Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Come back, Little Paul-doh!

IHATETOBURSTYOURBUBBLE writes in the comments:

"Dunc, please write about the simply ridiculous INBRED nature of today's piece in the Bully regarding "affordable condo".

Patty Moss enriching her construction pals while bankrupting CACB.

And the inane nature of a AUCTION where NOTHING SELLS. Only in Bend."

Consider it done.

But more to the point: such inanity is far from over and we really need someone who will write about this. There used to be a blog called Bend Bubble 2 which did a pretty good job of that. I won't say a word if that blog just quietly starts up again.....

We'll just pretend you never left, dude.

***********

Meanwhile, back to the condo's.

The comment "...the condo's were well-conceived." Well, no. Obviously not. Only people in the middle of a bubble would've believe that condo's built above "affordable" apartments would be attractive. I know it immediately struck me as strange. In fact, you'd have to say that the project went wrong in the "conception" stage; unless they're saying they are pieces of crap, and there's nothing in the article about the actual quality.

The Bank of the Cascades loan was as misguided as many of their 'commercial' loans, and they are going to pay the price.

Live by a bubble, die by a bubble.

"This is a great project." Again, no. No. No. No. Obviously not.

"Well-conceived projects" take "bad timing" into account. "Great projects" do not have "zero" ZERO!! sales (even in an auction!) in competition to other projects....

One good thing these bubble blogs did was point out over 3.5 years ago, in writing, for the world to see, that not everyone thought these projects were a good idea. The argument, "It was just bad timing," implies that Who Could Have Known?

Who Could Have Known? Anyone who was paying attention. As a small business owner, I don't have the luxury of counting "timing" as outside the business plans. Indeed, I could make the case that "timing" is one of the most important elements of business planning. As a small business owner, anything that goes wrong is basically my fault, outside of "Acts of God." (And even those, you have to figure may happen). I may blame the mistakes on lack of information, or on lack of experience, but those are reasons not excuses.

What was most ridiculous was to term these "affordable" at the time. Even at the time, their estimated dollars per square foot was firmly in the middle to upper range, especially historically. I can remember specifically doubting on my blog that there was a huge backlog of well-heeled buyers who would rather buy a 'condo' than a real house "...with a yard."

Duh.

Another boondoogle, financed by the Bank of the Cascades, with the 'help' of government money.

I'm glad the parking garage was built. Someday the retail will be filled. Someday soon, the "affordable" condo's will simply become apartments, like they probably should have been all along.

The "Commercial" bubble, meanwhile, has barely started it's frothy, messy, bubbly burst in your face, exploding act.

6 comments:

H. Bruce Miller said...

"I can remember specifically doubting on my blog that there was a huge backlog of well-heeled buyers who would rather buy a 'condo' than a real house "...with a yard."

There are plenty of people who would rather buy a condo than a "real house with a yard," but such people generally don't want to live in a place like Bend (unless we're talking about vacation condos). They tend to gravitate to urban centers.

Quimby said...

Butter, please come back home to BB2 (or start a new blog.....whatever floats your boat.

Quimby

Mrs Sally Heatherton Esq said...

Somebody already suggested a weekly "What do you assholes think", and we can do that on BB1, PaulDoh put in three good long years, and the comments are what makes the blog. PDoh can't sustain a weekly rehash of the same shit after three years. The site MUST be uncensored.

BendBubble.blogspot.com

Let's just weekly start anew, and let people piss on the rock, its really wrong for a public persona like dunc to stick his neck out in a town of angry parasites. It's going to be a long time in Bend, before anytime can tell the truth about this shit-hole of a town without anonymity.

H. Bruce Miller said...

"The site MUST be uncensored."

I emphatically disagree. In fact unless the new site is moderated I won't participate.

I'm convinced a kind of Gresham's Law applies to blogs. Bad comments tend to drive out good ones; the loonies drive away the rational people. I don't want to have to wade through acres of garbage posted by assorted morons and psychos to find an occasional nugget of good sense.

It's possible to have comment moderation ("censorship" is a loaded word) without stifling discussion. Plenty of blogs do it. Just lay down a few simple ground rules: No obscenities, no personal insults or name-calling, stick to the topic.

Anonymous said...

HBM (black-dog) wants a censored site. Well we have its called the SORE, and ran by HBM. But as we all know everything is censored. So what's the point?

Who is the censor, well in HBM's case its Switzer of the SORE. Who has a vested interest of not pissing off the status-quo ( advertisers ).

Even Dunc can't be political for fear of pissing off customers in a bad economy.

We tried to have BendEconomy after BEM quit three years ago, but it died because of censorship.

The only thing that has sustained was BB2, uncensored. The only person WHO ever complained about lack of censorship was HBM, yet HBM got most of his material for his SORE column from BB2.

For now where can the angry left&right post un-censored, ... certainly NOT here, dunc has NEVER deleted any of my bile. But let's be honest, Dunc's site is a family place.

Oh well maybe in time a few folks can create a new site that will be sticky for the old-timers. Until then post your vile&bile at bendbubble.blogspot.com. I'm sure Homer has figured he's wasted 3 years of his life, and certainly all of his sundays on this hobby.

The comments are the best, so where do we comment. I haven't heard anybody offer a solution, other than HBM's demand for censorship.

Dunc's site is a good place to post general announcements, and certainly if the material is rational dunc will follow up. Sadly there will always be mostly RUMOR and an occasional TRUMOR.

HBM wants to have CONTROLLED "free speech". Enough said, he's a fucking Nazi in sheep's clothing.

Duncan McGeary said...

Problem is, Bilbo. There is offensive and then there is OFFENSIVE.

Paul-doh was entertaining in an outrageous way, but he rarely resorted to pictures of Nazi's kicking Jews and laughing, or starting his posts by insulting everyone, or by using the 'pissing on rocks' -- insisting on using phrases like 'pissing on rocks' and Hobbits and such.

I don't think you're capable of toning it down, and I'm not comfortable with it.