Letters 8/10-8/17

While I do agree with KarenLynn on many issues I would like to comment on one issue. This is the second letter printed in the Source over the last year or so regarding the issue of vehicles veering from cyclists. The previous letter pretty much stated, "Do you think I am an idiot and cannot ride in a straight line?" I have been cycling for 40 years and have always appreciated vehicles that either remain behind me or pass with a wide margin, just in case something unexpected happens. I will always do a thank-you wave while uttering obscenities to those vehicles who speed pass me with a narrow margin. I would hate to discourage anyone from veering a half lane or more from a cyclist or at least as much room as safety allows. I could be wrong but I think most vehicles do not want to cause a head on crash with an oncoming car and probably take this into consideration while passing a cyclist. Case in point: Several months ago my husband was driving a dump truck on Johnson Road in Tumalo. He remained behind the cyclist due to a narrow road and blind corners. Suddenly the left pedal broke off the bike and the cyclist veered into the lane. Whether it be a bike malfunction, a yellow jacket smacking you in the face or a medical event, it is my hope that vehicles give cyclists as much room as possible or remain behind them until it is safe to pass with a wide margin.

Thanks for sharing the road!

—Chris Evensen

Thank you OSU! Thank you for kicking the parking problem can down the road to the willing foil, Bend Parks and Recreation. It will be very nice to fix up the dilapidated former Mt Bachelor park and ride lot, which was allowed to degrade by Bend Parks and Rec. But OSU has composed a temporary fix for a long-term problem in the making. A good long-term solution would be to build not one, not two, but three multi story parking garages on their campus site; with more in the future if demanded. OSU just needs to own up to the long-term solutions. Traffic is already a river on Century Drive, summer and winter. Add in bicycles and pedestrians along a main road that is not very inviting to those modes of transportation. So let us see some really positive action toward a solution from OSU.

—Joselyn Houk

It's one thing to tell a little white lie to get an extra ticket for the free concert for all to enjoy but it's another when people take a HUGE advantage of this and make a profit out of it. I personally have witnessed this and am disgusted that people do this and for something for all to be able to enjoy cannot because someone has to take this away by actually taking more than enough for themselves. Which then there is no more for anyone else. These people maybe don't realize this but it is considered is the act of reselling tickets for admission to events. Tickets are bought from licensed sellers and are then sold for a price determined by the individual or company in possession of the tickets. Selling a ticket on the street is illegal. I would like to say to those people, thanks for ruining it for so many that would of liked the chance to see their favorite group and now they would have to pay for them and if they cannot afford your price I guess they don't get to enjoy the FREE concert then.

—Sidney White

Kudos to the Source for its recent articles highlighting Bend's challenges, such as affordable housing, open urban "green" space, transportation, roads, waste, tourism...They reinforce the current City, community and Council discussion over passing meaningful climate policy and what it will mean to the "livability" of Bend as it grows from over 80,000 to over 100,000 Bendites in a matter of years.

Meaningful climate policy must include city and community greenhouse gas/carbon reductions targets. It must have clear timetables for developing climate action plans for both the city and community. And, it must have a comprehensive and transparent cost/benefit analysis process.

The proposed process directs that the future plans developed and the initiatives recommended by a community-based steering committee, in collaboration with the City and through robust public dialogue, be based on cost/benefit assessments of their social, economic and environmental impacts on the City and the community.

Hence, the future carbon-reduction planning for efficient energy, water, building, land use, transportation, waste, consumption and local food policies...will assess and balance the "triple bottom-line" of livability, costs and prioritizing the options with what our City and community can do.

Meaningful climate policy will help address our challenges as connected issues, not isolated ones. It will change the planning culture and guarantee that Bend can grow into a city that cared enough to look down the road to protect the future of our children and grandchildren. Please contact your City Councilors at [email protected] to ask them to pass meaningful climate policy.

—Russ Donnelly

Dear Source Weekly,

Huge thanks for including resources for your white readers interested in racial justice in the July 13th issue.

Black Lives Matter doesn't mean other lives don't. Like people who say 'Save the Rainforests' aren't saying 'Screw all other types of forests.'

I have never been stopped by the police and thrown in a psych ward for 8 days for driving a car that is "too nice" for me to be driving. I've never been followed around a store by security simply because of the color of my skin. I don't have to sit my son down and talk to him about how to stay alive around people who hate him for no reason other than fear and ignorance. To deny the truth of these experiences because they make me uncomfortable would be to place my comfort above the safety of others, and I cannot do that.

A ProPublica report found that from 2010 to 2012, black men between the ages of 15 and 19 were killed by police at a rate of 31.17 per million, while white men in the same age range were killed at a rate of 1.47 per million. The #BlackLivesMatter movement arose because of these statistics, which have been illustrated by the deaths of Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Freddie Gray, Mike Brown, Eric Garner—the list goes on and on.

It is high time we white folk take off the boot of racism (citizenshipandsocialjustice.com/curriculum-for-white-americans-to-educate-themselves-on-race-and-racism).

—Lisa Smith