Why must Bend go first on climate?

In a Dec. 8 editorial, the Bulletin asked: Should Bend go first on climate action? “Bend is thinking about being the first Oregon city to take some types of climate action.”

Question: Um… why? Why is being first good for the people who live and work and pay taxes in Bend? The city council knows why. (Wink.) In that editorial, councilor Megan Perkins was quoted as saying (in a meeting with city staff), “Everybody in here gets why we have to do this… but there’s a very large community of 99,950 people outside of here that may not understand…” (Wince.) Megan says we just don’t understand.

The editorial also suggested that councilors Mendez and Riley seemed ready to just pounce into regulatory action. Riley asserted “education, by itself, is not going to get the kind of change needed.” Who declared what’s “needed”?

So here’s how it looks, we have one councilor who thinks that we just need to be educated, and a couple of others who just want to impose regulations because they know what’s best.

Hey City Council, why does Bend need to be first? And the answer shouldn’t be slogans like “existential” this or “crisis” that, or that Oregon might be .01 degree warmer in the year 2090. Why first? Are we fixing something or are we just trying to impress the cool kids in the Oregon climate politics club?

We are 2% of the Oregon population. How about we let Portland go first?

— Kevin Brooks, Bend

Community needs The Bulletin’s town square

For the second time in five years The Bulletin, Central Oregon’s 121-year-old community newspaper, has new owners.

X, WhatsApp, TikTok and other social media platforms, in contrast to The Bulletin, communicate news that can be read in 5 minutes or less. Today’s culture and technology enable us to read the news fast wherever we are.

Statista.com reports the U.S. experienced from 2004 to 2024, 3,200 weekly newspapers closing or merging with other newspapers.

Democracies rely on its citizens having current, accurate and complete information. Many social media platforms are not sources of accurate or complete news.

Central Oregon is a healthy economy but is challenged with lack of affordable housing, homelessness, wildfires and illegal drug related overdoses and crime.

Our communities need The Bulletin to report a broader and deeper understanding how law enforcement, government agencies and nonprofits keep us safe and serviced, while providing the means for shelter and health care.

The Bulletin must be the “town square” for us to see ourselves as Central Oregon.

— Tim Conlon, Bend

Land use and housing costs

Back in the day when I sat on the planning commission for the city of Myrtle Creek, the state came around to talk about the new land use planning process. I asked if use of land was regulated wouldn’t it drive up the cost of land? I was assured there was a process to prevent this.

Now I read more about affordable housing needed because of the cost of rent and houses. I also read about houseless folks living illegally for free on land regulated not for housing. The state has now passed legislation that allows cities to fast track 100 acres if it meets criteria for some affordable housing. Is this the result of too strict of land use planning? Are the tradeoffs for organized living, tax subsidies?

While I was the chair of the Deschutes County Planning Commission, the Redmond urban growth boundary expansion was done and the beginning of Bend’s. Redmond’s went right through, and Bend’s ended up denied and Bend had to redo it. If I remember correctly, it was said the amount of land wouldn’t be needed till 2050. I wonder if all of this is related and has anything to do with the housing costs being less in Redmond than Bend?

— Mike Shirtcliff, Redmond

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