A8 THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021
EDITORIALS & OPINIONS
Heidi Wright
Gerry O’Brien
Richard Coe
AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
Publisher
Editor
Editorial Page Editor
Bend’s code needs
some changes for
homeless shelters
T
he rules for homeless shelters in Bend need to change.
You could sit all day in front of your
house in Bend. Your neighbors might
wonder about you and might ask what is
going on. But there’s nothing illegal about
it.
If a homeless person did that in front
of a homeless shelter in Bend, it’s against
city code. In fact, in Bend even loitering
in front of a homeless shelter is prohibited
by code.
There’s some other curious wording in
the code for homeless shelters in Bend. At
a homeless shelter in Bend, there “must
be a competent adult present for every 25
persons utilizing the facility.” So the peo-
ple utilizing the facility are not competent?
Couldn’t that be phrased better?
There are reasons for restrictions. They
were designed to minimize concerns
about impacts of homeless shelters. But at
Monday’s meeting of the Bend Planning
Commission, committee members chal-
lenged city officials to take a new look at
them. Bend Planning Commission Vice
Chair Whitney Swander and Scott Win-
ters, the chair, deserve credit for raising
many of the concerns. It was Winters
who made the point about the contrast in
what most people can do in front of their
homes.
City staff’s answer Monday was:
Changes like that are going to have to wait.
The city is trying to move swiftly on
some changes. It is making some code
changes to allow the city’s plan to essen-
tially buy a hotel on Third Street and turn
it into a homeless shelter. It’s competing
for funding and it wants the path cleared
quickly to ensure it doesn’t miss out. Jon
Skidmore, the city’s chief operating offi-
cer, said the other changes may be more
controversial and would require more of a
community conversation.
So for now, the city’s plan is to get rid of
the requirement that there must be 1,000
feet of separation between temporary
housing. And the asked for changes would
also allow temporary housing, including
warming and permanent homeless shel-
ters “as an outright use in commercial
zones and in the section of the Bend Cen-
tral District that is west of Third Street.
The Bend Central District sits east of U.S.
Highway 97 and west of Fourth Street and
is centered on Third Street.” That quote
is from Brenna Visser’s article about the
meeting, which includes more detail.
Left unanswered in the meeting,
though, was why only those areas for shel-
ters in Bend? And what about those other
concerns in the code?
Bend residents deserve answers. Skid-
more said many issues will be raised in
a discussion with the Bend City Coun-
cil, perhaps on March 3. If you are curi-
ous about the city’s policy for homeless
shelters that meeting should be an im-
portant one.
Bend plans to allow areas
for homeless to park
M
any people who are homeless
have jobs. They have cars. They
don’t have any place to park
safely and with easy access to bathrooms
and trash disposal.
Bend wants to do something about
that and is creating a safe parking pro-
gram. It was actually discussed at the
same meeting of the Bend Planning
Commission that we wrote about in to-
day’s other editorial. But we didn’t want
the parking plan to get lost in it.
The proposal has two components:
overnight camping and transitional
overnight parking.
In overnight camping, up to three ve-
hicles would be able to park on proper-
ties owned or leased. It would be open
to a broad variety of organizations —
religious, nonprofit, business or pub-
lic entity. The overnight camping must
provide access to sanitation, including
a bathroom, hand-washing and trash
disposal.
The transitional overnight parking
would allow up to six vehicles. And the
city may allow more than six vehicles on
property owned or leased by a public en-
tity. There would be a requirement about
“who can stay, how long and what hours
of the day.” Supervision would be re-
quired. The city would require a permit,
likely annual. There must also be a plan
for supervision, sanitation, a neighbor-
hood meeting and a contact person.
We should note that transitional over-
night parking is currently allowed in
Bend under COVID-19 emergency or-
ders. This plan would allow that to con-
tinue. The city has two locations where
a similar type of parking is happening
now. A member of city staff said the city
could not disclose the locations because
of medical privacy regulations. We de-
cided to test that by making a public
records request for any associated per-
mits. The city had not responded as of
our deadline. There certainly seems to
be a public interest in knowing where in
a community the city authorizes tempo-
rary housing.
