chuggnutt.com

Jake points to an utterly jaw-dropping article in the Wall Street Journal about a woman who is running into trouble up on Awbrey Butte by... get this... daring to hang her laundry on a clothesline.

No kidding.

This is stupid beyond words. Check it:

The regulations of the subdivision in which Ms. Taylor lives effectively prohibit outdoor clotheslines. In a move that has torn apart this otherwise tranquil community, the development's managers have threatened legal action. To the developer and many residents, clotheslines evoke the urban blight they sought to avoid by settling in the Oregon mountains.

"This bombards the senses," interior designer Joan Grundeman says of her neighbor's clothesline. "It can't possibly increase property values and make people think this is a nice neighborhood."

Let's break down a couple of those things, shall we? It states, "clotheslines evoke the urban blight they sought to avoid by settling in the Oregon mountains"—ummm, if you're settling in the "Oregon mountains," you'd better believe clotheslines are a way of life. You know, the kind of life you moved here to experience? If that's a problem, then leave.

And "urban blight" and "bombards the senses"? Seriously? It's a clothesline. If anything, I would think it would not only make the neighborhood nicer, but it would increase property values. That's how the world works for those of us with common sense, anyway.

So Brooks Resources is threatening legal action. And while she may be, technically, in violation of the CC&Rs for the neighborhood,

Ms. Taylor responded by pointing out that the subdivision is "blatantly full of noncompliant owners" who display everything from plastic play equipment to exterior paint colors that don't meet the requirement of "medium to dark tones." She added: "Who am I hurting by hanging clothes out to dry?"

So yeah, I'm just blown away by this level of stupidity. Hanging a clothesline is the "green" and environmentally-responsible thing to do—and isn't being green the new trend, especially among the "elite" and all these new, trendy homes and developments that are going up? How does caring about the environment constitute "blight"?

I guess being environmentally responsible isn't a priority for Brooks Resources or the other fools complaining over a backyard clothesline; if I was really snarky I'd write a headline saying Brooks Resources hates the environment.

Man, some days I agree with Jake's comment that Bend really seems to be turning into a craphole.

Yes, you read that right: over on my Hack Bend blog, I get to do a giveaway for a pair of tickets to The Fray—playing in Bend this next Wednesday, July 25th, at the Les Schwab Amphitheater. How cool is that?

So if you live in Central Oregon—or you're planning on being in Central Oregon next week—and want to see The Fray, head over and sign up for the drawing for the pair of tickets—a $70 value.

Last night, as I reported on my Hack Bend blog, the house across the street caught fire. It wasn't terribly serious, as these things go: some hot embers from the chimney landed on the wood shake roof and sparked into flames. But the fire department came out in full force; there were four engines, the fire chief's (or whomever's) SUV, an ambulance, and police closing off the street.

The weird thing is, we didn't hear any of the emergency vehicles arrive, but other people in the neighborhood told us they heard them coming. Instead, around 6:20 I started noticing a rumbling noise coming from outside, but we were eating dinner and I didn't think much of it—nothing that couldn't be checked until we were done, anyway. It was my wife who took something out to the garage that heard the noise, too, and went to the window to see what it was.

Imagine our surprise!

So we ran outside and rubbernecked along with the rest of the neighborhood. Smoke was still rising from the roof next to the chimney while we were there; our neighbor next door told us she had seen the flames when she came out. They were still hosing the roof down, but got the smoke under control pretty quickly. After that, they tore out the chimney and the part of the roof that was (presumably) still hot and/or smoldering.

Nobody was hurt. According to the KTVZ article, the fire did $25,000 worth of damage, with minor smoke damage inside the home.

Here's some of the pictures I took (when I finally had the presence of mind to run back in the house for the camera):

Apologies for the mediocre quality of these pictures... it was dusk and the low-light conditions along with the zoom was enough to get the point, but some came out shaky. And actually, when it was starting to get really dark, they brought one of the engines over with a set of bright spotlights to illuminate the scene:

You can see the light pole sprouting up from the top of the truck. And here's a shot of the lighted-up scene at full dark:

I actually think this last picture is kind of cool. Unfortunate set of circumstances, but you know what I mean.

A promo-note to any garage salers reading: my brother and his girlfriend are having a garage sale today (Saturday the 15th). Among other things, he was planning on selling some of his older video game systems (Nintendo 64, Super Nintendo), with games, and we took a toddler mattress over there for them to sell ($45 OBO).

They live over on Douglas Street, just off and north of Wilson. I told them to post an ad on Craigslist, but I don't see one there...

I had hinted a while back about a new project I was starting, and I think it's time to launch and announce it. It's a new blog called Hack Bend, and it's purpose is to be an insider's guide to Bend and Central Oregon. (In fact, the tagline I have on it right now is "Getting the most out of Bend and Central Oregon." Original, no?)

There's always a bit of trepidation in announcing something like this, but I'm excited about it. I've got a bunch of ideas and things to write about already, but as I wrote on the About page, "obviously, I can't claim to have all the answers or know everything there is to know about the area." One of the things I'm considering is opening it up to multiple authors, making it a group blog—but that would be down the road sometime. In the meantime, anyone who has any hints, advice, stories, or hacks about the area, please let me know! I'd like to make this a definitive website about Bend, and the more contributions I get, the more likely that'll happen.

So pop on over and check things out, subscribe to the RSS feed, and become a regular contributor. And let me know what you think!

The title refers to the board game, not a business monopoly. Sorry to anyone coming here looking for juicy Bend business gossip. :)

According to CNNMoney, Monopoly is updating its look with modern places and landmarks and further, letting users vote on their board placement. That's pretty cool, and it brings to mind the panoply of custom Monopoly games that are floating around out there on just about every conceivable topic.

Which led me to wonder: Is there a custom Bend, Oregon Monopoly game anywhere? I tentatively want to say that I might remember seeing one at one time—perhaps in one of the shops downtown—but I'm pretty doubtful. A cursory web search revealed nothing.

So maybe I'll make one. It'd certainly be easy enough to print out new board spaces and glue them onto an old game; anyone have any suggestions as to what they'd like to see on Bend Monopoly?

