Truth In Fairy Tales

By Scott R. Cooper, Crook County Judge
published in the Central Oregonian, August 2004
Central Oregonian, http://www.centraloregonian.com

Bend Mayor Oran Teater's suggestion that Prineville's destiny is to provide affordable housing for his city smacks of elitism

Do you remember the story of Chicken Little? Something fell from a tree and the struck foolish bird on the head. Convinced the sky was falling, Chicken Little set out to report the matter. Along the way, he gathered up his friends, Henny Penny, Turkey Lurkey and Cocky Locky. When the foursome ran into Foxy Woxy, he lured them into his foxhole with a promise that he would protect them all from the falling sky. The result was dinner for the smart fox for four days running.

I was reminded of that fable when I read the Oregonian of August 1, and discovered the mayor of Bend pitying Central Oregonians who aren’t privileged to live in his community and suggesting that Prineville’s likely future is as a bedroom community.

Bend’s mayor and the Foxy Woxy have a lot in common.

The mayor’s assertion that some Central Oregonians “have to live in other communities” is amazingly presumptive and over the top. In the first place, no one HAS to live in Prineville. On the contrary, more and more people CHOOSE to live in our community, including a significant number who once lived in Bend. The Crook County Clerk says that each week’s mail brings a handful of cards switching voter registration from Deschutes to Crook County. The record of any given planning commission meeting is replete with statements from people testifying that they moved to Prineville to get away from something they didn’t like in Bend. The local title company and area realtors all report brisk business with former Deschutes County residents interested in purchasing homes here. The Chamber estimates that a quarter of its walk-in traffic and phone calls are from Bend residents considering a move. Even established Bend businesses like Robberson Ford and Brooks Resources are investing their futures in ours. The idea that the only people who would live here are those who “have to” is hardly supported by the evidence.

Of course, we’re not to everyone’s taste, and that’s just fine. One of the attributes of Central Oregon is that whatever your preference, you can likely find a community that’s right for you somewhere in the region’s three counties. Bend is urban. Madras is ethnic. Culver and Metolius are rural. Sisters is artsy. Redmond is a family-oriented community at the crossroads of the region, while Prineville offers wide open spaces and simple pleasures. It’s just a short drive for residents of any one of these seven cities to partake in what the others have to offer. Bottom line: No one in Central Oregon “has to” live anywhere. The reasons people live where they do are a matter of personal preference, but I doubt that any them picked their home as a second choice because a home in Bend wasn’t available.

At some level, I can forgive Mayor Teater for inflating the desirability of his own community. After all, that’s implied in every mayor’s job description. But what I don’t understand was why the reporter who interviewed the mayor decided to label Prineville as the region’s next “bedroom community.” For evidence, he cited a “steady stream” of traffic of workers traveling between Prineville and the Deschutes County. Unfortunately, he didn’t check his facts, and since he didn’t, I find myself in a position Winston Churchill once described this way: “A lie flies round the world before the truth can put its pants on.”

Fortunately, the facts which refute the Oregonian’s errors are readily available.

The 2000 Census tells the story Between 1990 and 2000, the percentage of Crook County residents who commuted to another county for work was virtually unchanged, rising only 4/10 of one percent. If one looks at the details, one will find that a relatively high number--19.6 percent--of Crook County workers are indeed commuters. But that isn’t necessarily an indication of a community in economic decline. Such numbers probably reflect the growing urbanization of our entire region as much as anything. After all, the percentage of commuters who leave Multnomah County every day is a comparable 19.1 percent. That hardly makes Portland the “bedroom community” of Metro, does it?.

To gauge the real strength of Crook County’s economy, the Oregonian reporter might have considered that the number of businesses in Crook County grew 34 percent between 1990 and 2000. By comparison, the number of businesses statewide grew 27 percent in the same period. The civilian labor force of Crook County grew 37 percent over the same decade—about the same amount as its population increased Despite this, job creation kept pace with growth, and the unemployment rate remained virtually unchanged at 7.7 percent in 2000, compared to 7.4 percent in 1990). Since the commuting rate remained flat, these numbers suggest that it was our local economy, not that of Bend and Redmond, which absorbed the newcomers, which in turn suggests that a vibrant, no declining, economy.

Such statistics and a little common sense easily refute the idea that Prineville’s future is as a bedroom community to Bend. Let’s face it. In the long-term, populations and workforces don’t increase in communities where people can’t find work. Likewise, businesses don’t invest in communities where they don’t expect a return. Both these things are happening in Prineville, and you have to question the motive of someone who asserts otherwise.

That’s where Chicken Little comes in. Chicken Little and friends became dinner because they wanted to believe the worst. Sly Foxy Woxy exploited their fears to his own advantage. Whether Crook County’s residents allow themselves to be lured into a foxhole remains to be seen, but next time your read that the sky is falling, you might want to consider the source.