If you have any thoughts about the
city’s future parking program, you
should contact the Bend City Council at
council@bendoregon.gov or write us a
letter to the editor.
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
Seniors can wait
I just finished the recent article
on senior COVID-19 vaccinations.
I am a senior waiting for my vacci-
nations, but all I can say is “call me
an ambulance.”
The ME generation has gotten
old and now must be first once
again. Most seniors have the op-
portunity to stay isolated to a great
degree and living in Bend, where
there are many opportunities to
recreate without contact with oth-
ers, I think that the prioritization
of people such as teachers and first
responders, who do not have that
option, is a sound one.
My advice to my genera-
tion: Be patient and be grateful.
You will get your vaccine soon
enough. A couple of more weeks,
or even a month is not long in
the scheme of things. It is frus-
trating to not be able to see fam-
ily members not in your pan-
demic pod. Find something to
do for someone else and the time
will pass quickly.
— Heather Stout, Bend
Confidence in vaccine distribution
Communities across Ore-
gon, and the country, are ask-
ing themselves what is necessary
to recover from the pandemic
— economically, mentally and
physically. Elected officials must
support our constituents through
these tough times and bolster
the industries helping us fight off
COVID-19.
Oregon is vaccinating high-
risk front-line workers, long-term
care facility residents, teachers
and seniors. This is a good start,
but we need more, and more
quickly. The vaccine rollout is a
volatile situation and everchang-
ing process. There are gaps, and
I thank everyone sharing ideas,
voicing concerns and creating op-
portunities for improvement. In
order to gain that herd immunity
that we have all been waiting for,
we must not let up. We must do
more.
This is a massive, unprece-
dented undertaking, and it is
going to take every bit of coordi-
nation between the government
and our health care industry. I
encourage my fellow elected of-
ficials, Gov. Kate Brown’s ad-
ministration and the federal
government to strengthen their
communications with those
helping to get Oregonians the
vaccine, including manufactur-
ers, distributors and clinicians.
These critical partners share our
commitment to vaccinating the
population, and they have infra-
structure for delivering and ad-
ministering.
Health care distributors have
sent more than 1 million vaccines
to our state, and around 836,000
have been administered by medi-
cal providers as of late February. I
am hopeful and confident, that if
we work together, the health care
distribution industry and medical
teams will be able to deliver and
administer vaccine as quickly and
safely as possible throughout all
of Oregon.
— Patti Adair is a Deschutes County
commissioner.
cluding Patriot Prayer militia
members, gathered outside the
Oregon Capitol in Salem. They
pounded on doors and broke
windows. They harassed journal-
ists and assaulted Oregon State
Police officers. During this chaos,
lawmakers were in session, work-
ing to pass legislation that would
help our businesses survive the
COVID-19 pandemic. Instead
of working with his colleagues
to support the people of Oregon,
Republican state Rep. Mike Ne-
arman did something incredibly
destructive. He let the mob in.
Security camera footage ob-
tained by The Oregonian shows
Rep. Nearman opening a locked
door and letting violent men with
guns inside. In doing so, he put
his congressional colleagues in
danger, he put law enforcement
in danger and he put the regu-
lar Oregonians who make sure
our government does its job in
danger. Nearman’s behavior was
reckless, irresponsible and pos-
sibly criminal. Can you imagine
working in a school and open-
ing the door for an armed mob?
Or being a bank employee who
waves a would-be bank robber
inside? At the most fundamen-
tal level, we are called to care for
our fellow humans, to do unto
others as we would have them do
unto us. By his actions, Nearman
invited violence into his place of
work and into our place of gov-
ernment. I don’t care what your
political leanings are. We should
have zero tolerance for violence.
Nearman should be expelled
from the Legislature.
