The BulleTin • Friday, May 13, 2022 A5
EDITORIALS & OPINIONS
AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
Heidi Wright
Gerry O’Brien
Richard Coe
Publisher
Editor
Editorial Page Editor
New state climate
rules will change
how Oregonians live
T
he Legislature was likely to have been Gov. Kate Brown’s best
friend. It was controlled by her fellow Democrats.
But it wasn’t on climate legislation. Re-
publicans walked out to block what she
and many of her fellow Democrats had in
mind. Brown responded with an executive
order. And next week, key climate rules
for transportation and growth are ex-
pected to be adopted by the state.
They are powerful changes to how Or-
egonians live and get from place to place.
Some of them build on trends that are al-
ready in state rules. Some of it is new. If
you like the proposal or don’t, now may be
your last chance to comment on them.
The proposal changes how cities over
10,000 can grow. They must plan for what
are called climate friendly zones to ac-
commodate at least 30% of their hous-
ing needs. What does that really mean?
It means more dense development. More
growing up than out.
You aren’t going to be yanked out of
your car. But there is a big shift coming
in prioritization away from passenger
cars. Transportation will be required to be
more oriented toward pedestrians, bikes
and transit. It will be harder to find a place
to park and easier to find a charger for an
electric vehicle. Local streets will be nar-
row and slow. New city plans for transpor-
tation will have to have the goal of reduc-
ing car trips.
If you like to bike, the rules may make
things better for you. The bicycle system
will have to satisfy most travel needs un-
der 3 miles. There are more requirements
for bicycle parking. Will there be wide,
protected bike lanes enabling bicyclists to
get where they need to go without hav-
ing to worry about getting whacked by a
car and bike lanes that will be cleared of
snow? The rules don’t seem to go that far.
Another important priority is to en-
sure growth or transportation plans are
Bulletin file
More bicycle parking, as opposed to car park-
ing, as seen in this 2019 photo of downtown
Bend could be more common in Oregon’s
future.
done equitably. Plans have to be reviewed
through an equity lens. The question is if
the more intense development may spur
gentrification, despite any equity review.
Will these proposed rules lead to a
more climate friendly Oregon? It would
seem so.
Will it make housing more affordable?
That’s difficult to answer. Supporters
would say yes in the long run because the
rules are aimed at being climate friendly.
Will it make more housing of the kinds
Oregonians want available? Homebuild-
ers are concerned it will not create the
housing mix people look for and will put
more pressure on prices for single-family
homes.
Will cities get enough financial support
from the state to easily transition to all the
new requirements? We will see.
There’s more information here, tinyurl.
com/DLCDagendas, about the agenda
for the meeting. And the state has tried to
simplify the explanation of the rules here,
tinyurl.com/Oregonclimatefriendly. More
information about how to comment is
here: tinyurl.com/DLCDcomment
Let’s not set a record for
low election turnout
E
lection turnout is low for the May
primary. In Deschutes County, as of
Wednesday the county had received
only about 14% of voter ballots.
Please vote.
We go back again and again to the re-
cent race for state representative for Red-
mond that was decided by only two votes.
Even if you are not a Democrat or Repub-
lican and can’t vote in those party primaries,
there are some important decisions on the
ballot. Residents in Redmond get to choose
about funding for a future police building.
Judges in Oregon frequently do not face
challengers. There is a contest between
Darleen Ortega and Vance Day for the
Oregon Court of Appeals. That’s an im-
portant court in Oregon, where cases as
you might guess get appealed.
Workers deserve to get paid what they
are owed. And Oregonians deserve fair-
█
ness in access to housing. The job in Ore-
gon that enforces those state rules is up for
election, the commissioner of the Bureau
of Labor and Industries.
If you are a Republican, you can make
a difference in an important race for De-
schutes County commissioner, between
Tony DeBone and Scott Stuart.
The statewide primaries also matter.
There are significant differences for Dem-
ocrats between Kurt Schrader and Jamie
McLeod-Skinner for the Oregon congres-
sional district that includes Bend. The Re-
publican primary for that seat is no less
interesting. Kate Brown is leaving. That is
why so many Democrats and Republicans
have flocked to join the governor’s race.
And there are more.
Fill out your ballot and mail it in or
drop it off. In either case, you don’t need
a stamp.