(And then, of course, we'll have to play at the next blogger meetup.)

Okay, the headline is a bit sarcastic. But since the date for the closing of the Newport Avenue Bridge has been a moving target up until now, it's hard to take it seriously when they finally commit to it. But there's this item on KTVZ naming tomorrow (Saturday) the day, and I also heard the same thing on the radio this morning.

The first date I'd heard for the closing was April 1st. Then, a few days before the first, word was the date got pushed back to the 7th. Next it was the 10th. However, the orange construction sign at the bridge downtown still says April 7th. (I noticed this as I crossed the bridge yesterday, on the 13th.) And in the meantime there's been a big pile driver sitting there, ready to get started on wanton deconstruction.

So, if the bridge is actually closed tomorrow, everybody has to remember to use the Portland Avenue or Galveston Avenue bridges to get to the west side. What a pain.

Oh, and does anyone really believe the bridge will only be closed for seven months? Knowing how road projects tend to work around here, I'm betting it'll run long... Maybe we should start a pool.

Just wanted to blog a short note about the Bond Street Barber Shop in Downtown Bend. I went there for a haircut for the first time Tuesday after work, it's a nice place. The big draw, though, is the complimentary beer and wine you get while you're waiting!

Yep, you read that right. They stock Cascade Lakes beer (and a few macros), but I didn't see what variety of wine; I thought maybe there was a bottle of Yellow Tail red something, but I couldn't be sure. And on Saturdays, they also have Bloody Marys.

As far as haircut experiences go, they were good. A bit of a wait, actually (I was waiting for almost a half hour, then another half hour to cut my hair), but they're old school—straight razors for the fine hairs and everything. I was happy with what I walked out with.

So it'll likely be my regular barbershop from now on; anytime you can combine scissors, straight razors and beer, you know you're in for a good time!

After work today I swung by Newport Market over on the westside for their Thirsty Thursday beer tasting. I just found out about these Thirsty Thursdays recently; they're every, er, Thursday from 3:30 until 6:00. Free beer! Can't go wrong with that.

Today it was a rep from Deschutes Brewery doing tasting of their two newest: Inversion IPA and Buzzsaw Brown. Both good, but the IPA was really good. So I picked up a six-pack of it, and then, to my amazement, found a bottle of Deschutes' Mirror Mirror, which I'd heard about but hadn't seen anywhere. I'm excited! But it's a big barleywine, so I'm saving it for the weekend. Or Friday night.

So remember—Thursdays at Newport Market.

Heads-up, Bendites: The Paperback Exchange, which is one of the oldest used bookstores in Bend (if not the oldest), is closing! Right now they're having a huge 75% off sale on everything. I stopped over there after lunch and bought four books (for only $4.50, which would have been regularly priced at $18) and talked with the owner a bit.

They have to be out by April 30th, but will probably close a week or so before that to empty out the store. So, you've got about a month left to get there and get some great deals.

It's located at 184 NE Greenwood, on the corner of 2nd and Greenwood. Hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

My mom mentioned this yesterday, though I didn't see it online and I'm too lazy to do a deep search: there is now apparently one realtor for every 200 people in Bend, according to The Bulletin. Wow.

I figure this should be good fodder for the newish Bend, Oregon Housing Bubble blog.

This idea seems like a natural: a blog spotlighting funny Bend-related T-shirts. All locally designed and offered via CafePress.

I wish I'd thought of it first.

Inspired of late by Boing Boing's pointers to subway maps that have been remixed to used anagrammed names, I thought it would be fun to do the same with Bend. Only, Bend doesn't have a subway (or any mass transit, grrr), so I did the next best thing: remixed the map of downtown.

The only constraints I followed were dropping the directional part of the street names (the NW in NW Franklin) and spelling out the type of roadway ("Avenue" vs. "Ave").

Enjoy! Oh, and the Internet Anagram Server came in amazingly handy for this.

Click to view full map

That's the current population of Bend, Oregon. It's up, what, 40% from the year 2000 census population of 52,029. My question is, have that many people moved into the city (18,209 of them) in that time, or have the powers that be mostly been creative with the city limits (which is what got us to the 50,000 milestone in the first place)?

Not only was it about six degrees this morning in Bend, but we woke up to blowing snow and snow drifts in our backyard and cul-de-sac. Fun! You can see the ground in some spots, others are buried in drifts up to six inches deep.

On the radio they claimed it was an Arctic front that has moved in. Stellar.

For anyone keeping track of these things, the snow they keep warning us about (last I heard, the advisory was from 3pm today until something like 5am tomorrow morning) has started in earnest at about 1:30pm, here in Downtown Bend.

I think Jennifer almost always has insightful things to say about Bend (and is a fine writer to boot), but last night's post was really remarkable, I think. She points to the Bend 2030 website (the project of which I was only really tangentially aware of until the past few days), and drops the bomb on a couple of the hard questions:

What's the most significant issue facing Bend?

Well, an increase in growth threatens two of the three things I value most about living here. So Bend's biggest issue is limiting growth or, if that's impossible, limiting the damage.

Also: this town has a severe divide between rich and poor with almost no middle class. That gives my kids a wacky sense of how the world works. First, it's not a reflection of most of the United States; and second, they don't see a model for success — except, of course, in real estate. People grow up here and disappear for awhile, then come back as doctors and lawyers. Or they grow up wealthy and never work for keeps. Unless Bend changes, my kids won't have much opportunity to watch someone start out on a low rung and work their way up.

So, to answer question four:

What is your personal vision for the future of Bend?

I want growth in Bend to slow way, way down, so that we can get a psychic grasp on what's happening here. And then I would like Bend to work toward becoming not a resort town or a retirement mecca but a normal city, where people work and go to school — and just happen to climb mountains or ski or run rivers whenever they get a chance.

Dead on. I really couldn't have said it better myself, and I find myself nodding in nearly perfect agreement with this.

I've been thinking a lot about Bend and its growth and what it's been turning into lately. In light of my rant yesterday, I think it's safe to expect more rants and thoughts on this topic from me. In the meantime, keep watching Jennifer. She's going to be a force to be reckoned with.

