Downtown Bend is booming. It's really quite remarkable. I suspect there are few places in America that have as much activity as we do.
Part of it is that the entire area only stretches a few blocks--you know, like a town of 10,000 people. But we're now a town of 110,000 people and the area isn't getting any bigger. Sure, there are other commercial centers, Old Mill, Northwest Crossing, Cascade Village, but none of them have the old school charm of old downtown.
Now the locals would probably scoff at the "charm" part. To many locals it just seems too crowded to bother with. No Parking!
But newcomers and tourists just see the shops. They don't seem to have trouble parking in the parking garage. They are attracted to the hustle and bustle.
Once again, I'll throw out the old Yogi Berra bon mot: "No one goes there anymore. It's too crowded."
I wish I had a time machine so I could go back to my younger self, twenty, thirty, especially forty years ago and say, "Someday these streets will be filled with shoppers." Part of me always thought that was a possibility. I always chose to pay the higher rents because I saw a continual progression. I made the right choice to stay right where I was. And I'd already made the mistake of expanding too much, what I will call the Duncan Corollary to the Peter Principle: "A business will expand to its level of incompetence."
I'm happy with what I've got and really don't want to add more complexity or stress. Just grateful to see it happen.
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