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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 2021)
A8 The BulleTin • Tuesday, June 1, 2021 EDITORIALS & OPINIONS AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER Heidi Wright Gerry O’Brien Richard Coe Publisher Editor Editorial Page Editor New rules for homeless shelters will be decisive T he well-housed, well-warmed and well-fed, as Herman Melville put it, can be devastating in their criticisms of the unhoused, cold and poorly fed. Almost anywhere a shelter for the homeless may be sited, some neigh- bors will not want it. When The Shepherd’s House homeless shelter in Bend wanted to expand about 10 years ago, neigh- bors protested. The Orchard Dis- trict Neighborhood Association and nearby property owners argued not enough consideration was be- ing given to the shelter’s impact on crime and property values. The ex- pansion went ahead. When a business owner a few years ago temporarily opened at night in downtown Bend to allow homeless to shelter from the cold, neighbors objected. They com- plained about human waste, trash, camping and more. That shelter is no more. When the city proposed a formal- ized and supervised homeless camp at Juniper Ridge, neighbors objected. They argued it was a poor choice of location adjacent to neighborhoods and a business park and that it would increase fire danger and other dangers. That plan was abandoned. Some of the criticisms and con- cerns have merit. But if the un- housed are to have a chance of liv- ing a better life, they can need a safe place to stay. A place to get services. A place for a new start. Or maybe just a place to avoid freezing to death on the street. The city of Bend is formulating a new set of rules for homeless shelters in town. A city of Bend “sounding board” has been meeting to make recommendations to the city man- ager and Bend City Council. It has representatives from the council, planning commission, a homeless services provider, the business com- munity and more. How big can a shelter be? A draft proposal is that shelters could be 20 adults plus children or larger in the most “residential” of Bend’s zones. Shelters could possibly be as large as 150 beds in other areas. How much parking should they be required to have? Half a space per unit, with a couple for visitors, was one proposal. Another topic in last week’s dis- cussion was what type of planning review should be required by the city. The committee seemed inter- ested in what is called a Type 2 re- view. That would require notice of a planned shelter be sent to neighbors. Notice is important. And we hope that the city provides more notice, rather than less. But while the well- housed will be able to freely com- plain and criticize a home for the unhoused in their neighborhood, the rules the city is developing will be decisive. As long as a shelter is fol- lowing the rules, neighbors are going to be unlikely to be able to stop it. So if you have an idea about what the rules should say, tell the Bend City Council now. You can reach them at council@bendoregon.gov. The pandemic’s economic impact is not as expected N ot everything we thought we knew about the pandemic’s effect on the economy was right. We thought the impact was worse for women and worse for minori- ties. And while much of that is un- fortunately true, some of it is less true. State economist Josh Lehner outlined many of these findings in a recent blog posting. The economic impact by race and ethnicity in Oregon and across the country did seem to play out according to initial findings — the pandemic had a clear dispa- rate impact based on race. White, non-Hispanic people suffered lower job losses than others. In Oregon, a larger share of the businesses that are owned by people who are Black, Indigenous or people of color are restaurants. And as we all know restaurants were some of the hardest- hit businesses. But actually the state does not have precise num- bers to show that breakdown by race or ethnicity. The economic impact of the pan- demic by gender was not necessar- ily as some had assumed. Women did lose their jobs at a higher rate than men at the start of the pan- demic. But the difference by gender in unemployment has converged to be nearly identical, Lehner found. That is not to say that the pandemic was just as bad for men as it was for women. Unemployment statis- tics are just a tiny window into life. Families had to juggle. Who do you think had to juggle more? 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 Feel empathy There was a time, and maybe still is, when we stopped for a moment and thought about the cruelty and madness of so much racial injustice in this country, as Linda Melton so poi- gnantly stated in her May 26 letter. If we are indeed our “Mother’s keeper” in the best sense, how do we continue to disregard the humanity of all of us? Stop again and feel the pain in- flicted on others, just for a moment. — Norma Post, Bend County needs nonpartisan commissioners Deschutes is one of six counties in Oregon that runs a fully partisan race for its county commissioners. There are an additional four that have par- tisan commissioners but have a non- partisan judge as chair. That means that 26 of the 36 Oregon counties have nonpartisan commissioners. Even our closest neighbors, Jefferson and Klam- ath counties, became nonpartisan in recent years. There are several reasons why having nonpartisan county com- missioner races makes sense: Almost all issues at the county level are nonpartisan — partisan politics are counterproductive. Parties can still nominate and back their candidates. As of May 1, nonaffiliated voters and other minor parties make up 39% of the voters in Deschutes County. With our closed primary system, these voters are not able to vote for partisan positions in the primary election. The cost, in both time and money, of running once instead of twice (the primary and then the general elec- tions) would be nearly half what it is in our current system. Most of our local officials are al- ready elected in nonpartisan races: sheriff, judges, school boards, parks and recreation officials, fire districts, etc. We know how to do this. In order to avoid taxpayer expense, the initiative will be on the November 2021 ballot ONLY IF we get our sig- natures and there are other measures/ initiatives on that same ballot. If not, we will wait for May 2022. Please help us by signing a petition when you see a nice person with a clipboard. — Mimi Alkire, Sunriver bills, such as allowing the marijuana industry to use the banking system, but given his stated reasons for not voting for HR 1333 and what that bill actually states, one must now question the truthfulness of our congressman, and that is not something we should need to do. — Steve Wallaert, Bend Bentz’s reasoning seems wrong Flags are at half-mast again this week after yet another terrifying mass shoot- ing. The tragedy is in another state and one of so many. So often we feel pow- erless to stop the awful loss. Every day, more than 100 Americans are killed with guns and more than 230 are shot and wounded. What can you and I do after all? There is something simple each of us can do. We can remember lives lost to gun violence and take even one simple action to raise awareness about this public health crisis. The seventh National Gun