— Amber Keyser, Bend
Expel Nearman
On Dec. 21, a large crowd of
armed right-wing protesters, in-
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‘Parking reform’ is a hidden ploy to turn Bend into California
BY CHAD BUELOW
I
am writing in response to the col-
umn by City Councilor Melanie
Kebler calling for “parking re-
form.” I’m a liberal Democrat and Ke-
bler voter but now question whether
our new “blue wave” city councilors,
with post-graduate degrees but nota-
bly less private sector experience than
their predecessors, are capable of tack-
ling the pressing issues facing Bend.
Having fled California because
well-meaning, well-educated, progres-
sive politicians like Kebler failed to
address out-of-control traffic, housing
costs and homelessness, I feel com-
pelled to sound the alarm — be very
afraid when your elected leaders do
things to make life worse for constitu-
ents and local businesses in pursuit of
abstract social justice goals, as Kebler
is doing here.
For those who had trouble deci-
phering the progressive euphemisms
and jargon in Kebler’s column, I’ll
translate what she means by “park-
ing reform:” Kebler wants to improve
traffic by making it harder to use a car
— in the hope that if driving becomes
too difficult, people will drive less and
traffic will magically disappear.
To accomplish this, Kebler would
implement paid parking or remove
parking altogether in popular ar-
eas, such as downtown Bend. Ke-
bler would also eliminate minimum
parking requirements for new de-
velopments and let the “market” de-
cide how much is appropriate. Kebler
would then use parking revenue to
create slush funds (“parking bene-
fit districts”) to finance pet projects
(“other great things.”)
To those skeptical of Kebler’s claim
that by making people’s lives worse
she will actually make them better, she
assures us that “it can be hard to see
the bigger picture” — the implication
being that she can. I disagree — and
here is how I see the “bigger picture”:
GUEST COLUMN
First, if Kebler
wants a “sustain-
able,” “equitable,”
“connected” future
for Bend, then im-
porting her short-
sighted anti-car
Buelow
mindset from Port-
land is the wrong
answer. I’ve lived in and traveled to
many places where car ownership is
unnecessary. I’m shocked this needs
to be said, but Bend is not one of
those places.
The city requires things like min-
imum parking precisely because
the “market” is incapable of doing
so. With an acute housing shortage,
someone will live in whatever devel-
opers are allowed to build. Apartment
residents won’t give up cars because
they don’t have parking — they’ll
just park in the surrounding neigh-
borhood. Downtown businesses like
Dudley’s Bookshop or Smith Rock
Records, already threatened by Ama-
zon, will lose business when custom-
ers choose free shipping over paid
parking.
Kebler presumably opposes fos-
sil fuels, not cars. Well, in the “bigger
picture” the future is electric — and
the city should want Bend residents
zipping around town in zero emission
vehicles charged with locally gener-
ated solar power. If Kebler gets her
way, though, only homeowners with
chargers could own an electric vehi-
cle — which hardly seems “equita-
ble.” The city should ensure all future
residents can own an EV by putting
charging stations on public property
and incentivizing builders to do so
on private property — in both apart-
ments and single-family homes.
Second, if Kebler wants to lower
housing costs, she should get to work
expanding the urban growth bound-
ary to increase the supply of buildable
land. This will have a far greater impact
on housing affordability than waiv-
ing code requirements that protect the
quality of life of all Bend residents.
Lastly, Kebler’s proposal is a slap in
the face to the overwhelming major-
ity of her constituents who approved
the transportation bond. Bend voters
clearly want the city to invest in ve-
hicular transport – not impede it. We
even provided a funding source and
a “to do” list to prevent future elected
officials like Kebler from overriding
the will of the voters with their own
pet policy prerogatives.
I’ve tried to heed the advice of long
time residents to not turn my new
home into my old one — unfortunately,
it seems that Bend natives like Kebler
are hellbent on turning Bend into Cal-
ifornia on their own. For Bend’s sake,
let’s hope she doesn’t get her way.
e e
Chad Buelow lives in Bend.