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
Support freedom of speech
Your letters in Saturday’s paper were interest-
ing and a distraction to the real threats that should
concern everyone. Giving abortion rights to the
states is how the Constitution is written. Even For-
mer Justice Ginsburg knew it was poorly written
and open to debate though written by liberal jus-
tices at the time. It will not change anything in
most states, but you wouldn’t know that by the vit-
riol against the Supreme Court. To threaten any
judge and their families should be a wake-up call
for those who believe in any form of democracy.
What should be more frightening is how speech
and censorship is in the press and social media
platforms. Now the government is starting what is
only done in dictatorships and totalitarian regimes,
a Minister of Truth. That should send a chill to ev-
eryone. Now that is Orwell’s 1984 and should unify
not separate all those who actually believe in the
actual freedom of speech in the First Amendment.
I can only imagine if the former president had pro-
posed what the current president is actually doing.
— Bruce K. Evans, Bend
Vote yes on Redmond public safety bond
The Deschutes County Library Board has
enough issues without me adding another one,
so the least I can do is also offer a solution. It is a
fact that our current Redmond library will be a
pile of rubble by next year. This all-brick building
has been in use since 1930 and fits in nicely with
the former Redmond High School (now city hall)
across the street.
Twenty-seven years ago we agreed to higher
taxes in order to redo what was then Jesse Hill el-
ementary into a library. The outside has not been
changed. It doesn’t take an architect to see that the
two-story, modern glass-clad structure that will
replace it clashes with the older neighborhood we
have enjoyed for years.
Environmentally it makes sense to preserve what
has already been soundly built. The upcoming May
17 election gives us a chance to do just that…and
not just for one building, but two!
Voting “yes” on the sorely needed Redmond
public safety bond could make available the all
brick police station that is next to the library. An
enclosed corridor could connect the two. My uned-
ucated guess is that the cost of converting the sta-
tion would be less than just the cost of destroying
Jesse Hill forever. And certainly less than the cost
of a new building. The best part will be that two
buildings, solely erected with public funding, can
continue to serve the public that has already paid
for them.
— William Groesz, Redmond
McLeod-Skinner for Congress
I am 33 years old and this election will be my
first time voting.
I came to the United States from India at the age
of 12, and after 20 years, received my American cit-
izenship last year.
As I look forward to filling out my ballot this
weekend, I am grateful for a few things. I’m grate-
ful to live in a state that makes it so convenient to
cast my vote. I’m grateful to live in a country with
democracy and freedom. I’m grateful to be blessed
with peace, security, and stability. I’m grateful to
not watch broadcast television and be subjected to
political advertisements.
Having said all that, I’m also aware of the times
we live in and the way things are going. With every
election, and with every action, we have a choice.
We have a choice to create the world we want to
see. We have a choice to choose love over fear.
Like me, many of you may have received mailers
from Kurt Schrader. The last few specifically seem
to play on fear by suggesting that he is the only
candidate who can win the general election. I hope
you allow yourself to make the decision based on
who you think would be best suited to be our next
representative in Congress. I believe Jamie Mc-
Leod-Skinner truly cares about representing us and
creating positive change, and not simply remaining
in power. Please vote with your heart this election.
— Kavi Chokshi, Bend
Letters policy
30 days.
How to submit
We welcome your letters. letters
should be limited to one issue, con-
tain no more than 250 words and
include the writer’s phone number
and address for verification. We edit
letters for brevity, grammar, taste
and legal reasons. We reject po-
etry, personal attacks, form letters,
letters submitted elsewhere and
those appropriate for other sections
of The Bulletin. Writers are limited
to one letter or guest column every
Guest columns
Please address your submission to
either My nickel’s Worth or Guest
Column and mail, fax or email it to
The Bulletin. email submissions are
preferred.
your submissions should be be-
tween 550 and 650 words and must
include the writer’s phone number
and address for verification. We edit
submissions for brevity, grammar,
taste and legal reasons. We reject
those submitted elsewhere. locally
submitted columns alternate with
national columnists and commen-
taries. Writers are limited to one let-
ter or guest column every 30 days.
email: letters@bendbulletin.com
Write: My nickel’s Worth/Guest Col-
umn
P.O. Box 6020
Bend, Or 97708
Fax:
541-385-5804
The left is counting on an abortion backlash that may never come
BY MEGAN MCARDLE
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Democrats
have long assumed that if Republi-
cans ever managed to overturn Roe
v. Wade, they would come to regret
it. This was not an unwarranted as-
sumption. Poll after poll shows that
strong majorities of Americans think
abortion should be legal in at least
some circumstances and want Roe v.
