Bend's Defaults Triple From Last Years Record

Only a month and a half into this new year, Deschutes County records show that Notice of Default & Election to Sell notices have tripled from 128 to 373 through Feb. 12th. That is an astounding number in a county of 150,000 or so.

With a new City Council firmly funded and behind a developer mindset, this is a particularly worrisome development. We have an incredible level of empty homes, 1/3 of those presently listed, and the only answer seems to be to delay any further fees and encourage even more building.

We need jobs. Without jobs we can build thousands of homes, and the only occupants will be the homeless brave enough to break in. Period.

What has our Good Old Boy Network created for jobs? Juniper Ridge is the big push, but virtually every job there is one moved from another part of our small regional area. Les Schwab from Prineville, Suterra from the Old Mill District, Pacific Power.

Can this possibly be called job creation?

NO.

And to see yet another Good Old Boy, namely Oran Teater, coronated as the savior of the City Council, as the savior of Bend, is disturbing, disgusting, and disappointing. Oran led us into the start of the bubble. He is a financial advisor dedicated to increasing his clients net worth. Many of which clients are invested in local development.

Folks, we can't build our way out of this mess. We've tried that. It's time to find another paradigm.

A paradigm that pushes jobs that bring in dollars.