East Bend Library.

Library thwarts Bend’s plans

The decision to spend over $100 million of public funds to build a “central library” in East Bend demonstrated the director and board’s insensitivity to Bend’s strategy to develop “complete communities” where residents can walk, bike or take a short car ride to nearby community centers, which could include new community libraries. Instead this huge “central” facility will increase traffic congestion and pollution, and limit access for seniors, the disabled and disadvantaged members of our community. It will force residents into their cars (if they have one), burning more pollution-causing fossil fuels and generally deteriorating our quality of life.

Now they’ve announced the closing of the East Bend library, the busiest in the system, and one which is near a wide array of other community services and businesses. It’s another example that they continue to thwart our city’s plans — plans which offer a way for Bend to manage growth, minimize traffic congestion, improve accessibility for historically marginalized people, and generally improve quality of life for all of us.

Community libraries, linked to our complete communities, can provide anchors for this important city planning concept, and should be a critical component in any future library plans. I call on director Todd Dunkleberg and his board to meet with city representatives to better understand how counter-productive their decisions have been, in the hope that with better understanding might come improved coordination with Bend’s goals in the future.

— Louis Capozzi, Bend

Match your vote and values

A healthy exercise is to consider your values and how you express these in the world. When your expression and values align, you will experience psychological well-being (Sheldon and Kasser, 2001). Additionally, this also increases positive emotions and greater life satisfaction (Schwartz and Sortheix, 2018). So, science tells us this consistency is important.

Religion is one source to help inform us what values we should embrace. In the Bible, both Mark (12:31) and Matthew (22:39) refer to the 2nd most important commandment being “Love your neighbor as yourself” (the first is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart…”). So, if we value love for our neighbors, then for our happiness and satisfaction in life asks that we express this value.

Why then do so many politicians who proudly share their deep Christian faith, so rarely talk about the importance of love? Moreover, they frequently disparage others by dehumanizing immigrants, name-calling toward colleagues, and consistent negativity designed to create fear. Many seem so angry and unloving, in contradiction to biblical values.

As individuals, we can either follow these people and embrace hate ourselves, or we can turn away and follow those with a positive, kind, and loving vision of the world. This is not just a political decision but one that impacts our personal health. If we believe in Christian values, we are called to live them. The choice is yours and your happiness seeks this alignment. One way to align is with your vote on November 5th.

— Larry Larson, Bend

Navigating roundabouts

Okay, so you moved to Bend from a really frenetic place, maybe a place that doesn’t have roundabouts. Here’s the thing about a roundabout — the purpose is not to speed around the thing as fast as possible— it’s actually not about you. A roundabout’s purpose is to keep traffic moving, so the speed limit is 15. This allows cars coming from the other three streets to enter the circle, yes, maybe in front of you, which keeps traffic moving.

Maybe you moved to Bend because you’re an adrenaline junky and proud of your athleticism. How about working out one of your left-hand digits to flick that blinker before exiting a roundabout? It’s all about letting others know what you’re doing so we can all keep moving and avoid having to erect stop lights, those things we all hate. That’s one of the cool things about Bend — it’s about all of us.

— Kim Jacobson, Bend

Editor’s Note

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