Grasping at straws?

At first, I thought the building permit numbers in the Bend Bulletin editorial, "It's not all bad", were pretty weak to be crowing about. Going from 2,050 in 2005, to 276 in 2008 would appear to be a complete collapse.

And yet....the Bulletin is right that 276 is a strong number compared to everyone else. (I don't buy their projection of 300 over the mid-year to mid-year range, seems to be playing with numbers to come up just slightly higher...).

That 2,050 number was in some ways a disaster for Bend.

I was never against growth, per se. Just crazy growth.

It reminds me of my situation downtown. Even with the downturn, my foot traffic rate is higher than it used to be. High enough that almost any urban zone anywhere in Oregon would be happy with it. But I no longer feel threatened that they will tear down my building or the building across the way and build some monstrosity.

I've always said, I'd prefer a steady 10% growth rate (and even that is huge, historically) than a 30 or 40 or 50% jump. Those kinds of growth rates cause all kinds of dislocations and imbalances.

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I had a good day at the store again. If I can keep these numbers, my daily average may be down about 15%, possibly 20% from last year. Those aren't great numbers, but last year's February really outperformed almost any other month in the year, relatively speaking.

I've got money in my budget to spend, but I'm thinking about waiting another week. I've got spot shortages all over the store, but I just don't feel the level of real need has reached any sort of urgency. (It's more at the gnawing, scratchy level...)

It's extremely rare that I have money to spend and don't pull the trigger.

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I dreamed all last night of opening used bookstores. We have the formula, we have the material, we have the know-how.

But I don't have the manpower.

And I most definitely don't have the ambition. (though apparently, my subconscious still does....)

I was scouting for locations in my bathrobe....don't know what that means....