I don't know how I missed this the first time around (December 23rd, probably because I don't read the New York Times): Where Timber Was King, the Golf Club Replaces the Ax.

I don't really know what to think about this article. I certainly can't relate to it, it's aiming for the affluent and reeks of elitism. A little fisking, anyone?

WHEN you own a home in the sixth-fastest-growing region in the country, you worry about letting the cat out at night because of the coyotes howling in the forest. You scribe fresh powder turns down 9,000-foot-high bowls and muscle bicycles through high-desert hills. At some point, perhaps on a fairway between Holes 4 and 5, you wonder whether those lonely volcanoes lingering on the skyline will ever blow. The thing you rarely do is call your town rural.

Dammit, I do call my town rural; I grew up rural, that's how we are. We actually did lose a cat to coyotes, growing up. I don't ski, I'm sorry to say, nor do I golf. So far, it's failing to hook me.

Albert Angelo Jr., an owner of a family-run development company, bought in Bend for its 300 annual days of sunshine and the 4.3 million acres of public land just beyond his floor-to-ceiling windows. He plans to divide his time between his houses in Vancouver, Wash., and Palm Desert, Calif., and his new $3 million, 5,100-square-foot single-story house in Pronghorn, a resort on the outskirts of town.

"When I look out my Pronghorn house facing north, I see a covered patio with a 10-foot-diameter barbecue pit, a pop-up plasma TV and a view of the golf course - but of a putting green, so my house won't get hit by golf balls," Mr. Angelo, 59, said. "You have a good lifestyle down there."

Okay, I totally cannot relate. I'd say this guy's idea of "a good lifestyle down there" is completely out-of-sync with the reality of Bend.

About 300 people are on a waiting list to purchase another dozen town houses at the Bluffs at the Old Mill, a neighborhood with views of the Mount Bachelor, Broken Top, and Three Sisters volcanoes.

Again with the volcanoes. In my day we just called them "the mountains." And for everybody wondering about the high real estate prices, look no more... the 288 people on that waiting list who won't get a choice home want to go somewhere...

Bend's proximity to trails for hiking and cross-country skiing, coupled with a bustling vibe, appealed to Stephen Johnson, 29, a salesman from Medford, Ore. In November, he bought a new 1,933-square-foot, two-story weekend house for $215,000 in southeast Bend. "It still feels like a small town but with more amenities that make it a fun place to visit," he said.

Holy shit, there was a two-story, 1,933-square foot house for sale in town for only $215,000 as recently as November? Who did he have to kill to get the place for that cheap??

When Benders aren't bouncing through the 370 inches of annual snowfall at Mount Bachelor, about 30 minutes west, much of the après action centers on Wall and Bond Streets, downtown's two main arteries. Today, you'll find no hardware store off the brick sidewalks, but should you seek information on a $2.75 million resort home or wish to make a donation to pierced buskers outside Bellatazza coffee shop, you need walk only a few blocks.

First of all, that should be "Bendites," not "Benders"—we're neither (mostly) drunks nor a certain sarcastic cartoon robot. Second of all, don't remind me that there's no hardware store downtown—it was a sad day when Masterson St. Clair finally closed down. But it's good to know I can find that info on that $2.75-mil home, that's important. Otherwise, this whole paragraph? Pretty much reeks of narcissistic self-importance. "Après action" and "pierced buskers" my ass.

Bend is 94 percent white. The joke among locals is that diversity means Subarus of different colors.

I've never heard that joke. I've lived here most of my life.

Okay, that's enough. Go read the article, even if it bothers you as much as it seems to have me. I can't help but wonder if they're writing about the same town that I live in...

I can't help it, but this is just so weirdly funny. Bend man robs liquor store: this is not the funny part. The funny part is the guy's mugshot:

This dude looks like the love child of Rodney Dangerfield and Bob Marley or something!

Today was one of those days when you wake up, blink, and there's eight inches of snow on the ground.

That's pretty rare for Bend. (Lapine and Sunriver, not so much. But for Bend and points east and north, rare.)

It's still coming down. The snow advisory is still on, through at least seven o'clock this evening... eight to 14 inches total is the latest prediction, though since we're already at eight, that seems like a lame prediction.

So, I dug out the driveway this morning, and finally left for work about nine. The office is about half-staffed right now, I imagine people will be trickling away as the day goes on. My wife tried to take our youngest to preschool (our oldest is home, schools are closed) and got stuck in the snow—the main roads are plowed and sanded, but the neighborhoods and side roads are still unattended.

Surprisingly, I had more trouble driving to work the other day when it first snowed than today; I suppose it could be because there's less traffic on the roads, or that I left later.

It'll be an interesting day. Except for work, this would've been a nice day to hole up at home and watch the snow. And play in it.

Snow! It's coming down pretty good, as I'm sure all the Bendites know by now—though I think Rhys will be especially pleased. It's coming down pretty good; I'm downtown, and looking out the window I'm seeing an inch or so, I think. Driving is pretty awful right now; normally I go home for lunch but I may be staying in the office for lunch for the next few days. (I already went home today; that's how I know it's awful.)

And I know it's technically not the first snow of the season, but to my mind, it's the first significant snow of the season, and that counts more. :)

Halloween blogging #1

The Fall 2005 issue of Bend Living (no link love, their site sucks and the "current" links point to other articles) has an article titled "Ghost Stories" that explores some of the supposedly haunted places in Bend and Central Oregon. And on the radio last week, they were asking for people to call in to name the haunted places we have around here, so I thought it'd be fun to blog it a bit.

The Bend Living article mentions the Deschutes County Historical Society building, the old Reid School in downtown Bend. Supposedly the ghost of George Brosterhous, who died there in 1914, haunts the place.

The Shadowlands Haunted Place Index for Oregon (which I can thank Rhys for mentioning, if I remember correctly) mentions five for Bend:

The Congress House: This was mentioned on the radio, and is the subject of the only ghost story for Bend found in Ghosts and Strange Critters of Washington and Oregon. According to the Shadowlands site, "there have been a few families that have lived there that have either died or something tragic has happened to them due to living in the cursed house," which is identified in the ghosts book as the McCann House. I don't know about cursed; the book simply mentions that sometimes figures are seen in the upper story windows, and gives a short history of it.

