As you can see, the main focus of my ire is the 'mass market.' I'm not unhappy with newcomers except insofar as they were enablers of this process of blanding of Bend. A Trader Joes to me is nothing more than a fancier McDonalds. It's same Trader Joes anywhere you go, and has nothing to do with the uniqueness of Bend.

So we have more big stores full of cheap merchandise that we don't really need. Big stores that look exactly the same no matter where you go. Pull a curtain around them, and you wouldn't know where you are.

I'm sad that downtown Bend has turned into a quaint, touristy, high priced 'village by the river' which most native Bendites won't go near unless they have to. It wasn't so long ago that we had functioning department stores, drug stores, stationary stores, and hardware stores.

To me, the mass market homogenizes and brings Bend down to every other town; Walmart is ugly. Big Box stores are ugly and bland and uninspired.

Pay no attention; I'm a disgruntled local.