Violence Awareness Day will fall on June 4 and kicks off Wear Orange Weekend on June 5 to 6. Stand up and wear some- thing orange to raise awareness, speak out to even one other person or thank Bend Rep. Jason Kropf for supporting the gun safety legislation passed this session. We in Central Oregon face the par- ticular challenge of suicide by guns. Suicide by gun is gun violence. The rate of gun suicide in our counties is among the highest in the state, and Oregon has the second-highest rate of suicide among all 50 states in our country, most of which are by fire- arm. When we raise awareness, we can work together to find ways to save these lives, the lives of our families, our neighbors and our friends. To- gether we can build a future free from gun violence and the place to start is with each of us taking a simple step. — Jean Carlton, Tumalo Rep. Cliff Bentz, in his recent news- letter, wrote that he voted against House Resolution 1333 because it “weakens our national security by preventing the President from sus- pending immigration from unstable regions of the world.” I wonder what bill Bentz read be- cause HR 1333 states “the President may temporarily restrict the entry of any aliens or class of aliens after the Department of State determines that the restriction would address specific and credible facts that threaten U.S. interests such as security or public safety.” Obviously, the bill does not prevent the president from suspend- ing immigration. The bill also states that any restric- tion must address a compelling gov- ernment interest; it must use the least restrictive means to achieve that inter- est; and it prohibits religious discrimi- nation unless there is a statutory basis for such discrimination. Since there is nothing in the bill that would weaken the president’s ability to suspend immigration, then why did Bentz write what he did? Ei- ther Bentz did not read the bill or he is intentionally misleading his constit- uents. And if he is misleading his con- stituents then one must ask, why is he doing so? In his newsletter, Bentz also pro- vided reasons for not voting for other Protect us from guns Letters policy: Letters should be limited to one issue, contain no more than 250 words and include the writer’s signature, phone number and address for verification. We edit letters for brevity, grammar, taste and legal reasons. Email: letters@bendbulletin.com Open up primaries to anyone for the health of both parties BY ALAN NOVAK AND T.J. ROONEY Special to The Washington Post T he list of politicians facing pri- mary challenges in 2022 keeps growing. Republican Govs. Brian Kemp of Georgia, Greg Abbott of Texas and Mike DeWine of Ohio each will face challenges, as will Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., for the sin of putting the American public over their party. And it’s not just Republicans. Lib- eral activists who successfully ousted Joe Crowley and Eliot Engel from Congress are now setting their sights on Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. To our dismay, more members of Con- gress and state legislatures are look- ing over their shoulders at real or potential primary threats from their parties’ riled-up bases than they are looking forward to good policy, bi- partisan engagement, finding work- able solutions and getting stuff done. We are, respectively, the former Democratic and Republican party chairs of Pennsylvania and served a combined 15 years in those roles. Like so many of our fellow Ameri- cans, we’re deeply concerned at how partisanship has overtaken our poli- tics. There’s one thing that can help: allowing open primaries. While there is no single factor at the root of our political dysfunction, it is clear that the American elec- torate is rapidly changing, and both parties have failed to adapt. In most states, membership in the Demo- cratic and Republican parties has stagnated or is in decline. More and more voters are registering as inde- pendents. Nearly half of millennials and Generation Z voters describe themselves as independents. Data collected by the Open Primaries Education Fund also shows that in- dependents are already the largest or second-largest group of voters in half of states. At current rates of growth, that will soon be the case in every state. In our home state of Pennsylvania alone, there are more than 1 million independent voters who can’t vote in primaries — that’s more voters than in neighboring Delaware. Independents are often shut out of primary elections. Primaries may be taxpayer-funded — in our state alone, they cost the public $20 mil- lion every year — but the Demo- cratic and Republican parties are the gatekeepers of U.S. primaries and, by design, they choose who can and can’t participate. Keeping primaries closed for the growing segment of the population that has not regis- tered with a party is one of the few issues both parties seem to agree on. That’s because primary elections don’t just matter; they have become the most important round of elec- tions in the United States today. General election competitiveness in our country is in long-term decline. In Pennsylvania last year, only 5% of contests in the state House and 16% in the state Senate were competitive. Thirty-four percent of state House races and 24% of state Senate races were uncontested. Uncontested! Our state is by no means unique; it’s the norm. That means the real decision- making happens in the primary elections. And when you shut out millions of independent voters, you place that decision-making in the hands of increasingly small, parti- san bands of voters. It’s these people whom politicians must persuade to win elections. That’s why the threat of being “primaried” has entered the political lexicon and why our elected leaders can’t legislate on the issues that many Americans agree on. As party chairs, we know how this dynamic defines candidate re- cruitment and allocation of party re- sources. It distorts the entire notion of representative democracy. Closed primaries dictate whom the par- ties choose as candidates, how they run for office and how they govern once they’re elected. Candidates with broad appeal often never even make the cut. It’s a self-reinforcing cycle that serves the partisan bases of both parties, at the expense of the rest of us. Including independents in the primary process is critical for the health of both parties. Open prima- ries would allow candidates to focus on a broader electorate in the pri- mary, making them less ideological exercises. Parties could, once again, develop platforms that invite more voters into the parties. We believe it will sharpen the candidates and the parties and make them more effec- tive representative of the American people. Our system of closed primaries is simply not working. It is exacerbat- ing the political divide, shutting out millions of voters and increasingly placing the Democratic and Repub- lican parties at odds with American voters. Instead, candidates should be focusing on winning over indepen- dents. What better way to scale back our partisan political culture than to let all voters vote? e e Alan Novak was chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party from 1996 to 2004. T. J. Rooney was chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party from 2003 to 2010 and a state representative from 1993 to 2006.