The O'Kane Building: Mentioned in the Bend Living article, too. There's "ghostly smoke, weird lights, footsteps, and voices," and occasionally a voice that calls out orders in the restaurant.

Old Mt. View Hospital: I'm not sure where this is, the site says it's now an apartment building next to Drake Park. Floor creaks have been reporting, like someone's walking around.

The Old Smoke Stacks: They must mean in the Old Mill District, which isn't relevant anymore since they're building it out... But it sounds like teenagers would sneak in there at night to see if the place was haunted.

The Pilot Butte Cemetary: Also mentioned in Bend Living. Reports of ghostly blue orbs floating around.

Independently of these sources, I've also heard the Lara House Bed and Breakfast is haunted. Ironically enough, it's located on Congress Avenue... just like the Congress House mentioned above! (Cue cheesy horror music.)

Other places mentioned in the Bend Living article include the Downing Hotel building in downtown Bend, current site of The Grove restaurant, Bronco Billy's in Sisters (the old Hotel Sisters building), Sunriver Resort's Great Hall, and the New Redmond Hotel in (you guessed it) Redmond.

Shadowlands mentions Redmond, too. In addition to footsteps, there "have been pictures taken and in the pictures there are clearly orbs in the lobby hall. Feelings of a strange presence in the rooms in the middle of the night. Apparitions of a woman have been reported."

So, what else have we got around here? Anyone know of any haunted places I didn't mention?

A new local weblog has popped up: Bend Oregon Restaurants. Found it when "BrENDa" (its author) left a couple comments here. Finally! A good restaurant review/guide blog for Bend, by someone who knows what they're talking about.

And you gotta love the honesty in her reviews: read the O'Kane's review or the Bon Bien review to see what I mean. My favorite line: "Bon Bien is Non Bien."

We're back from Florida none the worse for wear; we actually got back Saturday late, missing hurricane Wilma by two days. As my friend Kerry said, ironic that the one time we should pick to visit Florida, the biggest storm ever tracked starts building up nearby.

Florida was... flat and humid. No, really.

Well, it was. Anyway, we had a good time. My wife's grandparents have a swimming pool (of course) so we spent a lot of time in it. And of course we drove up to Disney World for a few days (three and a half hours each way), that was a trip; it's utterly mind-boggling just how big Disney World is. We only had time to visit the Magic Kingdom (which is basically all of Disney Land), and part of Epcot.

Some general Florida observations, from an outsider: what's up with drivers there? Nobody uses turn signals! And apparently they'll hit-and-run other cars in parking lots (which seemed to happen to us— borrowing the grandparents' car— on our mini-trip to Disney) all the time, we're told. Also, everywhere you go— and I mean everywhere— there's air conditioning. All the time. Many times we were in restaurants and it was too cold— people were wearing sweaters or jackets. Not what you expect to see in Florida, of all places.

Didn't see any gators (in the wild, anyway). I was kind of hoping.

Meanwhile, it's interesting to note some of the local goings-on while we were away:

• There was an E. coli outbreak at McGrath's; Bulletin story here, Bend.com here. Damn, I knew there was a reason I'm always resisting going to eat there... What really worries me though is the Bulletin's article states, "No changes in McGrath's operating procedure were suggested"— say what? Yeah, I'm done.
• More information has come to light regarding Deschutes County Commissioner Tom DeWolf's sex abuse scandal: details from the investigation reveal that he allegedly put his hand down two separate women's pants and groped their genitals. Bulletin story here, Bend.com story here. Not surprisingly, DeWolf is resigning. His statement is here. Not really much more to say, other than I'm not really surprised. That's some seriously stupid shit to do, Tom.

Anything exciting anybody wants to tell me about?

Check this out: BendSearch.com. Alpine, the company I used to work for, has finally resurrected it and updated it. Good for them.

I was responsible for a lot of the work that went into that site back in the day (this would be in 2000-2001). Oh, I'm not bragging; that was, of course, early in my career as a PHP developer, so there was a lot of ugly, bad code floating around in there, courtesy of yours truly.

Hopefully they'll be able to get somebody to give it the attention it deserves; it's looking a little sparse right now but I rather like what I'm seeing.

Bend is yet again on another top ten list: we're the sixth fastest-growing metropolitan area in the country (via the Bulletin). This list is according to the U.S. Census, though, so probably has a bit more weight than whichever flavor-of-the-month magazine's top "whatever" list of cities... although, they're considering all of Deschutes County to be the metropolitan growth area, so your mileage may vary.

Is this a good thing? Depends. Read through the comments on my Trump Bend post, you'll see varying degrees of opinion. Really, go read them, the good ones start about halfway down, past all the "rumors" about Trump. It's some good stuff in there; maybe I'll re-post some of those comments on the front page here...

This looks interesting: The Bend, Oregon Celebrity Weblog.

Lately I've been playing around a bit with Google Earth, and correspondingly Google Maps, and it's amazing the kinds of things you can do with it. Unfortunately, their source data for Central Oregon is less than impressive; try to zoom in too tightly and you just get pixelated blobs.

Well, the city of Bend website has put their GIS mapping system online, you can get to it here, and it's super-detailed (for Bend only) and largely fills that niche that's missing from Google's maps. It even has some of the same functionality with their layers option. The only drawback is that it only runs in Internet Explorer 5.5 or greater (and, I'm assuming, Windows).

Still, it's pretty sweet. I'm already thinking about how to use this data somewhere...

Heard about this on the radio this morning, and I wanted to blog it before I forgot about it. On the front page of the Bulletin today there's a picture of three people floating the river (a popular summer activity here in Bend)—which by itself is no big deal. However, the focus of the article that accompanies it is on the excessive alcohol consumption that goes along with the river floaters.

Back to that picture. Three people floating the river with booze in hand. Here's the picture:

Photo courtesy of The Bulletin

I'm not against drinking, rafting, drinking while rafting necessarily, but damn! That's some hard drinkin' in the picture. The guy on the left is drinking some kind of hard liquor, the middle guy a beer, and there's at least two more bottles visible with them. The girl has a Jagermeister. I like Jager and all, but that's way too hardcore for me.

