“If early returns are any indication, No Tax Oregon will likely succeed in their signature-gathering effort” Just heard this morning they’ve gathered 55,000 signatures. How many signers know they just cut winter maintenance and transit?

Gas stations putting up “No Tax” signs to help gather signatures to overturn the transportation bill: No thank you. Winter plowing and well-maintained roads are actually good. All those ODOT layoffs? Coming right back if they gather just 78,116 signatures by Dec 30th. Don’t sign.

Not much to investigate. He should’ve been fired years ago.

NOT JUST PARIS!! Villerbanne and Grenoble (pop. ~160k each) and other French cities are also shifting away from car traffic. Digging in to Rennes (pop 500k, not in the list), the story is better transit and bike access provides good alternatives. ici.rennes.fr/actualites/2...

Bend now has over 50 roundabouts. We say they are safer and promote better traffic flow. However, a resident reminded me last night that for blind people they are a nightmare. US Access Board has some research on more accessible designs, feel free to share more (or your own experiences!)

"So there would be an ongoing subsidy — just like that mail system is subsidized, just like Amtrak is subsidized.” And streets. Public parking lots. Police. Fire. Many many public services are "subsidized." That's the point: Provide a public service where the private market would fail.

Right? Not a single US City took advantage of the pandemic to hard wire roll, stroll, and transit into our urban places.

Anne Hidalgo is one of the most courageous mayors in history. They sued her. Said she was attacking Parisian heritage. Said she would make traffic worse. And yet she persisted. She seized an opportunity and delivered.

Thank you Sarah and Annie for courageously sharing your stories of losing your adult children to traffic crashes. I am so sorry. Local action can buck national trends. Together, we can save lives! #wdor www.centraloregondaily.com/news/local/b...

This is very clear sexual harassment. Is @harvard.edu OK with this? Aren't mandatory reporters obligated to report this kind of behavior?

If you want to have a productive conversation with a city councilor, don’t come right out and say “I’m going to be your worst nightmare.” Nobody likes nightmares!

Melissa Steele is City of Bend’s new Deputy Fire Marshall for Wildfire Preparedness, a result of council’s wildfire prevention goals. The Flat Fire at the end of summer threatened 800 homes but only destroyed 5 thanks to home hardening. “Own your zone!” www.bendoregon.gov/government/d...

Heard from a 45-year resident that he remembered the first time he was driving in Bend and hit enough traffic for him to miss the light. “It was 1988. In front of Wagner’s on 3rd and Revere,” he solemnly recalled. “What *is* this?” Interesting person to talk to.

Who has the most influence on transportation safety in Oregon: A) ODOT director B) an Oregon Transportation Commissioner C) advisor to the governor D) a legislator E) someone else? Seems like people think agency staff is more influential than they actually are.

if you can’t see the aurora borealis tonight, here is a sewer tunnel which is a wonder in itself.

Happy Veterans Day! Thank you for your service and for defending the constitution.

Pacific Power customers can sign up for a program that temporarily shuts off their central air conditioner during times of peak demand. A $30 bill credit is granted after the fist year. coolkeeper.pacificpower.net

Try to imagine how much space 600,000 dead people take up. It is certainly a hill, even if 2/3 of them are smaller because they are children. If they want the “hill to die on” metaphor, it’s certainly there!

HUGE NEWS! Because of Democratic pressure, Oregon SNAP recipients are reporting their cards have the FULL November benefits!   Everyone who called out Trump for using hungry children and seniors as a bargaining chip has WON with tremendous results!!

If you think this sounds too bad to be true, consider that Germans didn’t believe reports about concentration camps, either. And anyway, how would we know either way? We have lost rule of law, we have lost accountability, and we must unite to get them back.

“We cannot affirmatively interfere or stop [ICE] from doing their jobs because that would violate federal law.” Masked assailants kidnapping based on skin color is not a federal job.

That is a huge city hall! Hillsboro has something like 5k more people than Bend.

"two-tenths of 1 percent or .002." This would get us 15-minute headways on a couple @cascadeseasttransit.com routes. Be aware that enough signatures supporting a referendum would mean a funding pause until the Nov 2026 election. Better transit is too important to wait.

