Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Lots of blog fodder on this trip. But I wanted to start with something that really leaped out at me.

The downtown core areas of both Albany and Corvallis were huge compared to Bend. If you count Wall and Bond and say Brooks, and Minnesota and Oregon, Greenwood and Franklin, we have maybe a total of 12 city blocks.

Albany looked at least twice the size, if not more, and so did Corvallis.

Which makes sense when you figure that during the time these zones were being created, Bend was probably 1/4 to 1/3 the size of either Albany or Corvallis.

What becomes very noticeable is that even when a block seems to be reviving -- slightly -- only a block or two away there are shuttered buildings. In other words, they have a steeper hill to climb, with such a large area to fill. They look like they are on the path, and making good choices, but I think that what happened to Bend is unusual, and at least some of it comes down to a town that is now BIGGER than either Corvallis and Albany, but with much less downtown space to fill up, which had never occurred to me before.

We were wandering around downtown Albany, and came across the Visitor's center. I casually asked the clerk was the average rent was, and she insisted I talk to the head of the retailer's Downtowners. I got my answer, about 1.00 or less than half Bend, and we kept talking -- at completely cross purposes. I'd start to try to describe downtown Bend, and he'd excitedly tell me that Albany had the same thing, and how Albany was starting to boom, and how high end everything was and how little vacancies there were.

Well, I'd just strolled through much of downtown Albany and it didn't look anything like Bend. Finally, I just said. "Look, you really need to visit Bend to get a true idea of what's happening...."

So, like I said yesterday, I think both Albany and Corvallis, while not dis functional, would kill to have Bend's look and feel and foot traffic, and, dare I say it, mix of retail.

I had a long talk with my friend Wes Hare, and we had a different take on how Bend revived. I think there was a large portion of luck, happenstance, and statistical anomaly. For instance, the first major impact on downtown did not come from the mass market, per se, or at least the usual culprits of WalMart and Target, etc. We had two malls open, which had some big anchor stores, (mostly department stores like Sears and Penny's and The Bon, which aren't quite the category killers that Walmart and Staples and Home Depot are) around 1980. But because of a recession, we had a 10 year moratorium on competition and downtown Bend had a chance to fill back up, mostly with Bohemian mom and pop types. How do you predict that a lone developer would attempt to renovate the old post office, or that the tunesmith of the Carpenter's songs would use some of his money to renovate the O'Kane building?

Wes, who is a city manager, (Albany) believes that Bend had some advantages and some visionaries and some good planning. He points to Mt. Bachelor, Sunriver, etc. as examples. But of course it is his job, his experience, his belief that managers plan and cities then evolve along their plans. I don't want to speak for him, or misrepresent his views, but I think the split between his view that it was both planned and inevitable, and mine that it was happenstance and luck, is pretty clear.

The truth, no doubt, is somewhere in between. But you can see what a huge obstacle these downtown cores have to surmount. Success breeds success, and empty storefronts breed empty storefronts. Personally, the outlying malls and outlet stores and big boxes that surround Albany and Corvallis are completely boring and uninteresting. It's hard to believe that American's have chosen that model of business to give their money to.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

A very interesting trip you must have had. I think you are right that city "planning" isn't all that it's cracked up to be, at least in terms of a community trying to target a certain type of business to enter (e.g., high tech industry). It was kind of luck/happenstance that Hewlett-Packward chose to move to Corvallis (where I am from) in the early 1970s (among many people there was resistance to the land being sold to them). It was also pretty much randomness that we got a major land-grant university here back in the 1800s.

In today's Corvallis there is a lot of emphasis on "planning," but it mainly seems to consist of slowing down projects from happening (which, I must say, the townspeople and city management are pretty good at). The population of Corvallis is very resistant to growth in general -- and to big box stores in particular. We have a K-Mart and two Bi-marts for a town of 55,000 that also serves people all the way to the coast. The only true "big box" store that we have is Home Depot, which arrived in just February 2007! It had been resisted for years and years (and many still complain about it, although they shop there). Before that we only had tiny mom-and-pop hardware stores in downtown Corvallis, which appear to be surviving. We have very few chain restaurants (e.g., no Applebees).

Albany, by contrast, is very pro-growth and open to business. It's about the same size as Corvallis. They have a genuine indoor shopping mall with large anchor stores such as Sears and Target. Barring a few specialty shops in downtown Corvallis, a person has to drive to Albany (about 10 miles away) to get anything of substance at a decent price (e.g., a shirt). So Corvallis has lots of good jobs and income, but you have to go to Albany to spend it.

Duncan McGeary said...

That's stuff I didn't know, Jeff. Thanks.

I always talk about how downtown Bend is losing the 'funk.' What I mean is mom and pops who make their actual living from a business.

Albany and Corvallis were full of them. Albany had a Stain-glass store, a Costume Shop, a Magic shop (tricks, etc.), and so on that it would be hard to imagine anyone being able to afford in downtown Bend. But they also had a huge number of 'Antique' stores, which are mostly second hand junk. I read somewhere you can gage the prosperity of a downtown by how many second hand store there are.

My dream downtown would have a mix of what we have in Bend, and what I saw in Corvallis. Or Bend, circa 1998 or so.

Carl said...

Got my PhD at OSU in 1975. Have been going back on business about once per month for the last 4 years.

My impression about Corvallis is that it has been basically stuck in a time-warp. Not much new has happened. Same lack of good restaurants and any kind of shopping.

Looks the same as 1975, except for one or two instances.

Duncan McGeary said...

I was going to say, that unless I wasn't looking in the right spots, there wasn't ANY of the types of stores you see downtown Bend, the high end jewelry stores, dress stores, shoe stores, art galleries, etc.

What was there of those types looked like they had been there a long time.

Curious.

I'm almost wondering if there is an inverse ratio to the amount of money fixing a place up to the ability of that store to pay a primary wage.

Anonymous said...

"there wasn't ANY of the types of stores you see downtown Bend, the high end jewelry stores, dress stores, shoe stores, art galleries, etc."

If Corvallis has wealthy people, you would never know it. No one wears jewelry or dresses up at all. The most expensive car you can buy here is Cadillac, and one doesn't see many of them. There is an $80,000 Mercedes-Benz S-class in my neighborhood, but it looks out of place. Figures, they just moved here from New Jersey! They'll learn. I'm from the Midwest, but Corvallis (and Oregon in general) is the most laid back place I've ever seen. Of course, can't say I'm complaining.

Duncan McGeary said...

I was thinking about that on the way to work today as I saw two Hummers. I don't think I saw a Hummer on the entire trip. I think I've seen half a dozen in the last couple of days in Bend.

Also the quantity and size of the SUV's is really noticeable.

Duncan McGeary said...

I believe the wealthy in Bend, the few that there were, didn't display it ostentatiously until about 10 - 20 years ago.

The first time I ever saw a 'teardown', (before I'd even heard the term) was a huge castle that someone build on Mirror Pond, that dwarfed the surrounding houses. I think about 20 years ago. I wondered how he could show his face.