This is Mike Hollern's description of the type of people Bend needs to attract, "they're creating the jobs of the future. And we need to keep attracting them here."
Oh, and "weird tattoos." (Also, I assume, in weird places.)
I assume these are real jobs for real people. (Inside joke.) He's got a way with words.
I buy that these two guys, Hollern and Bill Smith have "played" ... "the most instrumental roles in transforming Bend from an isolated mill town"..."to a world class tourism" area.
What's not asked in the article in the Bulletin, "Planning for Big Growth in Bend," is whether this is a good thing.
250, 000 people?
It seems to be taken for granted that this is what we all want.
Still, I can't argue with the idea of a decent 4 year college. A more educated populace would be great.
I always go back to the type of jobs we're likely to produce around here -- service and tourism and retirement jobs. Leavened by medical and educational?
If we're lucky, maybe we can create a high-tech center.
But, really, the only way I can envision a 250K town is to have a core of wealthy and/or retired folk, surrounded by a bunch of minimum wage service workers. A gated town, if you will.
Like I said, is this what we want?
To be fair, I'm not sure what the alternative is.
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I read that article with my mouth wide open! Good grief! 250,000 people? I won't stick around to be one of them (even if I could live that long.) And while I am on a rant, what's up with our dueling Visitor's and Tourism entities?
"250, 000 people? It seems to be taken for granted that this is what we all want."
Well, it's what the Builder/Developer/Realtor Axis wants, and that's all that counts in this town.
250,000 people is a pipe dream. But even if it never comes true, the continuing pursuit of it will mean more booms and busts, more inadequate infrastructure, more crowded and mediocre schools, more crowded streets and highways, more ugliness blighting the landscape.
This mentality, along with the climate, is one of the main reasons I'm getting the hell out of Bend.
H. Bruce Miller... all the those development reasons are good enough, but your climate comment was totally off the mark. Try living in Wisconsin and you'd gladly come crawling back after one winter.
Bend ain't humid so your sweat won't stick to your crotch like in Florida. Bend doesn't get much snow, and the stuff it does get, doesn't last long usually. It has plenty of blue sky. Doesn't rain like Seattle (thank you semi-desert climate!). Gets hot... but not too hot like the south. Gets cold, but not too cold like Wisconsin.
Bend has some of the best weather in the nation. No hurricanes or tornadoes. No relentless rain. No super winds. No horrible winters. No horrible summers. Really, what place are YOU looking for that beats Bend? The only thing you have to put up with here, is the occasional volcano going off every 1,000 years.
oh,oh.
Uh-oh is right.
Pass the popcorn.
"your climate comment was totally off the mark. Try living in Wisconsin"
Sigh. Once again the false-dichotomy argument is offered.
I don't intend to try living in Wisconsin. But Bend and Wisconsin are not the only two places in the world.
"Bend ain't humid so your sweat won't stick to your crotch like in Florida."
Nope, ain't moving to Florida either. (Not that I've ever experienced a real sweaty-crotch problem. If you do, they've invented a wonderful thing called a "shower.")
"Doesn't rain like Seattle"
Ain't moving to Seattle either.
"No horrible winters. No horrible summers."
The winters, while perhaps not "horrible," are cold, gray and dreary -- and endless. Summers are pleasant ... while they last. And there's no spring at all.
"Really, what place are YOU looking for that beats Bend?"
Right now, Arizona. Yeah, it gets hot. But I'd rather have a couple months a year of heat than nine months a year of winter.
"No super winds."
50, 60 or 70 mph is plenty "super" enough for me.
Mr. Miller. No one's going to take you seriously if you take an extreme case and make it look like the norm. Bend MAY have gotten some windy day or two, but it doesn't represent an entire year.
And what false dichotomy are you talking about? Dichotomy by definition is "two," I believe I supplied you with many alternatives to Oregon. You were the one who started painting with large brush strokes with your definition of it being miserable, so don't get me started. It seems to me that your idea of winter is a joke. How long has snow stuck to the ground this year? 2 weeks tops? yeah REAL miserable winter. Do you even go outside?
