Opinion

CENTRAL OREGON

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DOCTORS BYRON MAAS, TABITHA JOHNSTON, LAUREN HOFFMAN LAURA ACEVEDO COURTNEY MCLAUGHLAN AND BRIAN LOUDIS

Better Outcomes for Those Experiencing Homelessness Could Be Ahead

Not many people like camp removals such as the one we saw happen this week in Bend. Not the service providers who have been on site for weeks at the 2nd Street encampment working to help people relocate; not the cops or the cleaners who handle physical removal of people and stuff; not the people who have set up tents in the area; not the activists who come out to livestream the chaos; and not us.

Still, we believe in a better way to support the people who currently live on the streets than continuing to let them park tents where there are no bathrooms, water or other amenities. Even if we find them a bed for a night—what then?

To help the neighbors who currently live on the streets, and who cost taxpayers more staying put than they do by being in permanent supportive housing, mind you—people need to know where to go for help. They need a central location to find mental health, substance abuse and housing support. Just after this issue goes to press, the Bend City Council is expected to approve the funding to expand and improve the 2nd Street Shelter, adding a Navigation Center that will be that central hub. Bendites should support this effort. Better yet, they should step up to help that Navigation Center run successfully through donations of time and/or money.

Gas Prices Got You Down? Be an Advocate for Other Options to Driving.

The pain at the pump is real. With gas prices skyrocketing amid war in Ukraine, people are rightly concerned. Most of us have been raised in a society designed around cars. Where you once could walk to the garden or the corner store for obtaining the groceries you need for tonight’s dinner, our car-centric society has now designed cities that require driving to mega-stores by way of busy streets. Many parts of Bend and other cities in Central Oregon don’t have sidewalks to walk on that would enable foot traffic. Even intrepid cyclists can be scared off by the bike lanes constructed directly adjacent to whizzing cars.

As intrepid cyclists ourselves, it would be easy for us to say, in this moment of elevated gas prices, that the solution is simply to get on your bike. Stop complaining about gas and traffic and buck both by getting on a bike or its e-equivalent, we could say. But that’s putting the onus all on individuals. In Bend, advocates of multi-modal transportation, including Bend Bikes, pushed for the addition of plenty of that in the Transportation System Plan and its accompanying transportation bond— which prompted some in this community to call it a war on cars. Now, though, with gas prices being a hot topic once again, we’d like to point out that what we live in most of the time is a war on people outside of cars. We must reimagine our cities to accommodate not just cars, but also walkers, cyclists, those in wheelchairs and those seeking other forms of transit, so that we can weather the ongoing geopolitical onslaughts that can and do make their way to Central Oregon.