Besides, everyone knows the proper way to drink Jager is chilled, ideally right out of the freezer ;).

You can tell I've been busy these last few days: I've got a number of things to write about but haven't had the time to until now. These next couple of things are about articles that appeared in the Bulletin.

First: 7-story hotel planned for downtown. This, of course, will be literally right next to the five-story parking garage. I'm a little ambivalent about this. I don't necessarily think it's bad for downtown Bend, but does it have to be a seven-story monstrosity? Plus, it'll turn into a cost-overrun, logistical nightmare typical of recent downtown development.

To be fair, though, the city has yet to approve the application. We all know that that's just a formality, though, right?

And the plan is to put a swimming pool on the sixth floor. Uh, okay. I know I sure wouldn't want any room directly beneath several thousand tons of water suspended 55 feet or so above the ground... but that's just me.

The other item is this: Post office will test for anthrax. Yeah, that's timely and relevant, what, three years later? Is this really news? I think bioterrorists have probably figured out by now that anthrax is kind of a no-go anymore, and are more likely to have something different cooked up. Seems to me the post office should be expanding the scope of their testing, if they're really worried about it...

Busy busy busy weekend, that's why I haven't been posting. And I'm getting hammered at work with things, but I needed to jump on to post this bit, lest I forget again:

There's finally another Bend blogger meetup this week! Wednesday (July 27) at the Farmer's Market downtown, at six o'clock. Basically we'll have a picnic in Drake Park. (Buy your own dinner at the Farmer's Market.) We'll be meeting near the booth selling fish, though Shannon said if anyone gets there late, look for her and an orange blanket. So if you see a group of people sitting by an orange blanket in the park near the Farmer's Market, odds are it's us.

Maybe we could get a roll call in the comments here, so we know who all can make it?

Forgot to mention this when I saw it the other day, but there appears to be another blogger here in Bend: e n | x | e n d u b. Did anyone else catch this?

Either way, welcome!

There's a new Bend blog in town: Bend Reality Check, but I don't know how long it will last. I say this because the tagline is, "Mission: to maintain some sort of reality for those who think they are the most important people in Bend, Oregon" and it appears to have been launched primarily to get back at Shannon and Simone for blogging their bad experience at Kanpai. As such it's full of snarky comments about the two of them.

That's too bad, because this sounds like it could be a good insider's blog about the restaurants in Bend:

I am an culinary hermit that lives in the shadows of Bend, Oregon. In a former life I was a culinary mercinary in this town, with 14 years of food slinging under my belt. Titles were bestowed upon me, such as: restaurant manager, production chef, lead saute chef, kitchen manger, etc, but I renouced my titles to walk the earth, like Caine in Kung Fu, only unsheathing my food mojo for special people and occasions.

So, continuing in my "Things I X about Bend" series:

I don't like...

• ...the traffic; the disproportionate amount of congestion and the bad drivers.
• ...not having a mass transit system.
• ...how the north end of town is a stripmall/boxstore eyesore.
• ...skyrocketing real estate prices.
• ...the roundabouts. Actually, I'm kind of on the fence about them; they're not inherently bad but do we really need so many of them?
• ...overpriced "public" art. Like the "gateway to Bend" thing on the parkway made from rusty scrap metal.

What else?

See also: Things about Bend that I miss, Things about Bend that I like.

Just when you thought you'd heard the last of it, Mellencamp the cougar is back in the news. There's an article in today's Bulletin, more or less reiterating the cougar report on Z21 News last night. It was spotted near Newport Avenue and Fourth, but officials had no luck tracking it.

Last week the Bulletin also ran an interesting article on Jack Spencer, the wildlife specialist for Deschutes County heading up the cougar search. It's a good read, and shows just how crazy that kind of job is: he's been bitten by a rattlesnake, caught bubonic plague (!), even tranked himself while trying to get a bear out of a cougar trap. You gotta love that kind of stuff.

That is, these are things that are new in Bend, or are a result of progress, that I like. It's a balance to my Things about Bend that I miss post the other day.

I like...

• ...the Bend Public Library building. I have fond memories of the old building they used to be in, but their newer building is far better.
• ...McMenamins' Old St. Francis School. Can't ever have enough microbreweries, and they've really done excellent work on the site. Plus, they brought back a movie theater to downtown Bend—a theater pub no less (which is what I always thought the Tower Theater should have been turned into)!
• ...The Old Mill District. For the most part. They've developed the area much better than I would have thought.
• ...newer restaurants like Zydeco, Mercury Diner, Merenda's.
• ...Barnes & Noble.
• ...the Les Schwab Amphitheater.

More as I think of these, too.

I miss...

• ...the statue of the of the homeless guy checking his wallet on the corner of Franklin and Wall. People used to decorate it for the Christmas season.
• ...when the Tower Theatre was an actual movie theater.
• ...when J.C. Penney used to be downtown. This is old school, it used to be on the corner of Wall Street and Oregon Avenue, the location of the (not-coincidentally-named) Old Penney's Galleria. We used to buy our shoes there, and it was the only place in town I knew of that had a bomb shelter.
• ...The Juniper Café. Okay, I didn't eat there that often, but it's been in Bend my entire life.
• ...Book & Game. Before Barnes and Noble moved in, it was the coolest bookstore we had in town, out at the Mountain View Mall... I even have some bookmarks from there, still.
• ...hell, the Mountain View Mall itself, during its heydey, when the cinemas was there, and K-Mart, and the Emporium, and the arcade...
• ...Café Paradiso. The original coffee shop, with couches, lounge chairs, chess, a small stage... It was big, too, much bigger and more comfortable than the other places in town currently. Soba Noodles is there now.
• ...the Mexicali Rose. It was the lava rock building on the corner of Franklin and 3rd, where Bella Cucina is now. It was a neat little restaurant (when it was Mexican), even if parking was a little tight and weird. Now, with the awkward signage (like the banner hanging where the actual sign used to be), it just looks... wrong somehow.

More as I think of them.

The cougar problem will continue, according to the Bulletin. There's just not enough manpower to devote to it, and in fact there's only one agent for the "Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services Program" for all of Deschutes County... and he's tied up with every other wildlife issue that arises.

