Sunday, September 16, 2007

I was just talking to a Downtowner who wondered if it made any sense to talk about the negatives.
Of course it does: If you are a small business owner planning to expand, to add newer fixtures or inventory, to bring on new employees....
Anything that would add to overhead, especially overhead you can't cut down, then 'talk' about the negative may be exactly what they should hear.
Acknowledging that there is a problem is the first step.
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was just talking to a Downtowner who wondered if it made any sense to talk about the negatives.
*
Does it ever pay to mention the emperor has no clothes?

I think the over-used Holocaust is a classic example of NO ONE SPEAKING UP.

Had a few people SPOKE-UP early on, things might have not had the outcome.

Humans are like dogs, they want to be part of the pack, a black-sheep amongst dogs will always be hated. Nobody wants to be the black-sheep. Everyone wants to be loved and part of the pack.

That said if there's a wolf down the trail, and nobody wants to hear about it, ... a smart dog might just go hide on his own. Fine.

But here in BEND, we're all going to have to pay for the insanity. Our taxes are going to go up, our utility fee's will rise, the city will start charging a HUGE business license fee like PDX of 1% of gross before taxes, just for a business license.

This will all come, because everyone was afraid to suggest that we had literally built a HOUSE OF CARDS. All of Bend is modeled on outside suckers coming in to bid up RE ever higher. Because +50% of Bend is-was based on speculation, it was only a matter of time before the RE biz imploded.

Bend become the land of "Anything is possible" if you just use taxpayer dollars for PR.

Does it pay to be pessimistic amongst a happy pack of dogs? No, never. That said the pack that survives must contain a few realists. Those of us who have been here a long time, cannot simply move-on, just because the current 'electable' are incompetent crooks.

The optimist, pessimist, versus realist debate will never end. I myself and Duncan are businessmen, in ORDER to truly SURVIVE in business you MUST be playing with a FULL DECK of cards. You must make decisions based on truth. Very rarely does high risk speculation pay in the long term. Generally the mass of men and/or dogs in a large pack are wrong 99% of the time through-out history.

Nobody is forced to be a realist, if you want to be an optimist, do so. I for one fear the Bend roundabouts I do not cross them unless there are NO cars, I do this because I know the drivers of Bend are NOT looking for pedestrians. In order to survive, you must consider the failure or incompetence of your fellow man.

September 16, 2007 at 9:27:00 AM PDT
IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Acknowledging that there is a problem is the first step.

Get ready for this headline in The Source:

"Duncan McGeary accuses downtowners of ALCOHOLISM!"

September 16, 2007 at 11:38:00 AM PDT
Anonymous said...
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September 16, 2007 at 5:23:00 PM PDT
Bend Economy Man said...

You know, I'd hope that with more big-city people moving into Bend, we'd start to get rid of that small-town "accentuate the positive" B.S. The only reason that works in a small town is that people get the REAL info through the back-fence gossip route.

Bend's too big now for news and opinions to spread efficiently by gossip.

Obviously "something" has happened to downtown. You've got vacant lots and vacant storefronts mixed with fine-dining establishments, aggressively quaint shops, RE front offices and corporate outposts. Luckily you still have a few older establishments like the D&D and Pegasus hanging in there.

September 18, 2007 at 4:20:00 AM PDT

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