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Tag: Bend

  • NYTimes on Bend (late review)

    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 am Snarky Bend!

    Chris started it; I’m just jumping on the bandwagon!

  • Haunted Bend

    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 Cemetery: 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?

  • Bend restaurants blog

    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.”

  • More on DeWolf case

    The Bulletin today has a piece on the DeWolf sexual harrassment case, with much more detail. It’s rather appalling. Touching on some points:

    • Apparently “Deschutes County policy requires employees to report sexual harassment…. Violating the policy can draw penalties that range from a warning to dismissal, according to the policy.” While I think sexual harrassment is a pretty serious offense, this policy seems awfully harsh for the victim—I mean, not only could you be subjected to the harrassment to begin with, you could lose your job for being too embarrassed or scared to report it? Wow. Sounds like a great way to breed a culture of fear and avoidance.(The article does mention that none of the employees—there are at least three—who knew about it have been disciplined specifically under this policy, though one of them has been suspended pending the ongoing investigation of the juvenile department that pulled the trigger on this whole mess.)
    • When he was first interviewed for the juvenile department investigation, “DeWolf said the investigation would have never been authorized had he not taken a month off over the summer to attend a public policy school at Harvard University.” Hmmmm. Is he admitting that he would have hindered this investigation, given the chance? Sounds criminal.
    • The article covers the incident in question in detail. It illustrates some pretty blatant behavior on DeWolf’s part—this is the stuff in particular that I found appalling. In particular I have a hard time reconciling that with DeWolf’s resignation statement where he declares: “I stand by my statement of August 9 that the incident from two years ago was resolved the day after it occurred. Valid county policy was followed in that resolution”—except for the county policy that requires sexual harrassment to be reported. Or, when he says this:

      People have asked what purpose was served by the Lane County Deputy District Attorney holding a press conference in the county office building. They’ve asked what purpose was served by bringing up an incident from twelve years ago. They’ve asked what purpose was served when he used such salacious and sensational language in declaring his intention not to file charges. They’ve asked what purpose was served by the media quoting that salacious and sensational language. I have no answer for these questions.

      Talk about avoidance—trying to lay the blame for all this coming out into the open on the Lane County DA(!). Seems to me the answer to those questions is pretty obvious; it prompted a much-needed housecleaning.

  • BendSearch

    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.

  • Fast-growing Bend (again)

    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…

  • Bluefish Bistro

    We ate at Bluefish Bistro (no website that I see; instead here’s a link to The Source’s dining guide entry) in Downtown Bend last Saturday (my wife and I), and yes, I’m just now getting around to writing about it. Bluefish is one of the newest restaurants in the current trend of upscale, fine dining experiences in Bend (others being Merenda, Cork, Zydeco, Ariana, for instance), and it’s also one of the most expensive. More on that in a bit.

    Located downtown on Franklin, on the corner of Drake Park and Franklin basically, it’s kind of an unassuming place from the outside. I don’t know if that bodes well or not because that location has generally seen more turnover than other places downtown; I can think of two previous establishments there in recent memory. Inside is nice, more character; I particularly like the water fountain dividing the entry area from the dining room.

    One nice touch: the water had a fresh sprig of mint in it. My wife wasn’t sure how well she liked that, but I thought it was refreshing—we grew up with a lot of mint growing in the gardens, and there’s nothing quite like being able to pick and eat fresh mint leaves.

    The bread was very good, but it was the butter that stood out. There are three kinds: a sweet butter, a honey almond butter, and a tangerine butter. They were, frankly, amazing.

    A note to beer drinkers: they apparently don’t have any beer on tap, it’s all bottled, and at four dollars a bottle, you’d probably be better off going with a glass of wine (which is what I did).

    The food was good, but expensive: all the entrees were in the mid to upper twenties, the heirloom tomato salad was $12, glasses of wine tended to run seven dollars and up. The food was excellent—I had the halibut which was tender and moist and flaky, along with well-chosen root vegetables (beets and turnips, I want to say), and the vanilla cheesecake was stunning—but I think it’s the most expensive of restaurants we’ve been to lately. Sad to say, this will be the limiting factor as to how often we visit Bluefish, I imagine.

    Overall, a very good dining experience. If you can afford it, it’s worth a try at least once.

  • Trump/Bend on Google

    It seems I am the number one search on Google for “Donald Trump Bend Oregon“. That’s awesome. I think I should win something :).

    Even more amusing is reading the comments I got on that post, with the variations on the rumor people have heard.

    How about this? Start a weblog called BendRumors.com (the domain is available! Grab it up quick!) and run just this sort of thing… (Actually, Shannon’s boy suggested something similar, doing “BendTabloid.com.” That one’s available, too.)

  • Online Bend maps

    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…