And this strikes me as funny:

"It is so hard trying to run through back yards and jump fences with these dogs," Spencer said. "And then you have all these domestic animals so you have to be careful because, as far as dogs are concerned, a cat is a cat."

Just the image of a guy with a bunch of baying hound dogs running through suburban Awbrey Butte makes me smile.

Meanwhile, Hillside Park is still closed. Near as I can tell, anyway.

Following up my Cougar! coverage from last night... today on The Peak 104.1 radio morning show, they were having people call in to name the cougar. I missed it, but that's classic. From the clips they were playing later it sounded like somebody suggested "Mellencamp." That's just so wrong it's funny.

And from the So which is it? department, all the local news reports are saying if you encounter the cougar, to not make eye contact, back away slowly, never run, etc. However, in the Wikipedia Puma article (cougars are technically pumas), the advice for an encounter is to stand and face the animal and make eye contact (among other things). Huh.

When mountain lions attack! Apparently there's a young cougar attempting to establish territory in Bend, primarily on Awbrey Butte and possibly Shevlin Park. This is not unusual for Central Oregon, but the way the local news outlets have been covering this story you'd think the world is ending. I actually find all the hooplah amusing.

Here's the online rundown:

• Bend.com: Tethered dog killed by cougar on Saginaw
• Bend.com: Cougar Kills Again (sensationalistic, but my favorite is the subtitle: "Jack Rabbit found dead")
• Bend Bulletin: Cougar hunt closes park on northwest side
• Bend Bulletin: Cougar eludes capture

The Bulletin actually has the better coverage; makes me long for the days of Barney at Bend.com.

Speaking of Barney, KTVZ has been covering the cougar nightly, too. I get a chuckle and shake my head every time I hear them talking about it; something about their delivery, maybe, but when one of the items reported is about a sighting that turned out to be a house cat, well, you just have to laugh.

Look, I've lived here most of my life, so to me it's just not shocking, freaky or worriesome when this type of thing happens, it just gets dealt with. Face it, this isn't just cougar country, it's also bear, coyote and rattlesnake country, and that's not changing anytime soon; this Chicken Little syndrome is getting old.

So one of the shows we watch on Food Network is $40 a Day, where Rachael Ray has a budget of "only" 40 dollars and traipses around the city du jour looking for the meal deals. The tourist-y part of the show is interesting, but the fake-suspense-building (will she go over her budget? Will she??) annoys the hell out of me.

So far I know of three Oregon towns they've filmed episodes in: Portland, Salem and Ashland. I think they should do an episode right here in Bend.

The question is, then, where could you go to get three meals and an afternoon snack or drink with a 40 dollar budget, and still capture the essence of Bend? Without consulting the budget (so I may be off), my own choices would be:

• Breakfast: either the Original Pantry or the Victorian Cafe.
• Lunch: hmmm. Pilot Butte Drive-In.
• Afternoon whatever: another hmmm. Perhaps a brewery tour at the Deschutes Brewery?
• Dinner: The Pine Tavern.

Other suggestions?

It's crazy how much development is going on around here these days. Downtown, they're just about to tear down the old post office and start erecting a new parking structure. The "Firehall" is ongoing, with a giant plastic bag over the top of it (it's truly surreal). The new building on the corner of Wall and Franklin looks mostly finished. Something's going up on the old Eagle Lodge location, on the corner of Greenwood and Hill. The Old Mill District continues to grow and change. Up north, there's of course talk about the Super Wal-Mart, but good grief, Bed Bath and Beyond is already open, Best Buy can't be far behind, CostPlus and PetSmart are going up. Target is expanding, I hear.

And everywhere you go, residential development is gangbusters. You can't swing a dead cat in this town any more without hitting construction. (Ironically, I work for a builder that's contributing to all this mess. And live in one of their homes.) I know growth and change has kind of been the theme for Bend and Central Oregon this past decade, but right now it seems like there's more going on than ever before. Or is it just me?

And of course the one thing Bend really needs—a mass transit system—is nowhere in sight.

Well, I posted too soon. Tonight's blogger get-together has been cancelled, too many people had something come up. Hopefully we can convene next week or something.

Unless plans changed when I wasn't looking, the Bend/Central Oregon bloggers are getting together again tomorrow, Tuesday the 8th. It's at the Cascade Lakes Brewery Lodge (upstairs!) on Bend's westside, starting at 7pm. I don't know yet if I'll make it, but I know a bunch of the others will. Cheers!

Happy birthday to Bend! Today is the 100th anniversary of Bend, Oregon, marking the beginning of the year-long Bend Centennial celebration. Just a quick post while I'm thinking about it; I might have more to say later.

Also, check out Bend.com's article from November.

I was disappointed to see both the Bend measures (establish a mass transportation district, more money for schools) fail, though not particulary surprised: you can pretty much guarantee that when a measure appears in Central Oregon that requires raising taxes, it will get shot down.

But hell, do kids have to be cannibalizing themselves in the schools before this town raises some money to help relieve the overcrowding and budget issues? And since the money was going to be raised by increasing property taxes, should only property owners be allowed to vote on these issues?

Personally, I think less than $100 per year is a small price to pay if it helps alleviate the Lord of the Flies problems my own kids will be facing within the next couple of years.

As to the mass transit issue, I'd love to see it here, and I supported it, but... Keep in mind this is the city that made national news when it proposed banning stinky people from riding the bus, so you'll understand if I express skepticism about the whole affair.

And this is the best election day story I heard: Tuesday morning my friend Kerry asked if I had a number two pencil to fill out his ballot—he didn't have any at home and that was what had hung him up on getting it mailed earlier (Oregon is entirely vote-by-mail, remember, but on the last day you can drop off your ballot at the designated locations since it's too late to mail it). Later, when he went to drop the ballot off, a Z21 news team interviewed him on why he waited until the last minute to turn his ballot in. He gave the honest response: he couldn't find a number two pencil! He said the guy running the camera was the new crazy weatherman (if you live in Central Oregon, you probably know who I mean) and the guy gave Kerry a big thumbs-up and shit-eating grin—my words, I'm paraphrasing :). I never did see if it made it on TV but we sure had a good laugh about that.

