B4 The BulleTin • SaTurday, May 22, 2021
EDITORIALS & OPINIONS
AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
Heidi Wright
Gerry O’Brien
Richard Coe
Publisher
Editor
Editorial Page Editor
Bend may push
people to water
conservation
T
he best way the city of Bend may have to hold down
water use and water bills is to get people to conserve. And
the city is already thinking about some ideas.
The most dramatic one is perhaps
for the city to develop and enforce
“water efficient landscape design
standards.” The city would “specify
that new development projects and
renovations of existing units subject
to design review be landscaped ac-
cording to water-efficient best man-
agement practices including appro-
priate plant selection and placement,
water-efficient irrigation systems
and smart irrigation controllers. The
ordinance could require certification
of landscape professionals.”
There are others, including re-
bates for people who switch to
high-efficiency toilets and the city
handing out free faucet and shower-
head aerators. Another is to require
homes be retrofit on resale, or when
there is a new account, with faucets
and toilets that get the EPA’s Water-
Sense label. That label basically
means more water-efficient devices.
The last one we will mention does
not seem to have made the cut for
further consideration. It would have
had the city pay people to rip up
their lawns and put down a more
conservation friendly covering. “A
$1-per-square-foot rebate (up to
$2,000) to remove turf and replace
it with low-water-use plants, mulch,
or permeable hardscape. Rebates are
confirmed with site visits.”
Before you get excited or angry
about any of these, these are just pre-
liminary ideas under consideration.
The city hasn’t decided to do any of
them. It plans to have a public process
for evaluating them, likely through
the city’s Environment and Climate
Committee. That may begin this fall.
We found out about them because
during Wednesday’s council meeting
city staff said the city can avoid more
than $20 million in capital spending
to build new wells and a large reser-
voir by spending about $10 million
over 20 years on conservation. We
asked to see where those numbers
came from. After a few emails, the
city sent us a copy of modeling and
analysis from a consultant. The city
should put up the report on its web-
site. It has estimates of how much
bang for the buck each conservation
option might deliver.
We know you know water is pre-
cious in the Deschutes River Basin.
And actually most of the water use
in the basin is not by city water sys-
tems. Every drop conserved, though,
is a good thing. And when the city as
a whole saves water, that means the
city doesn’t have to build as much
capacity to deliver water. That helps
keep your water bill lower. Whether
you want the city to do these sort of
conservation measures and exercise
greater control of your water use is
another question.
Historical editorials:
Governor visits Bend
e e
Editor’s note: The following historical editorials
originally appeared in what was then called
The Bend Bulletin on June 22, 1906.
G
overnor Chamberlain and
the other state officials were
pleased with the reception
tendered them (on Tuesday) by the
settlers, were impressed and sur-
prised by the development of Bend
and surrounding country and will
always speak a good word for the
Deschutes Valley. There has been
but one opinion expressed regarding
the day — that it was a great success.
A pleasing realization when failure
was prophesized.
Is there a moral? To The Bulletin
one appears easily to be seen. If the
town and country are to experience
that degree of growth and develop-
ment that they deserve, there must
be a united stand in every effort that
tends to the general good. Personal
likes and dislikes, spites and grudges
are always the marks of the small
caliber man. They never reap any-
thing but failure. Let us forget these
matters and labor together for the
common good. “In union there is
strength.”
…
The success that so happily at-
tended Bend’s efforts to make last
Tuesday a pleasant and profitable
day to the visitors within her gates
was due largely to the hard work
of a few publicly spirited men and
women; and the hardest worked of
all these was our genial “Dad” West.
If all of Bend’s citizens displayed the
same interest in public affairs as does
J.I. West, the town could count itself
fortunate indeed.
…
One of the best indicators of the
general business done in a town is
the receipts at the post office. The
number of money orders issued at
the Bend office during this month is
double what it was at the same time
last year and the cancellations and
sale of stamps have increased in the
same proportion.
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.
Do we have enough trust to unmask?