Swings after the first ballot drop of greater than 7% have happened in previous Seattle mayor elections (eg Durkan vs. Moon 2017 was 11% though it didn't change the outcome), and the swings have always favored the more progressive candidate.

“Experts have found coal power is significantly more expensive than alternative energy sources.” Eastern Oregon utility ditches coal and rates go down.

Congratulations to my brother Sam Méndez who has taken a commanding lead in his Burien, WA city council race. Affordable housing, safe streets, and responsible government are his priorities. Go, Sam! Go, Burien!

These direct quotes are incredible (and hilarious). But in a world where the president is urging a policy of “they spit, we hit” stuff like this really matters.

From the inbox: Why did the city allow the owner of a private parking lot to start charging for parking? Businesses validate customer parking, but could the city require free parking? The mayor generously replied and attached an article summarizing Donald Shoup's The High Cost of Free Parking.

Does anyone do salads like this #inBend??

Rule 5.05(a)(7) "lodged ball": Any fair ball which [...] sticks in a fence or scoreboard, in which case the batter and the runners shall be entitled to two bases Motion to amend the rule: should be treated as a hit.

I'm moderating a conversation next Friday with Oregon Secretary of State @tobiasread.bsky.social at @pdxcityclub.bsky.social. Anything you think I should ask? Let me know! www.pdxcityclub.org/secretary-re...

It’s happening #inBend

Literally $1 billion in newly unsealed Epstein transactions were flagged because they were suspicious, including ones to Russian banks and “sensitivities” to “two US presidents” Nothing to see here, folks! www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/b...

"[V]ery often the apartment house is a mere parasite" After 99 years, exclusionary zoning from Euclid v. Ambler (1926) is still the most prevalent tool for land use planning. Make it too restrictive and nothing gets built; too relaxed and you get car-centric sprawl. We need better tools!

With Portland and Wall closed again (but only for 3 days!), there was a lot of traffic on Newport/Greenwood corridor yesterday from 4p - 5:30p. Without significant investment in alternatives to driving alone, this kind of gridlock will become the norm. Have to remove the cars, not the bottlenecks.

Talk on intentional leadership at OSU-Cascades featuring Eboné Bell on Friday Nov 14 8:30a - 9:30a. Open to community members. Register here: bendbeavscentral.osucascades.edu/bridge/rsvp_...

In the inbox: Complaint about delineators scraping vehicles b/c they are placed "perfectly in a driver's blind spot, especially for trucks whose back wheels naturally cut the corner." Continual replacement of battered delineators isn't a long-term solution. However...

I want to bring these to Bend

This is why it's called Mirror Pond! From last night's bike ride home after soccer coaching.

Fall is happening #inBend

Tonight's city council work session at 4p is packed: 1) Electrification policy 2) Tree preservation update 3) How to spend $2.45m in restricted tourist-related funding (TRT revenue) Presentations: bend.granicus.com/GeneratedAge...

If you’ve heard the term “en banc” recently and wondered what it means – we’ve got you!

NYT: Workers appeared to spray clear liquid while standing on brown powder.

An engineer once described the problem as A) Too many cars for B) our current road capacity. We need more engineers working on how to address A and not exclusively focusing on B.

Just replied to 112 emails city council received over the last week about whether council should encourage electrification of new homes. Many argued that gas is more efficient—but it's not! Induction stoves are like 3 times faster at boiling water, and heat pumps are more efficient than furnaces.

With Mayor @melaniekebler.bsky.social at #NoKings #inBend

I am horrified to learn about Oriana's experience, jailed and detained away from her family for three days for peacefully protesting outside the ICE facility. It's essential that we fight to protect our civil liberties and our right to peacefully protest this administration.

The developer commented, "we never want to under-park a project, ever." Well, I never want to subsidize another giant parking lot, ever. We need the affordable housing, but we should be in the business of affordable neighborhoods, not affordable parking lots.

Do you have your sign ready? #NoKings rallies are tomorrow. Find one near you. And share your sign in the comments! Here’s one I like…

"NW Coalition for Energy Choice" is a dark money group funded in part by Cascade Natural Gas that appears to be organizing emails against electrification in Bend. The group gets over $500,000/yr. Some of the people who testified last night against electrification are board members.