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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 2021)
A8 THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2021 EDITORIALS & OPINIONS AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER Heidi Wright Gerry O’Brien Richard Coe Publisher Editor Editorial Page Editor A more dense city is a challenge for Bend’s parks S lowly and almost surely Bend is losing its parks. They aren’t going away. They aren’t being bought up for development. But as Bend’s population grows and becomes more dense everyone’s public open space gets a bit less. Is it noticeable? Perhaps not. But if you think about what Shevlin Park was like 10 or 15 years ago and how parking can be gobbled there now, there has been a change. Bend is lucky, of course. It has great parks and other nice facili- ties. It has a river. And just outside of Bend there is fantastic access to public land. So there is hardly a cri- sis. There is a gradual shift. Housing density is loved, because it protects Oregon from sprawl. It lowers development costs for in- frastructure. Roads, sewers, water and more are cheaper to provide if the population is close together. It doesn’t help city parks. Land prices go up. And although people can get exercise in multistory indoor facili- ties, it is not the same as being out- side on the grass. Planners for the Bend Park & Recreation District can show the numbers. The acres per thousand people of parks are predicted to decline in Bend over the next five years. That’s true of neighborhood parks. It’s true of big, regional parks, such as Shevlin. And it’s true of city trails. That depends on assumptions about population growth measured against the plans the park district has over the next five years and also other things it knows will be built. The district also looks at acces- sibility of parks and trails to ensure they are spread out across the com- munity. It would like to have parks within a half mile easy walk for ev- eryone in the district. It’s true for less than half of district residents now. And the district is working on more granular data. It is overlay- ing census tract information on in- come, minorities and more to see if it is truly reaching out equitably. It should make those maps available to the public on its website when it has them ready. That should provide important information about where parks and facilities may be needed. The most difficult thing to mea- sure may be along the lines of what park district board member Jason Kropf asked: What does it mean if neighborhood park acreage slips from 7.76 acres per thousand in 2019 to 7.67 acres per thousand in 2020? Probably not much. But if the long-term trend continues down, it does mean something. A crowded park can make it much less attrac- tive for people to go and get exercise or just get outside. The park district is looking for answers. What can it do? It can work with developers to ensure they in- clude open space and trail access in new housing projects. It can encour- age apartment builders to include gym space or perhaps even a pool. The district may need support from voters for a bond to make invest- ments in additional facilities. And it may need to think about ways to make it easier for people to access the ample public lands beyond the district’s borders. Legislative pay raise really isn’t that crazy I t may not be the best time to talk about a pay raise for state legislators during a global pan- demic. That’s what House Bill 3144 is about. It would establish that the annual salary of legislators be the average of all the occupations in Oregon. Legislators make about $31,000 a year now and get a per diem of about $150 a day for food and lodg- ing when the Legislature is in ses- sion. If HB 3144 were to become law, they would get more than a $20,000 a year raise. Maybe this bill will go nowhere this session. A similar proposal died in 2019. But there is more to it than just an effort to get a raise. The Leg- islature shouldn’t be a place where only the wealthy can serve. And if lobbyists get paid handsomely for their work and legislators do not, that could give lobbyists the edge in the time and energy they can put into influencing legislation. Editorials reflect the views of The Bulletin’s editorial board, Publisher Heidi Wright, Editor Gerry O’Brien and Editorial Page Editor Richard Coe. They are written by Richard Coe. My Nickel’s Worth Help the people in need Given the extreme partisan politics displayed by Trump and McConnell in the past four-plus years, it is amus- ing to now hear Republicans com- plain about the lack of bipartisanship by President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. But, let’s set right-wing hypocrisy aside and focus on what really matters to American people who are suffering from Trump’s COVID malfeasance and economic wreckage. People desperately need and want help. I don’t think they care if that relief comes from a partisan vote in Congress. They could care less if it is the result of “reconciliation.” That’s because the result will be bipartisan relief for everyone — Democrats, Re- publicans and independents. Negotiating a compromise with those who supported Trump’s ruin- ous policies, practiced extreme parti- san politics, and now want to provide less help to suffering people is not the solution. If Republicans in Congress don’t want to help people in need, that’s on them. If Trump supporters are all that concerned that Biden rejects compro- mise, they are welcome to decline the money, decline the unemployment benefits, and decline everything else that is in President Biden’s much- needed COVID relief package. — Michael Funke, Bend Three questions for Bentz After watching the Senate impeach- ment trial of Donald Trump, I am hoping that my newly elected Ore- gon Republican congressman, Cliff Bentz, has had second thoughts about his Jan. 13 vote to exonerate Don- ald Trump’s Jan. 6 actions to incite a crowd to sack the Capitol and ignore congresspersons’ pleas to call off the rioters. Even Mitch McConnell has acknowledged that Donald Trump’s actions were inexcusable. In remarks to the media, Bentz said the Jan. 13 ‘rush-to-judgment’ im- peachment would only divide the na- tion more and undercut efforts to get both parties working on key issues, such as COVID-19. “I voted against impeachment be- cause our focus should be on unifying our nation, ensuring a peaceful tran- sition to the Biden administration,” Bentz said. Even though congressman Bentz is a conservative Republican, I would expect him to denounce a tyrannical Republican president who acted to overthrow American democracy. My questions to Rep. Bentz now: 1. Do you believe the 2020 election might actually have been stolen from Donald Trump? If so, why? 2. Assuming time constraints would not preclude a fair investiga- tion and trial, and knowing what you now know, would you still vote “no” against Trump’s impeachment ? 