Just looked out the window here at work and saw that it's snowing. As far as I know, this marks the first snow of the season for Bend.

I got an email today from someone from the online magazine Preservation Online wanting to get a quote from me about the Crane Shed demolition, since I wrote a bunch about it. Cool. I wrote back letting them know I'd be happy to give a quote, or they could just quote my blog. Since I haven't heard back from them, I assume they'll quote my blog.

Quick public service announcement: I've hacked together an RSS feed for the Bend Bulletin. It's a first-pass, I'm scraping their Local, Business and Sports pages and building a summary feed only. If I have time, I may go one step further and pull each article on those pages, and provide a full-text feed.

Either way, here's the RSS feed link. Enjoy!

I guess I was bound to comment on this sooner or later: The Crane Shed demolition here in Bend last Thursday, August 19^th. It's the big news around here. Here's some recap:

• With a mighty roar, Crane Shed is no more: The initial Bend.com story which lays the groundwork
• Crane Shed demolition brings shock, sadness: The Bend.com follow-up story, which reveals that Crown Investment Group (who owned and demolished the building) didn't even have a permit—oops!
• Exclusive: Crane Shed owners tell their side
• Crane Shed update: City seeks $150,000 fine: Fine amount for demolition without a permit? $500. Watching Crown Investment Group getting their asses kicked over shady dealings? Priceless.
• DEQ after Crane Shed owners over asbestos: And the hits just keep on coming.

And, here's a good link about the Crane Shed: Brooks Scanlon Historic Crane Shed. Guess they'll need to update their site now, though.

For my part, I think the city should have fought for the Crane Shed and prevented Crown Investment from demolishing it. I'm not sure it would have helped, though, considering Crown Investment's highly questionable actions:

• Threaten the city of Bend with a lawsuit to deter a denial of demolition;
• Demolish the building, after hours, without a permit or safety precautions, while the whole matter was still legally pending;
• Publicly thumbing their nose at the city and the situation;
• Not perform the necessary safety inspections that would have prevented the asbestos issues the DEQ is smacking them down for;
• Lying about the state of the building and issues surrounding the demolition.

I hope Crown Investment gets the royal smackdown they deserve—and they look like they will, too. Plus, how hard do you think it will be for them to conduct future business in this town? I guess they got what they ultimately wanted, though: now they can sell off the land, which is already worth a bunch more now that the Shed is gone.

And in the meantime, yet another piece of historic Bend is gone. Sucks.

So, even after the bizarre entry pricing, the first annual Bend Brew Fest exceeded my (lowish) expectations. It was a decent event; my dad and I got there about 1:30 when the crowd was still very light, so we had a good run of the place. And it was great weather for it, too: started out sunny and hot, with a nice breeze, and as the day wore on clouds moved in to alleviate the heat.

Decent beers, too. I was pleasantly surprised to find there were beers from breweries I'd never heard of, like Walking Man Brewing out of Stevenson, Washington, and Snipes Mountain, from Sunnyside, Washington. And of course, the "regulars" were there: Deschutes Brewery, Bend Brewing, Cascade Lakes, Rogue Ales, Full Sail, Bridgeport Brewing, Sierra Nevada Brewing. For posterity's sake, others I remember:

• Old Lompoc
• Lagunitas Brewing Company
• Dick's Brewing Company
• Terminal Gravity Brewing Company (improbably located in Enterprise, Oregon)
• Far West Ireland
• ...and some others I can't remember.

I was a little disappointed to not see Silver Moon Brewing (note to self: talk to Tyler about fixing his 403 Forbidden website error) there, since they're local and all. Oh well, maybe next year.

The crowd grew during the day, and I imagine they had a pretty good turnout Saturday night. The (free) music wasn't bad, either. When we first got there, there was a lone accordian player up on the stage, and it only got better from there.

I also ran into Kasey as we were leaving, which is ironic since we (my dad and I) had been talking about how we hadn't run into anyone we knew, but probably would once we left.

Now, how they can improve upon the brewfest for next year:

• Cheaper admission! Like, at least 10 dollars cheaper.
• More brewers. 20 brewers and 40 beers is a good start, though.
• Space the beer serving stations and tables farther apart; there needs to be more room for people to line up, and/or browse among the various brands.
• Break the beer serving section into two distinct areas, to promote movement and more effectively use the space (put food and general seating in between).
• Complimentary water. The Oregon Brewers Festival has stand-alone water coolers that are self-service; spending three dollars for bottled water doesn't do it for me.
• Set up a website for the event, and list all the brewers and the beers that will be there. Also use it for publishing photos of the event, etc.
• More food vendors. There were six, which isn't terrible for a first time, but more variety would be cool.

Just a quick reminder that tomorrow, August 21st, is the first Bend Brew Fest at the Les Schwab Amphitheater. Also, a sucky note regarding the price: they advertise that if you buy the ticket in advance, it's only $10, versus $15 if you buy at the door. However, if you buy in advance it's not $10, but $14—they add a four dollar service fee to the ticket.

So, it's really $14 in advance, and $15 at the door. What a deal.

As reported on Bend.com, Greyhound is leaving Central Oregon:

It is eliminating 260 stops, leaving 99 in the 13-state region.

In Oregon, the list of 35 communities losing Greyhound service ranges (alphabetically) from Albany to Zigzag, with Bend, Klamath Falls, La Pine, Madras, Redmond and Warm Springs among those in the middle.

Too bad. I suppose it's a bit odd to lament the loss of a transportation service that's in decline and is (let's face it) mediocre at best, but I have some fond memories of Greyhound. For instance, growing up, every year my grandparents in Portland would ship our Christmas presents in a big package via Greyhound. And they were the best presents; they always got us the cool toys and video games.

(Strange in this day and age of UPS and FedEx everywhere that people would send packages via Greyhound, of all things, but there it is.)

Or the time my brother, when he was still living in Portland, made a surprise trip to visit the family on his birthday. I was in on it; he made an evening call and had us pick him up at the bus station around 10:30 that same night, and then surprised everyone the next day. That was a helluva lot of fun.

