Aside from a handful of multi-story buildings near downtown, Bend is sprawled. Whether you are talking residentially – Broken Top, Boyd Acres, Deschutes River Woods – or commercially – The Old Mill, Cascade Village Shopping Center – this town in notoriously flat. We are designing a community separated by miles, inaccessible due to excessive urban sprawl. It’s time we stop to think about how we got here, and the consequences of this type of growth.

I remember when my family moved here about 15 years ago. Although I was just a child, I knew this place was far different from my original home of Portland. Besides the obvious, such as less rain, more nature, and a small-town vibe, one of the characteristics that stuck out the most was the lack of apartment buildings, skyscrapers, or any concentrated shopping centers — such as malls.

For a long time, it was nice not living amongst grotesque reminders of city life, but as the years passed, something about Bend began to change. I noticed these changes more-and-more, until I could no longer ignore it, and realized the problem: this town’s population was growing. In fact, at times, I would go so-far as to say the population was exploding.

I became increasingly frustrated how difficult it was to find a parking space, wherever in town I went.

You might be thinking, well if it’s so busy on the roads, why not just walk? And here is where we run into the bigger problem: this town is not walkable.

I truly understand why many moving here would want to have their own piece of Bend, via the quiet, calm neighborhoods to raise their families. In fact, it is a story most newcomers share, perhaps many who are reading this.

The problem is not necessarily wanting to live this lifestyle, it’s that we are under the illusion that there’s enough space to live this way: there isn’t.

If everyone is choosing to live in these spread-out homes, away from our busy downtown, it ultimately forces the town the build out, rather than up. If we keep going down this path, it will be a few decades until the farmland between Bend and Redmond is rezoned into more suburbs. What we will be left with is a merging of the two towns into one, sprawled-out city, not unlike many of the cities people moved here to escape from.

We will have to drive everywhere. Across town to the grocery store, 10 blocks east to the doctor, and 30-minutes to a friend’s house.

We will have to burn gas to go everywhere, exasperating climate change further. Especially since we are in a diverse, harsh climate where biking throughout the year is also not realistic. The winters here can be harsh. Expecting everyone to bike when the roads are dangerously icy is not realistic, especially over the ludicrous distances we must commute.

We will be forced to lock ourselves in our cars, isolating us from neighbors or the outdoors we love and enjoy. We will be a town without our town’s values.

As Bend continues to grow, we must not forget to grow vertically, not just horizontally. Although I am starting to see more apartment buildings popping up, we must emphasize this newer trend as more-and-more move here. If not, Bend will just become another sprawled-out town in a sprawled-out country.

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