3. Do you support Donald Trump as a leader of the Republican Party? — Brad Raffle, Bend Control immigration Three weeks ago, the Source Weekly expressed admiration for the Bend citizens who staged a demon- stration against ICE officials who were attempting to process two individuals who were here illegally and had pend- ing charges against them. A newly released report from the Department of Homeland Security should make The Source and dem- onstrators reconsider their actions. Last year, 185,884 illegal immigrants were deported and 64% had pending charges, or criminal convictions. This included 1,900 homicides, 3,800 robberies and 37,000 assaults; 4,276 were gang members. I don’t want my children, grand- children or the country subjected to the illegal activities of criminal immi- grants, which the Biden administra- tion seems willing to do. How many people know that over 10% of inmates in Oregon’s prisons are in the U.S. illegally? Yes, most immigrants are honest, hardworking individuals, but how can people believe it is OK for thousands of immigrants to pour across the bor- der illegally, ahead of many others who are working hard to come here legally? — John Williams, Bend Holding officials accountable I wish to comment on the latest attempt by the legislative branch of these United States to address the will of the people. To my admittedly limited view- point it is not about the history of impeachment, it should not be about retribution and ought not to be about gamesmanship, but needs to be about accountability. If the impeachment process does not work to address that, then how else (besides the democratic election process) do the citizens of the United States hold their elected officials ac- countable? And given that the demo- cratic election process is held in such contempt by such a large segment of the population, what other avenue(s) do the regular citizens of this country have? And even though I am an eter- nal optimist, in this I despair. — Neil Erickson, Powell Butte GUEST COLUMN Dear movie fans: Step up and save your local theaters BY DREW KAZA F or those who have been miss- ing the opportunity to check out first-run movie releases on the local big screens, last week seemed to portend some good news. With Gov. Kate Brown’s new guidance and the latest revision of county risk levels, Deschutes County dropped out of the extreme risk cat- egory. Movie theaters could then, in theory, reopen again. But for operators like us at Kaza Sisters Movie House, this was, quite simply not an option. Like Regal Cinemas in Bend, we have been closed now for many months simply to ensure our survival. To reopen now under Oregon’s current state guide- lines would guarantee we lose even more money than we currently do, while staying closed. For starters, Oregon is currently the only state in America where movie theaters are not allowed to sell conces- sions at any level of reopening. Since the large percentage of every ticket sold goes to movie distributors, con- cessions are essential to our industry’s survival. This prohibition does not appear to be grounded in science. The Na- tional Association of Theater Owners reviewed the scientific literature and could find no peer reviewed analysis tying a COVID-19 outbreak to movie theaters anywhere in the world. To the contrary, contact trac- ing in South Korea showed that out of 31.5 million the- ater visits in the last year, 49 COVID-positive people at- tended theaters, and there were no outbreaks due to these visits. Live performance venues, restau- rants and bars can all sell food in Or- egon, despite the fact that all of them involve higher risk indoor behaviors that are 1 to 3 orders of magnitude more risky in terms of COVID-19 transmission, according to a peer re- viewed journal article. This letter is a cry for help from our elected public officials. Unlike a number of nonprofit ven- ues and cultural institutions who re- ceived assistance ($25 million worth) from the state emergency board way Bulletin file Brey Kissler, 13, front center, takes in a showing at the Pine Theater in Prineville in 2007. back in the summer of 2020, Oregon’s movie theater businesses have re- ceived next to zero assistance to date. There are circa 600 movie screens in Oregon in 118 different locations spread across our fair state, with a greater proportion of small indepen- dents and “single screen” venues than just about any other state in the coun- try – and yet we have been wholly ig- nored by the state’s bureaucracy. Most of us have been ineligible to receive loans like those that have aided the restaurant industry (PPP loans) and any emergency assistance has been so small it can only register as a blip of income. For theaters like ours, that have now been continu- ously shut for over 330 days, the losses have been massive. Most cinemas (big and small) in our state have seen rev- enues drop by 90% or more between 2019 and 2020. Compounding the problem, we have no firm understanding when life might “return to normal.” Many movie theaters in Oregon are on the brink of bankruptcy and/or closing entirely. We are asking every movie fan to reach out to local legis- lators and to tell them how much we mean to you. Help make Salem aware that the lo- cal movie theater is actually an endan- gered species right now, and without some assistance to make up for our unjustified and crippling losses, many will shutter for good. In so many of Oregon’s smaller towns and counties, the local movie theater is the cultural life blood of the community. We must act now if we are going to save it. e e Drew Kaza is managing partner of quoin media & entertainment LLC, which owns the Sisters Movie House in Sisters. He lives in Redmond.