Thanks, Steve, for getting Modern Bend going. Privileged to be a part of it.

Space has always been available. Look at America from the air. Only 4% of the country is built upon. All this space has bred a sense that what we do with it isn't that important. The community that mandates forward-thinking land use policy is a rarity: planning principles aren't typically invoked unless they're reacting to something already built. It's like a teacher having no rules until her classroom is out of control.

We like to contrast ourselves with the Dutch or Scandinavians, and planners often (and accurately) grumble that we're a generation behind them in progressive land use policy. But remember that their population densities are much greater, and the sense of personal space is nothing like ours. So they don't have a culture steeped in space like the American west does. That's a huge obstacle to overcome. But now that energy costs and a floundering economy are realities, we at last can no longer afford to defer to the way it's been done in the past.

People often look at the dramatic drop in construction activity and say 'now's the time to catch up on planning, and to craft a vision for the future while we catch our breath'. The irony is that long term planning is funded directly by revenues from development applications. When those applications are down, as they are now, the ability to fund the 'big look' comes into question. We have recently reshuffled revenues to keep long term planning funded, with an eye trained specifically on the expansion of the UGB. But there's more to planning than that. Good planning prevents crime, reduces traffic, enhances quality of life and creates vibrant, economically diverse communities. I bet 70% of people would agree with that, but ask them if they're willing to pay for it and that number's gonna drop in half.

So Bend has some hard choices ahead. It's easy to say 'we don't want to become indistinguishable from Toledo, Topeka or Tampa', but are we really willing to invest in our community to make it so?