Community First Bank… gone?

Good grief, I’m away from the computer for the weekend and stuff falls apart: Community First Bank is no more… closed by the government Friday and then re-opening today under the aegis of Home Federal Bank out of Idaho. At least people didn’t lose any money—according to the Bulletin: Because … Continue reading

Bend vs. Californians in the NY Times

The NY Times this evening published a doozy: Slump Dashes Oregon Dreams of Californians. The freefall has made Bend a succinct symbol for the economic perils of “lifestyle destinations” in the so-called New West, recreation-heavy communities where jobs have been heavily tilted toward construction and services and where many of … Continue reading

Recession tip: $2 beer at Longboard Louie’s

After work today we stopped in to the Eastside Longboard Louie’s for a drink and appetizer, and I have to blog this: they have $2 pints of beer all day, every day. No kidding! My wife told me about it some time back, but I thought that meant they had … Continue reading

Economic troubles with the News

Two items from May 1st which got missed the first time around, both dealing with the local news media’s economic troubles: Oregon Media Insiders reports Major Cuts at KOHD: "Non-renewed contracts, I’m told, include sports reporter Rachel Azevedo, reporter Allison Martin (once the weekend anchor when they had a weekend … Continue reading

Cessna is closing after all

Just announced this morning on KTVZ.com: Cessna is closing its factory here in Bend. Due to a continued slump in plane sales, Cessna Aircraft Co. announced Wednesday morning that it will shut its factory at the Bend Airport and lay off the fewer than 200 people still working there, moving … Continue reading

Crooked River Dinner Train re-opening

I blogged back at the end of last year about the Crooked River Dinner Train closing. Well, good news today as KTVZ and a tip from AllAboutBend.com report that the Dinner Train is re-opening this month, under new ownership. The dinner train will kick-off its season of weekly train operations … Continue reading

2009 State of the County

Made available on the Deschutes County website is the 2009 State of County presentation, so I snagged it and converted it to PDF for anyone who’s interested. You can get it here. It’s about 3 MB in size. Originally it was a PowerPoint presentation, which explains the slideshow format, and … Continue reading

It’s getting ridiculous

Do I even need to point out that on top of everything else closing, now Harry & David is closing their store at the Factory Outlets too? They’ll be closing by the end of next month. And the manager of the Outlets is quick to point out that "there still … Continue reading

Closing: Kebanu Gallery

Spotted in today’s Bulletin: Kebanu Gallery in downtown Bend is closing at the end of the month. The downtown Bend gallery will close its doors Jan. 30, said Keith Null, owner of the gallery, located near the Franklin Crossing building on Bond Street. Null said construction of Franklin Crossing deterred … Continue reading

Now Westside Video, too

Seriously, I didn’t plan for these last three posts to be about business closures, but that’s what seems to be happening. As reported by the Bulletin yesterday, Westside Video is closed. Westside Video is (was) located over on Newport Avenue on, er, the west side for the past 24 years—a … Continue reading