Wade to be left intact.
“By removing the issue from the
policy arena,” wrote legal analyst
Benjamin Wittes in 2005, “the Su-
preme Court has prevented abor-
tion-rights supporters from winning
a debate in which public opinion fa-
vors them.” The dominant metaphor
cast Republicans in this scenario as
“the dog that caught the car” — at
last in possession of the object of
their desire, with nothing but grief to
come of it.
Yet here we are, and things don’t
actually look so bad for Republicans.
A draft Supreme Court opinion over-
turning Roe leaked last week, but a
poll taken by CNN after the news
broke showed the GOP running
seven points ahead of Democrats on
the generic ballot, which measures
which party voters want to control
Congress.
Perhaps voters simply aren’t pay-
ing attention, or haven’t had time to
grapple with the implications? Well,
perhaps — but what about Texas?
Last year, Texas effectively out-
lawed abortion after six weeks of
pregnancy. Now, Gov. Greg Abbott,
R, who signed the restrictive bill into
law, is running well ahead of Dem-
ocratic challenger Beto O’Rourke.
It’s hard to argue that Texas voters
are unaware; the law has been hotly
debated and has seriously impacted
abortion access. But so far, it just
doesn’t seem to be moving many
votes.
At first blush, this seems positively
astonishing, given how central abor-
tion has become to U.S. party pol-
itics. Yet it is actually pretty easy to
explain in terms of three factors: po-
larization, power and place.
Polarization on this issue is obvi-
ous: An ardent core of activists on
both sides has divided the parties
cleanly on abortion and turned it into
a litmus test for politicians. Repub-
licans propose bans with minimal
exceptions, while Democrats, even
in red and purple states, struggle to
name a single restriction they would
support.
Because of this, the activists can’t
affect elections much: They are al-
ready voting exclusively and regularly
for one party or the other. The best
the parties can try to do is to turn out
a few more of their activists than the
other side manages. The big hope has
always been to move the less-polar-
ized middle, but it’s starting to look
like this issue just doesn’t have that
power.
Power is another name for what
political scientists call “voter inten-
sity,” which explains why many is-
sues that poll well, such as stricter
handgun controls, never seem to go
anywhere. While a lot of people care
a little about gun control, in most
cases, it’s not their No. 1 issue, or
even No. 10. Gun owners, by con-
trast, often become highly focused
single-issue voters. Politicians, un-
derstandably, are more responsive to
those who actually vote on the issue.
That’s not the case with abortion,
where there is a lot of intensity on
both sides. But if anything there is
more on the pro-life side, so intensity
doesn’t help Democrats here, either.
And the middle just doesn’t seem
to be getting any more intense, even
with Roe in the balance. Possibly
because they understand the effect
of place: For vast numbers of them,
while they may hate what other states
are doing, their local abortion law
will probably be something they can
accept.
If Roe falls, abortion will most
likely be thrown back to the states,
since the politics of the filibuster
make a national ban unlikely. In
Kentucky, where 57% of voters want
abortion to be illegal in all or most
cases, that probably means a pretty
strict ban. In Massachusetts, where
74% think it should be legal all or
most of the time, abortion access will
likely be unfettered.
Moreover, the states that are
strongly pro-life also tend to be the
states where abortion is already rela-
tively uncommon. So a ban in pro-life
Kentucky will prove much less dis-
ruptive than it would in pro-choice
New York, where almost five times
as many abortions are performed per
1,000 reproductive-age women.
That doesn’t mean there won’t
be controversy. In states where the
electorate is close to evenly split,
asymmetric intensity could produce
extreme laws that breed a backlash
even from lukewarm voters. For that
matter, even in deep-red states, there
are undoubtedly limits to how many
restrictions the electorate will sup-
port, and Republicans seem intent on
testing them.
But it does explain why the current
reaction is so much more muted than
it seems like it ought to be. As long as
Roe holds on, abortion will remain
at the center of electoral politics. But
should Roe fall, polarization, power
and place may push it just as force-
fully to the side of the stage.
█
Megan McArdle is a columnist for The
Washington Post.