the roads are all but a ghost town. If you are a small business owner, downtown Bend is probably one of the worst places for your storefront in all of Oregon right now.

I parked and walked into a wonderful coffee shop called Thump on Minnesota Street. They serve Stumptown and offer free wifi. The place was packed, unlike so many of their neighbors. Afterward, I asked the owner for a lunch restaurant suggestion and he pointed me to one of his favorites, and now one of mine after the amazing sandwich I just had. All told, I spent 3 hours in downtown Bend, found 2 great businesses to frequent and spent money.

When I returned to my car, it sat alone, the only vehicle parked on that side of the street for an entire block. I had a green envelope on my windshield; I was issued a parking ticket. Apparently that street, and most other downtown bend streets, have a 2 hour parking limit. I was a patron at locally owned businesses, spending money for 1 hour too long. Shame on me.

See, Bend, when you are in the type of economic situation that you’re in, parking tickets on empty streets are the last thing you should worry about. Sure, I know that I violated the time restriction, guilty as charged. However, I was one of very few people spending money in your community. I was supporting the businesses that have managed to stay alive during one of the worst economic downturns in modern history. One that names Bend as its poster child for what went wrong.

Instead of enforcing laws that keep people from spending more time and money in your once vibrant downtown, why not remove those restrictions and encourage people to hang around? I need a place for dinner tonight and will want to have a coffee while working again tomorrow. Should I go to downtown Bend for those trips or not? As I look at my $22 parking ticket from the City of Bend, I can tell you I’ll take my business elsewhere.

Bend, save the parking tickets for when you unemployment drops below 17%, for when your housing prices are no longer down 40%-60% from their highs and for when businesses start opening in your downtown, rather than closing.

Jeff the Great Illustrates Measures 66 & 67

Sorry to my followers outside of Oregon for all this political talk. I promise this will be my last post on the proposed Oregon tax hikes!

So I was thinking of how to illustrate the meaning of measures 66 & 67.....take a look at the below and tell me what you think.

Hi, my name is Jeff the Great and I'm unemployed. Life is not as easy now as it was when I had a job.

It's not fair.

Because it isn't fair, I am going to need everyone I know to send me a check for $150. After all, I'd like some more money and you appear to have money.

It's not fair.

What's that, you say I already get unemployment which is paid for partly out of your pocket?

Ya, I know I do, but it is just not enough. I'd like to make the same amount of money now as I did when I worked.

If I don't make that much, it's not fair.

What's that, you think I should have managed my money better when I was employed and not have gotten in over my head?

Ya, that sounds like a good idea until you think about it. I mean, I work hard ya know. I am entitled to lots of stuff. Besides, it's not like I made that much money in my last job anyway.

It's not fair.

What's that, you mean the economy is tough for you, too and you're barely making it?

That sucks, but it's not fair that you have a job and I don't so I'm going to need for you to write that check, pretty please.

After all, it's only fair.

What?!? You can't write me that check because now you don't have a job either? Who's going to write me that check now? And then who will write you your check?

IT'S NOT FAIR!

See any parallels with the proposed tax increases?