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Tag: Bend

  • New Bend blogger

    Found on ORBlogs: The Grumpy Forester, a new Bend blog. Well, Lapine, I guess, but that’s okay. And “new” is relative, the archive go back to January 22 of last year. But it’s new to me! Welcome!

  • The Book Barn

    I stopped in at The Book Barn in downtown Bend today, looking for a particular book or two, and I have to say, I was a little disappointed. They have a nice space (formerly occupied by the Chelsea Lane wine shop), but it just seemed, I don’t know, sparse. I can’t really quantify it more than that, but it’s not the Book Barn I remember of yesteryear, when they were across the street (Minnesota street), occupying two stories, and were about three times as big.

    At least they’re one of the “old time” businesses that are hanging on downtown, though.

  • Bend Centennial

    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.

  • The Crane Shed

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

    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.

  • Bend Brew Fest

    The Bend Brew Fest is kicking off this year at the Les Schwab Amphitheater, on Saturday, August 21. Excellent! Not quite a contender with the awesome Oregon Brewers Festival, but very cool nonetheless.

    From the Les Schwab Amphitheater Events page:

    On Saturday, August 21st over 20 Pacific Northwest brewers will present over 40 craft beers for public tasting at the Les Schwab Amphitheater for the first annual Bend Brew Fest.

     

    Event hours are Noon to 10pm. Cost of admission is $10 for an advance ticket or $15 at the gate. Included in the cost of admission are a commemorative tasting mug and two tasting tokens. One token is required for each beer sample. Token costs are $1 apiece.

  • Bend blogger meetup?

    Over on Jake’s site on a roundup of all the known Bend bloggers, the topic has come up in the comments on having a local blogger meetup. Time and place to be decided. I’d vote for one of the breweries.

    Any interest?

  • Historic house

    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:

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

  • Frontier Doctor

    Frontier Doctor: Observations on Central Oregon and the Changing WestI 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.

  • And another Bend blogger

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

  • Old Farm District

    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.