Parking Blowback.

The blowback on Chuck Arnold has been more severe than I would've expected. A couple of the downtowners are calling for his resignation.

You have to wonder if there was a little nucleus of group-think that made him go forward with his initiative. While just about every other business owner would've told him it was a bad idea.

I really cringed to watch one of the local T.V. channels talk about "Charging for Downtown Parking!!" without making it clear that it was one parking lot -- just one. But I think this is what happens when you open a can of worms.

There does seem to be a pattern of over-reaction. Like trying to put a surveillance camera on every corner because of vandalism and graffitti.

I think Chuck is energetic and involved, and deserves a fair hearing. The parking situation, itself, is far enough away from my store that I don't think it affects me -- except in the PERCEPTION that parking is bad downtown.

I'm a block away from the "half-empty" parking garage, and am puzzled why more people don't use it. Though -- I did predict it. I'm willing to admit that I was wrong about the garage, though my 'native Bendite' instincts were that both the bus system and the garage would be under utilized.

I'll say it again, and say it every time: give the downtown minimum wage employees the second from the top level Free. Yes, Free. It aint' bein' used, anyway.

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Is the blond actress in Past Life, Trauma, Fringe, Cold Case, etc. etc. the same actress? Do they have some sort of template they use? Just wondering.

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Bank of the Cascades "has a plan." Appears to be the same plan that fell through last year, when they decided not to make a public offering. So now they're going to approach 'private' investors.

I have the same question I had last time -- why would you buy into a plan where two owners end up with 25% of the bank each, simply by 'pledging' to match YOUR money. No risk, really, on their part. They walk off with half the value, but only if the plan succeeds. Sounds...inequitable, somehow.

It would be interesting to know if these two owners hold the same level of stock they had at the beginning, or whether they've been hedging their bets by selling off....

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Ostracism dreams over this last week. Last night, I was being called into the office and losing my job. It's been thirty years since I had a boss. But it was still traumatic. Makes me all the more sympathetic to all the folk who have lost their jobs. I think, sometimes, that I've been so tenacious in my business because I'm terrified of the possibility -- though logically, opening a business may not have been the most sensiblel solution....

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