ADAIR FLIP-FLOPPED AGAIN; IT'S TIME FOR A RECALL
On Thursday, Deschutes County Commissioner Patti Adair "flip-flopped" on her July 26th vote to stop new destination resorts in Deschutes County. This isn't her 1st flip-flop; she also changed her view on a city-approved managed campsite for the south end of Bend.
Regarding the managed campsite, during the February 27th meeting; Commissioner DeBone asked Adair, "So Commissioner Adair, you're supportive of contracting for the operation of this site?" Adair responded, "I am." On March 9th Commissioner Adair voted no on the campsite. Adair's reasoning on changing her view "I cannot tell you how many people I have heard from, they are like, 'Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for listening to our voice." She apparently listened to constituents about a campsite, that's not the case regarding resorts.
At the July 12th public hearing regarding destination resorts I reminded Commissioner Adair that she stated, "Per our emails, and per my phone calls, most people are saying we're beyond any more destination resorts." I asked her to align with her constituents to stop new destination resorts, which she did and then she flip-flopped.
Commissioner Adair also voted with Thornburgh Resort agreeing with studies provided by the resort and ignoring government water studies and the public regarding the water impact of the resort.
It is time for the public to act and recall Commissioner Adair and elect someone that aligns with constituents and not big business.
—Joe Craig
RE: WHAT WE LOSE WHEN WE LEAVE FEATURE, 8/10
Our city and county never held developers accountable for deed-restricted housing and true affordable housing while growing Bend. Developers say they are building affordable housing within their developments but they are truly not affordable. In addition the city should require within a development that there are townhouses, duplexes, tri and quadplexes and affordable apartments to keep our communities diverse and not gentrified. Lastly, because we were considered a tourist destination the city allowed way too many Short Term Rental permits. This makes the house more expensive, provides less inventory for affordable housing and drives up rents. Airbnb is notorious for ruining affordability in communities.
—Nicole Perullo via bendsource.com
FAIR-UNWELL FESTIVAL
A few weeks back, I attended the FairWell festival at the Deschutes County fairgrounds. The lineup was excellent, the tickets fairly priced and the location close to home. Unfortunately, those positives were vastly overshadowed by some of the missteps of the organizers. Unlike other music festivals in the region, FairWell fest stood out due to the near complete lack of camping and safe transportation options. Most music festivals include camping for free, at FairWell if you were wealthy enough to have a camper and pay $600, you had the option to camp. There were no public shuttles to and from the festival, and car parking was free, thereby encouraging folks to drive (on top of this, bike parking was relegated to a gravel lot furthest away from the grounds). When this was paired with the strong alcohol-forward atmosphere (nine huge bar tents encircling the grounds, multiple corporate alcohol sponsors), and a complete disaster of traffic control when leaving the festival (many people waited two or three hours to leave each night and opted to tailgate in the meantime), the result was an incredibly irresponsible festival. FairWell sold 35,000 tickets and blindsided many festival goers by not offering a public shuttle or reasonable camping. How many hundreds or thousands of intoxicated drivers did they unleash on Central Oregon for those three nights? I've been to many music festivals in the region over the years and this was definitely the poorest execution. If the festival happens again next year, I urge everyone reading this to take a hard look at the ethics of what you are paying for before attending (see Pickathon for a positive counterpoint: free shuttle and bike parking, free camping, paid car parking, zero waste, no corporate alcohol sponsors...).
—Andy Neary
RE: FRANKLIN MURALS GONE, OR GRAFFITIED NEWS, 8/3
A lovely mural, to me, no matter how "persistently graffitied" (is that City of Bend newspeak?) carries far more aesthetic value than the tagged length of gray wall that replaced it.
For a brief time we had an utterly delightful work of art both lovely and evocative — in that it contained symbology that referenced the artist's own knowledge that her life was soon to end.
Unfortunately, the City of Bend could not find within itself the grace to allow the life of the mural to go on much longer than its creator's.
—Foster Fell via bendsource.com
RE: SCAMMER FOILED AT MANZANITA NEWS, 8/10
Great food cart and people, glad to see they didnt get scammed!! PS- you gotta try their shrimp tacos.
—Glenn Millar via bendsource.com
Letter of the Week:
They are pretty great, Glenn! Thanks for your commentary. You get letter of the week.
—Nicole Vulcan