BY PETULA DVORAK
The Washington Post
A
new dimension of social anxi-
ety opened up last week, when
the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention liberated the smiles,
scowls and jowls of Americans with
new guidance saying masks aren’t
needed for those of us who are fully
vaccinated.
Cities and states quickly scrambled
to revise their requirements. Many
lifted the mandate completely, some
left the decision up to individual busi-
nesses. The District of Columbia, for
example, continued to require masks
on public transportation, in schools,
in medical offices and in any business
that requires it.
But those of us who haven’t been
jabbed? Keep the masks on, please.
Right. Because all those folks who
were yowling about their freedoms
when they were asked to mask up be-
fore this are totally going to do it now
that we’re on the honor system.
Going out and about in America
right now has become one big trust
fall.
“I don’t trust people,” said Grace
Frias, 34, as she left a client meeting
in downtown Washington, D.C., on
Thursday morning. “If they’re not
wearing a mask, how do I know it’s be-
cause they’ve been vaccinated?”
That made me touch my mask
quickly and explain to her: “I’m vac-
cinated. I just wear it to keep people
comfortable.”
This was after I went to a grocery
store wearing a mask and wondered
whether my covered face means folks
will now see me as an anti-vaxxer.
This is what happens when the na-
tion’s public health relies on individu-
als’ moral compasses.
Let’s do the math. Only 37.8% of the
nation has been vaccinated. At a gas
station and convenience store in rural
Maryland, ZERO people around me
were wearing masks. So either rural
Maryland holds the land-speed record
in vaccinations, or something else is
happening.
We’re now asked to measure our
trust of one another at every outing, in
a time of division and mistrust across
the nation.
“The people who didn’t want to
wear masks in the first place are usu-
ally the people who didn’t want to get
the vaccine,” lamented Gabriella, 31,
who is vaccinated but wore her mask
as she darted into a grocery store
in Riverdale, Maryland, grabbing
last-minute flowers for a wedding.
She’s been vaccinated but kept her
mask on because she doesn’t trust her
fellow shoppers to do the right thing.
How about Phillip Fields, 34, who
lives in Carroll County, Maryland, and
fits sprinkler systems in buildings all
over the region?
He had his gaiter mask, printed with
an American flag, around his neck as
he took a smoke break outside.
“No, ma’am,” Fields said. “I am not
vaccinated and neither is my wife.
We’re on opposite sides of this. I’m not
worried at all about getting sick. Been
tested four times. Negative every time.
But she’s real worried about getting
sick. Makes me put my mask on when-
ever we go out.”
But if he’s not with his wife or on the
job, he’s not going to wear it, he said.
You can trust Mary, at that conve-
nience store in Thurmont, way up in
rural Maryland near Camp David.
She’s got a wide, friendly smile, is
fully vaccinated and is thrilled that she
doesn’t have to wear a mask anymore.
“I was a senior when this started,”
the 19-year-old said. “So I just started
working a lot, right away. Been work-
ing through all of it.”
She missed prom and graduation,
had a few ugly incidents at the conve-
nience store in previous months when
folks refused to wear masks, and her
face started breaking out from all the
hours she spent with it covered up.
“It is what it is,” said Mary, who
didn’t think her bosses would approve
of her talking to me, so she asked that
I not use her last name. “It’s about half
and half right now, people wearing or
not wearing masks.”
I looked around. No one — besides
me — was wearing a mask.
She shrugged. “You’ve just gotta
trust ’em.”
Gabriella, whose mask matched her
wedding-guest attire, said she’s going to
keep wearing a mask to encourage the
unvaccinated to keep wearing them.
Frias has a similar take.
She took her mask off to sip an iced
coffee while walking down an eerily
unpopulated stretch in D.C. this week.
Even though she’s been vaccinated,
she’s keeping her mask on when she’s
around others. For a specific reason.
“My kids,” she said. They’re 1 and 9
— too young to get vaccinated.
“They have to keep wearing them,
so I’m going to keep wearing them to
set an example.” She doesn’t trust them
to keep their masks on if she doesn’t
wear one.
