Is it time to say, I told you so? Again?

One of my first blogs was about BAT, I believe. The transit manager came to town and announced it would be 'easy', or words to that effect. And I thought, wait, why has every other city council until now found it impossible to fund without new taxes.? Why have the residents of Bend turned down BAT? Because, residents of Bend -- real, long term residents, -- I believe instinctively understood it wouldn't be Easy.

Worthy? Perhaps. Easy........ no.

So we come to find out that HALF of the budget of the transit district comes from general funds.

Yeah, that really worked.

Maybe next time, before saying it's easy, the transit manager should maybe live here for awhile, get a sense of the place, see how few people walk around, how many people drive clunkers. Old Bend wasn't so big that your couldn't walk everywhere if you had to -- and new Bend, the huge mass market job infrastructure is something that should have been foreseen.

Maybe one of the things Bend could have been innovative about is to say to Walmart and Target and Costgo -- hey, you want to locate on the outskirts of town, and then pay your employees minimum wage, half time jobs? Then maybe you should help pay for their transit to their jobs.



Meanwhile, people are bailing out of projects here in town, left and right. The more EXPERIENCED they are, the sooner they are trying to extricate themselves. Brooks saw it first, now Bauhofer and Thomas. These guys may escape with their skins intact, even if they don't make the huge profits they hoped for. There are others out there -- who DON'T know Bend and DON'T understand it's potential downside, that are still hanging on. Will probably hang on until it's too late.

Bend's going to be a great place in 5 to 10 years. Lots of beautiful corpses and shiny shell for hermit crabs to move into. The people who are taking over these projects and can swim underwater for 3 to 5 years are really going to get a nice payout.

But those who come to town and try to mimic the look and feel of the deep pocketed investors are going to find it difficult, if not impossible, to hold their breath that long. Most businesses can't endure 20% drops, much less 30 or 40% drops. Funding dries up. Equity from their houses disappear overnight. Credit cards are maxed, and the fees start kicking in.

Bend is Bend. If you can come here with money, we're a great equity sink. If you have enough, you'll do O.K. If you have a good job, you'll be O.K. But if you overreach, you either are going to have to leave or join the rest of us....repeat after me....

Poverty With A View.