So if I have this right, there was part of a 35 million dollar grant available to the city of Bend to buy a motel for a homeless shelter.

 

The first place they looked at was less than "top-notch" so they rejected it, setting the city to the back of the line. There are now more "qualified" applicants ahead of them than there is money and they are in jeopardy of not getting any grant money at all. 

 

But at least the homeless aren't getting a less than "top-notch" shelter.

 

I think the problem I have with this isn't that they turned down an inadequate facility is that I doubt that it was either/or. That there were perimeters and time to make adjustments and they weren't made. I have no proof, but surely they were given time to check out the facility first before they signed an agreement. 

 

Seems to be a pattern with Bend. Create a bus line on the cheap without adequate funding, buy cheap buses that break down immediately, never really have the funding to do it right so the routes and the times are inadequate. 

 

Spend millions on the edge of town for a mixed used location without making sure the transportation routes have been adequate upgraded and without securing any tenants in advance. 

 

And yes, (my high horse), close the streets without any evidence that it is helpful to downtown businesses--and indeed, threaten to close the streets permanently even though even a little basic research of towns that have already done this would warn them off.