The other day I was traveling from NorthWest Crossing to Pettigrew Road. I was enjoying my ride, noticing the beautiful landscaping, aspens, flowers and manicured areas bordering Mt. Washington Drive and Reed Market Road. I especially liked the Brookswood roundabout, which is surrounded by flowers and shrubs. It has a beautiful sculpture that frames the mountains quite nicely.

As I continued over Third Street, I noticed something was changing. No longer was I seeing beautiful surroundings, but now I was dodging potholes and would see dead subdivisions where developers had started new homes. There was no roadside landscaping in front of their subdivisions. There were just dead weeds and trees with fences in disrepair.

Would these developers have been allowed to do this over on the west side? Also along Reed Market Road, the developers were able to cut down mature ponderosas. The lack of responsible development continues on this side of town. I ask myself: Why does the city allow this to happen?

I continued on Reed Market onto the new area of the road. All I saw in the way of landscaping in this area were twigs planted that looked like they came from the leftover garden supply at a local nursery. It was hard to see the shrubs from all the weeds covering a large portion of the new landscaping. Also, there seems to be no water for this area, as most of the trees and shrubs that had been planted were now dead.

Who is responsible for this travesty on Reed Market Road? There was the exception of a few businesses along the road that did landscaping in front of their shops. Kudos to them.

I thought to myself: Don’t the city of Bend, the developers and the homeowners take any pride in how Reed Market Road looks on the east side?

By this time, my enjoyment of the trip from NorthWest Crossing had evaporated. As I turned onto Pettigrew, I came upon an area where it looked like it was in some third-world country. Again, there were dead subdivisions, but this time large portions of a fence were missing. What was left standing of this fence looked like it should be taken down, too.

I, too, wonder how the owners of these dead subdivisions are allowed to let the fields abound with 3-foot weeds, which would be a real fire hazard to surrounding areas.

As I turned onto Gardenia heading toward my home, I asked myself what can be done about the disparity between the west-side/east-side landscaping that borders a large artery in our fair city? Where is the city of Bend in all of this? Why are the developers allowed to leave the areas bordering the roads looking like we live on the wrong side of the tracks?

Let’s all take some pride in our beloved city and not allow the west-side/east-side divide continue. We can start with properly maintaining and beautifying Reed Market and Pettigrew roads, well-traveled roads seen by all. This area appears to have been developed without any regard to aesthetic beauty.

Providing normal, routine maintenance (potholes filled, at least), landscaping that is actually alive and thriving, not in the shadow of weeds, requiring developers to landscape the adjoining area along the road, build appropriate, well-constructed fences is not too much to ask.

Hopefully the new roundabout to be constructed on 15th and Reed Market will be given the same consideration, with beautiful landscaping and sculpture as we see on the west side. We want to be proud of Reed Market on the east side, too.

— Sherie Browning lives in Bend.