I even remember when the Greyhound station was downtown on the corner of Greenwood and Wall—when they had an actual station instead of sharing a gas station somewhere (as they'd been doing the last few years).

Ah, well. It's a shame.

Well, it's official, there's gonna be a Bend blogger meetup on Wednesday, May 12, at 7:30pm at the Bend Brewing Company. Jake blogged it here, and there's even a Bend.com press release on it here. All are welcome, the more the merrier.

The funny thing about this is, my wife saw the press release on Bend.com and knew about it before I did. Aren't I supposed the one who's plugged into this stuff?

It was a stunningly beautiful day here in Bend, this first day of May. The first part of the morning was spent taking pictures down from the walls, part of our gradual effort to get ready for the move coming up in June, and not long after we'd finished boxing up a bunch of paintings and pictures, I got a phone call. Apparently the boss was heading in to the office to do some work, but found himself locked out.

So, off we went to make a day of it. After getting the boss into the building, we swung by the storage unit to drop off the boxed goods and then drove over to check out the progress on the new house. It's coming along nicely, and quickly. There were people there working on it, so we didn't wander around much.

Afterwards we took a leisurely route up Awbrey Butte on our way to lunch, and stopped at a garage sale on 1st Street, which turned out to be one of the most unusual streets I've seen here in Bend: narrow, steep (there's a big dip in the middle), overlooking the Deschutes River, and all very nice, very expensive houses. It very much reminded me of something you'd find in San Francisco, which is very cool. I'd never seen that street before, though I don't make it a habit to wander about Awbrey Butte much.

We had a decent lunch at Cousins, out on the deck overlooking the river. Perfect day for an outdoor lunch, even if it was a tad breezy. After that, I took the kids home while my wife went out for a bit. The rest of the day was enjoyed at home, playing outside with the kids.

Ah, May Day.

My drive home from work everyday takes me by an old brick house on Hawthorne Avenue, just out of downtown Bend on the entrance to the parkway. What's notable about this house is that it's obviously old—one of those old, pre-War homes that has ivy growing on it and just oozes atmosphere and looks like it should be on a register of historic places somewhere—and for a long time I've been meaning to look up its address online and see what pops up.

Turns out it is a designated historic resource: the A.C. Lucas House, built in 1910, the first brick house in Bend. Cool.

Here's some of the links I dug up while researching the Lucas House:

• PDF: City of Bend Designated Historic and Cultural Resources
• Deschutes County Landmarks
• Bend Area General Plan, Chapter 3

Okay, so not the most exciting of links. I can live with that.

I was browsing at Barnes and Nobles this evening and found a book that looks very interesting (so I bought it): Frontier Doctor: Observations on Central Oregon and the Changing West. It's the autobiographical account of a doctor during the formative years of Bend.

Urling Coe came to the new town of Bend, Oregon, in 1905, a young medical student graduate seeking adventure and opportunity in the West. Frontier Doctor, Coe's autobiographical account of his thirteen-year residency, details the extraordinary experiences of a young physician in frontier Oregon and offers a vivid social history of town and ranch life on the Oregon high desert.

Cool! Looks very much like a fun and interesting read.

Add to that ever-so-slightly growing list of Bend (Oregon) webloggers: Brainside Out. Excellent.

So I was driving home from work today and as I crossed Third Street onto Brosterhous I noticed a new sign proclaiming the area I was entering the "Old Farm District." What was interesting about this is that the sign is in the same style as those of The Old Mill District, so I thought perhaps the city of Bend was giving the area a facelift in the same way the Old Mill District had been done. Which would be kind of cool; it's a neat area where the old farmland acreages and farmhouses are side-by-side with the more modern housing and commercial developments. Historically, this district used to be the outer frontier of Bend, which is hard to believe these days when it's a ten-minute drive from downtown.

I do a quick search and find the Bend Neighborhood Associations Web site, which contains details about the Old Farm District and the other official neighborhood associations. No Old Mill-style plans for the area, simply prettying up the place by planting these gilded signs everywhere. The Bend Neighborhood Map is interesting, presenting a territorial view of Bend that I hadn't seen before. Although I'd be inclined to point out that the real old farm district of Bend should really be extended to include the big white area between the "official" area and the Orchard and Mountain View neighborhoods. As it stands, I wonder what that neighborhood will end up being called?

Amusingly, it didn't take me long to notice that the site was developed by my old employer, Alpine Internet Solutions. One thing they need to do is make that map a clickable image map, where the user can click on the neighborhood and be taken to the appropriate page.

It was an utterly beautiful day today here in Central Oregon, right around 70 degrees and sunny all day. Raked some leaves, played with the kids outside, just gorgeous. And the best part is, I didn't have to be stuck at work on the first nice day of the year :)

Bend made the national headlines last week (CNN: Rush minute becomes rush hour) because it's the largest city in the west without a public transit system. And we're not going to get one anytime soon, unfortunately. From the CNN article:

Public transportation advocates in the city are up against a steadfast car culture reinforced by the influx of Californians, plus a wealthy population that probably wouldn't ride the bus even if one existed.

"If they are getting around town in their Lexus, they are not too concerned about the next bus stop," said Brian Shetterly, the town's chief planner.

All too true. Bend's traffic is one of the big drawbacks to living here; I've watched it steadily get worse over the last decade, as more people have moved into the area but the infrastructure hasn't scaled accordingly. I sometimes think Bend is a city with a small town mentality: people don't want to accept that they are living in a city and therefore can't or won't deal with the issues that growth inevitably brings—like gridlock. Classic denial: "Hey, we live in a small town, we can't possibly have traffic problems that need fixing."

I'd love it if Bend got a mass transit system, I've thought we've needed one for years. I'd ride a bus, if one was available, and I think a lot of other people would, too, despite the picture the article paints. Here's a hint: Not everyone who lives here is wealthy and tools around in a Lexus.

They wouldn't need to start big, at first: maybe two or three routes in Bend, covering downtown, west up to the college, north to the malls and back down east along 27th and Knott Road, swinging south and back up Country Club maybe. Then a route to Redmond, maybe Sisters, and one to Sunriver/Lapine, but those extended routes could come later.

Oh, well. It's nice to dream.