East of the Rockies, it's all sweat and stickiness to the point that you will want to take two showers every day.
West of the Rockies, it's real wet along the NW coast. Rockies territory has lots of snow. So that leaves you with California, The Great Basin, and Arizona/New Mexico. California has L.A. so no go there. The Great Basin... yeah... that's doable.... oh wait you're already there. And finally Arizona and New Mexico. Unless you're in Flagstaff, it's very hot. Flagstaff... just another Bend but with less people.
Every year I go caving in the Bend area, and am able to go out into the wilderness as late as November. I can even get outside and be active as early as March. This year I went with the forest service on a bat study in early February.
Somehow Bruce I just don't think you have lived much elsewhere to back up your claim. You kind of sound like a Californian retiree who is not used to such "frigid" winters, but has only enjoyed winters that go as low as the 70s. Which is no winter at all.
I remember my father in 1991 mowing his lawn on Christmas Day here. While not the example you'd like it to be, it shows that Bend's Winters are often mild.
Go ahead and move to Arizona, but somehow I think you will just be staying inside and enjoying the air conditioner the whole time.
I'll admit that the colder weather has stuck around longer the past three years, but that is due to La Nina.
"Pass the popcorn."
Scoot over a little. Pass the popcorn.
Note that no actual research was used on the article. No study of relocation trending. No economic forecast. Basically no facts at all. Just pure pie-in-the-sky optimism.
Brtp4
"And what false dichotomy are you talking about? Dichotomy by definition is "two," I believe I supplied you with many alternatives to Oregon."
You supplied three. Each of them represented an extreme of weather -- Wisconsin for cold, Seattle for rain, Florida for humidity.
I admit Bend has a moderate climate. It's moderately lousy most of the time.
"How long has snow stuck to the ground this year? 2 weeks tops?"
Probably not even that long. But you know damn well if you've been here any length of time that this winter (so far) was freakishly warm and sunny.
Besides, I never said the winters here were especially cold or snowy. The problem is that they drag on into June.
"East of the Rockies, it's all sweat and stickiness to the point that you will want to take two showers every day."
All I can say to that is that you must be a remarkably sweaty guy.
"California has L.A. so no go there."
Huh? Do you think all of California is LA? You need to get around more, friend.
"Somehow Bruce I just don't think you have lived much elsewhere to back up your claim."
I've lived in six different cities on both the East Coast and the West Coast. Bend has (usually) the longest, dreariest winters of any of them. As I said earlier, this winter has been an exception.
And you can't blame it all on La Nina. It's a standing joke that Bend has four seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter and Road Construction.
"Go ahead and move to Arizona, but somehow I think you will just be staying inside and enjoying the air conditioner the whole time."
I doubt it. In Northern California we frequently had spells in the summer when the temperature would hit the triple digits. You just do your outdoor activities in the early morning before it gets hot or in the evening when it cools down.
Sure loved my swimming pool in California. We'd use it from mid-March through October. Try THAT in Bend.
One last thing: I don't know if you're trying to convince me or convince yourself, but if you're trying to convince me you're wasting your time. I've lived here more than 26 years, and my mind is made up: Bend is not for me. Not anymore.
I'm not trying to convince you of anything more than that you are painting with huge brush strokes.
I gave more than 3 examples, but you aren't analytical enough to see that. Tornadoes - the blackhole bellybutton of the Unites States. Wind in the northern plain states where wind farms are (and not many trees either). Hurricanes, the entire east and south coast. Bad winters... the entire Canadian border states and then some. Humidity seems to be a factor for those who actually go outside like myself and exercise. I could go on...
Btw, Bend does not have the longest winters. I too am a long time resident and have lived in a few places in the states, and you have more than proved to me that you have exaggerated your examples.