Then I talked to a grandmother in
Maryland who was running home
with ice cream for the grandkids. She
said she completely trusts people to be
responsible.
I marveled at that trust. And I won-
der if that’s something we’re losing in
America — our trust in each other to
do the right thing.
I’d like to think we can get that back
someday. But in the meantime, I’m go-
ing to keep wearing my mask.
e e
Petula Dvorak is a columnist for The Washington
Post.
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Expect a boost in productivity in the years after the pandemic
BY MICHAEL STRAIN
Bloomberg
T
he COVID-19 pandemic seems
to be ending almost as abruptly
as it began. Throughout the pan-
demic, there’s been evidence that re-
mote work has increased the productiv-
ity of some workers and businesses. So
it’s natural to wonder whether a mass
return to the office will lead to produc-
tivity declines.
I doubt it. Productivity is likely to be
choppy over the next year, with some
aspects of post-pandemic life leading
to gains and others pushing in the op-
posite direction. But after the econ-
omy settles into a post-pandemic new
normal this year, the likelihood of im-
provement over the next several years
is high.
Output per hour of work — produc-
tivity — soared in the second quarter of
2020. In normal times, this would have
been great news. But the reason for the
surge was negative: The pandemic was
crushing the economy, and businesses
laid off their least-productive workers.
Expect something similar over the
next few months, but in reverse. Ac-
cording to my calculations, there are
around 10.8 million fewer jobs in the
economy than there would have been
without a pandemic. Many of the jobs
lost are in lower-productivity sectors
like retail and travel. So as workers re-
turn to these jobs, another wrinkle in
economic statistics will emerge: The
process of job-market healing will put
downward pressure on measured pro-
ductivity.
Adjusting to post-pandemic life will
be another temporary factor that will
slow productivity growth. On Monday,
I tried working a full day in the office
for the first time since March 13, 2020.
My commute was rocky. I wasn’t sure
what traffic patterns would be like, and
I didn’t know where to park. When I
arrived at my desk, I realized I couldn’t
easily participate in Zoom meetings for
lack of a digital camera. I burned half
an hour just figuring out what to do for
lunch.
Naturally, I got less work done. My
productivity must have hit a record
low. Millions of workers will experience
similar adjustment issues that will take
weeks or months to sort out.
Particularly over the past few
months, people have complained about
how hard it has become for them to
do their jobs remotely as major busi-
ness decisions need to be made, new
employees need to be trained and ac-
culturated, and the absence of sponta-
neous interactions with colleagues took
an increasing toll.
Once the economy settles into a
post-pandemic new normal, though, I
expect productivity growth to be stron-
ger than the tepid, roughly 1% annual
rate the U.S. experienced over much of
the last decade.
Workers will figure out how to work
from the office again, and the drag
from readjustment will fade. After 14
months of remote work, businesses
should know better than ever how to
strike the right balance between the ad-
vantages and disadvantages of a work-
from-anywhere culture.
Companies that continue with re-
mote work will continue to downsize
office space and save on related ex-
penses. This will allow those resources
to be used for other purposes — think
of converting them to private resi-
dences in places plagued by housing
shortages — increasing economic effi-
ciency and productivity.
Some of the most productivity en-
hancing aspects of pandemic life will
likely stick around, at least to some
degree. The market share of e-com-
merce businesses won’t shrink back to
pre-COVID-19 levels. Because online
retailers require fewer workers and
square feet, this shift will boost output
per hour in the retail sector.
And count on less business travel.
For some people, the frequency of
travel will return to normal. But many
have learned that the reason they used
to travel so much was simply because
of the lack of an alternative that was
widely accepted by the broader busi-
ness culture. According to one survey,
businesses expect virtual meetings to
triple relative to their share before the
pandemic. That would save time and
money, enhancing productivity.
Workers and businesses will get a lot
more out of each week than they did
during the previous decade. As normal
life resumes, that’s another welcome
change.
e e
Michael Strain is a Bloomberg columnist. He is
director of economic policy studies and Arthur F.
Burns Scholar in Political Economy at the American
Enterprise Institute.