After being sworn in on January 6, it has been my honor to serve the people of Bend as your City Councilor this year. During 2021, the global pandemic continued to threaten the health of our community and hinder efforts to get together in person as much as we would have liked. Even so, the Bend City Council made good progress on our goals to create a Bend that’s an even better city for everyone. Below are some highlights of our accomplishments this year. I’m grateful for the opportunity to do this work as a policymaker and elected leader of our beautiful city.

Wishing you and your loved ones good health and happiness in the new year,

A few photos from this year:

Addressing the housing crisis

• Bend was the first large city in Oregon to adopt regulatory changes to allow more housing types in more areas in Bend under House Bill 2001, helping set the stage for more middle housing in our city. We limited the ability to turn these new multi-family housing types into short-term rentals, and will be looking further at our overall short-term rental policy in March of 2022.

• We secured Bend’s first permanent warming shelter, run by Shepherd’s House, which also provided cooling during the summer heat wave.

• We purchased a local hotel with Project Turnkey dollars from the State and expect renovations to be complete and this much-needed temporary housing to be up and running in 2022.

• We collaborated with our state Representative Jason Kropf and the Deschutes County Commissioners to create a legislative bill that could help us fund a Joint Office on Homelessness. This joint governance structure would allow cities and the County to streamline our response to homelessness and implement a long-term strategic plan.

• We created a safe parking program that is helping people move out of homelessness, though more participants to host safe parking are still needed.

• Our Affordable Housing Committee continued to help us contribute funding to valuable projects around the City, including funding for Veteran’s Village.

• The City is doing more work than ever before on housing and homelessness in order to meet our ambitious goals. Learn more on our website, starting here.

Investing in equity work

• We appointed an incredible group of residents to the brand new Human Rights and Equity Commission, which has already been doing important work.

• We hired an amazing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion director, a position created to work with the HREC and help the City in its DEI work both internally and externally.

• We directed our communications department to work on ideas to improve communication and access to government, and the City recently hired a new Community Relations Manager to focus on connecting with our Latinx community.

More connected and safe ways to get around

• After voters approved the transportation bond last year, we appointed a diverse and hard-working group of residents to the Transportation Bond Oversight Committee (TBOC).

• We approved a five-year initial plan for sequencing of transportation bond projects, with a focus on improving safety and connectivity for all transportation users.

• We directed staff to design and develop strategies for a complete crosstown protected bike network to help us meet our transportation, equity, and climate goals.

• We made it easier for Cascades East Transit to build bus stops in City right-of-way.

• We green-lighted the Wilson corridor project, where design efforts and community input are leading us to a protected bike lane and more protected intersections. Learn more about this project here.

Protecting our environment

• We took a strong stance on climate action, including passing a resolution on dangerous oil trains and advocating at the state and federal level for better transportation guidelines and funding to help reduce vehicle emissions and promote alternative forms of transportation.

• I worked to reform parking regulations, resulting in changes in our new middle housing code and an update to the pilot Old Bend Parking District to make it a smarter, more equitable policy. Parking reform is one of my key policy initiatives to fight climate change by reducing car dependence and promoting sustainable development.

• Our Environment and Climate Committee updated Council about priorities for implementing the City’s Climate Action Plan, and Council will be considering a potential climate emergency declaration in 2022.

Planning for a sustainable future

• We worked with our legislators to create a process to bring the Stevens Road tract into the City, with provisions to provide educator housing and more affordable housing.

• We formed the Core Area Advisory Board and appointed a group of residents who will help us shepherd re-development in the core of our city as we grow up and in, preventing sprawl into our natural surroundings.

• We increased staffing in key areas, such as the housing, planning, and permitting departments, to help us meet our growth management obligations and goals.

Maintaining a safe city

• After banning fireworks temporarily due to an incredibly hot Fourth of July weekend that was declared an emergency, we created a permanent ban on fireworks in the City, aligning with our neighboring cities of Sisters and Sunriver and sending a strong message about the risk of wildfire in Central Oregon.

• We continued to support our local businesses and community members struggling with the effects of the pandemic, through measures such as making the parklet program permanent and prudently spending our American Rescue Plan Act dollars.

• We supported the revision of the Police Chief’s Advisory Council, which will be re-created in 2022 into a body that can more meaningfully connect our community members with our police department and provide valuable resident feedback.

• We supported police reform bills at the State level, several of which passed into law.

The above list is incomplete – City staff and the City Council have been working hard all year to keep our essential City services working efficiently while we step boldly into addressing some of the most challenging issues facing our community today. In 2022, I look forward to continuing the work to put real action behind the words that guide our policymaking:

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