A typical example of Bend weather can be summed up by the occurrence of a word that doesn't frequent many of the other places in the states. "Black Ice" is a central Oregon phenomenon that quite eloquently depicts that we do get precipitation here, but more so in the form of rain than snow. And when it does rain in the winter, at night it freezes only to unfreeze during the day. But again, we live in a semi-desert. Precipitation pales in comparison to many other states.
To me it seems like you're requirements for a winter is no winter at all. Well, that's kind of boring, but often lately a requirement for retirement it seems. Have fun!
No matter how many examples you give, you're still presenting false dichotomies -- taking a case of a place with truly horrific weather (tornadoes, hurricanes) and saying, "See, Bend isn't as bad as that!"
And my point is that such comparisons are not valid because my choices are not limited to those places. It doesn't have to come down to a choice between "truly horrible" vs. "somewhat less horrible."
""Black Ice" is a central Oregon phenomenon that quite eloquently depicts that we do get precipitation here, but more so in the form of rain than snow."
Once again, it's not about snow. I never claimed that Bend gets a huge amount of snow. Typically it doesn't.
And 'black ice' is not a phenomenon unique to Central Oregon, although Central Oregonians seem to believe it is. (In keeping with the local meme that everything here is "special," I guess -- we even have a special kind of ice.)
"To me it seems like you're [sic] requirements for a winter is [sic] no winter at all."
Well, that would be pretty neat for a change. But I would put up with winters of a reasonable length. Because believe it or not, there ARE quite a few things I like about Bend.
"Humidity seems to be a factor for those who actually go outside like myself and exercise."
Ah, a sly dig at the old man. Yeah, I still go outside and exercise. (Used to do it more in California, where it actually was PLEASANT to be outdoors most of the year, and am looking forward to doing it more when in Arizona.)
But I don't dig this sweat phobia of yours. It's hot, you play tennis or run or ride your bike or crawl into a cave (in your case), you get sweaty, you come home and take a shower. What's the big deal?
And if you've got a swimming pool to jump into afterwards, that's pure delight.
Well... it may be extreme for hurricanes and tornadoes... but hmm... let's see, hurricanes do happen yearly and hit the U.S. Tornadoes do happen frequently every year, in fact, my house nearly got hit by a tornado. But okay, those are too extreme for you to take seriously. The bad winter of the east is however not an extreme. It's the norm every winter. Humidity is the norm east of the rockies, every year in and out. You don't see to notice, but perhaps you have forgotten and need a refresher? Windy plains is the norm and not an extreme. That's part of being in the midland with little trees and Canadian breeze.
I never claimed that black ice was exclusive to central Oregon.
And your [sic] ways are kind of annoying Bruce. Do you point out to everyone when they mispronounce a word? Even word aficionados know not to look so nitpicky. Yeah I make grammar mistakes or spelling mistakes because I type and think fast. Last time I checked Duncan makes them all the time, and I don't see you doing that to him. Oh you're just sidetracking me! Damnit.
"Yeah I make grammar mistakes or spelling mistakes because I type and think fast."
Maybe you should slow down, then.
"And your [sic] ways are kind of annoying Bruce."
I find YOU annoying because of your smarmy smugness ("I gave more than 3 examples, but you aren't analytical enough to see that" "Humidity seems to be a factor for those who actually go outside like myself and exercise") and your tendency to either miss or intentionally ignore the point of my arguments.
But this dialogue has grown tedious. Good-bye.
Did you see the Bulletin editorial this morning telling us we need to get ready for the next growth spurt? Bend will never get off the roller coaster of boom-and-bust because the powers that be -- the Builder-Developer-Realtor Axis and its toadies in the media -- don't want to. They'd rather have the chance to make a killing during the booms than have sustainable prosperity. Why? Because they have the resources to ride out the busts. It's only "the little people" who lose their homes and livelihoods when the bubble bursts.
Well don't paint with large brushstrokes then. You complain of the weather. I give you major alternatives and you complain that I can't do that because its a false dichotomy. Bullshit. You made the comparison and I added to it.
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