"Don't Bend Baker" or "Build a Better Baker"?
Change is inevitable. But let's focus on what we want to be, rather than what we hope to avoid.
Formerly the Mayor of Baker City; now just a wind farm owner/operator, audio engineer, bass player, woodworker, barista, entrepreneur, and general repairman.
I find living in small town Oregon wonderful. Baker City is the kind of place where you can know people just by their first name and an adjective, where when you refer to your friend Mark people ask “Loud Mark or Quiet Mark?” It’s a place where I can get a text at 3:30 in the afternoon giving me an update on my teenager’s off road trek to tennis practice through someone’s yard. A place where 30 minutes will get me anywhere I need/want to be: whether that’s work, the bar, the lake, the river, the mountains, etc.
So when I hear someone say “Don’t Bend Baker” I have to recognize the inherent charm of such a catchy slogan. Of course there are things we don’t want to change about our town, and we should fight to preserve them. However, no matter what we do things will change.
Technology and culture continue to move forward and there is no escaping their impacts. Baker City’s downtown used to be filled on the weekends with miners, farm workers, and ranch hands seeping in from the surrounding hills and valleys keeping our bars, restaurants, and stores busy. Mechanization and the increasing ability of equipment to reduce the need for human labor was the first blow to our bustling economy. Then the loss of our timber mills from lack of available trees, and competition from subsidized imports and fast growing southeastern forests dealt another blow. Globalization and our consolidation of manufacturing hasn’t helped either, factories are numbering less and less while growing bigger in areas with a more dependable labor pool than here.
Change comes with real costs. Soon after my family moved here in 1993 we watched as businesses moved out of downtown and pigeons moved in. The farm and feed store was the only place to get clothing in town for a while, so if you didn’t wear boots and Wranglers you were out of luck. Baker High School served almost 800 students when I attended in the ‘90s, now there are only 452 high school students attending classes there. At one point the number of empty storefronts on Main Street outnumbered the occupied ones.
This isn’t a unique story, this--change, development, technology, globalization, etc.--has happened all across America in towns just like ours. Unsurprisingly, people are quick to point fingers at those them blame for the downsides of change. There’s a lot of blame going: the right blames building codes, environmental rules, and protective regulations; the left blames large corporations, the consolidation of wealth, and the subsidization of fossil fuels. Outside of those arguments and whatever the reason, the basic truth was that people didn’t want to live here anymore. Instead, they went where they thought the grass was at least slightly greener. For many, that place was Bend.
My mother grew up in Redmond, went to Central Oregon Community College in Bend, and started a record store called “The Missing Link” downtown there in the late 60’s, so I’m familiar with the area. The explosion of growth since then has been almost unmatched, being rated the second fastest growing city in America last year.
I see the parallels between Baker and Bend; we have a ski resort and a brewery, a historic and charming downtown, and are surrounded by natural beauty. And I see the results that turn so many people off of following that path: congestion, an influx of outsiders, unaffordable home prices, and roundabouts. I don’t think there is anything that worries Baker City residents more than the thought of having a roundabout appear in their commute.
Despite those concerns we need to recognize that Bend has had something we haven’t had for the last forty years, something that makes people want to live there. A quality of life that not only brought people to town but kept people in town. That’s what Baker City has been missing. I can’t count the times that I’ve heard “our greatest export is our children” when talking with other local business owners about our lack of quality workers or how the average age in the county gets older every year. And while I recognize that our kids need to get out for a bit and get some education/experience, we need to ensure that when they are looking to settle down we make Baker City a viable option for them.
How do we do that? I believe we keep doing what we’ve been doing, because the more we make this town liveable for us, the more liveable we make it for everyone. Despite all the economic downturns our farmers and ranchers continued to work the land to sustain their families and bring income to the community. Our local artists worked to build a supportive community that sustains creativity. Local preservationists that saw beauty and history in what others abandoned worked to restore buildings to their glory. Visionaries invested in creating shared public amenities that capitalize on our natural resources.
There are too many names to list here but they know who they are and how thankful we are for their hard work in slowly but deliberately building Baker City back into something we can all be proud of. A place with opportunities, entertainment, history, art, and culture. A place that went from every other building on Main Street being either vacant or for sale to having every other building on Main Street remodeled or under renovation.
But there is so much more work to do! By strengthening our school system and vocational programs we can make it more attractive to families looking to relocate and to businesses that need competent workers. By creating more recreational opportunities we can help to retain residents that may otherwise get bored here. By supporting local galleries and venues we can create a culture that nourishes people's need for art and interaction.
We are constantly a work in progress, and I have found that the best way to help and influence that progress is by getting involved. We may not all have the same vision, but I guarantee we can find some common goals to work towards. While I’ll bet that we agree on not “Bending Baker,” what’s more important is defining what we do want to become. Because change has always proven to be inevitable.
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Very well put. The battles many small towns experience as they try to determine their futures can be avoided with calm, considered, rational input from people on both sides of the spectrum. Change is inevitable, whether we like it or not. If we contribute meaningfully, we can help shepherd our communities in directions that benefit everyone while preserving that which makes them special.
Loran, well spoken as always. I am a "newcomer" here in the BBC...BeautiFULL Baler City. One of the things I first noticed was that the people here were FROM here: they had either never left and were Happy to be here or, they had left for 10 - 20 years to "do their thing" and had returned; not because they HAD to but, because they WANTED to! That was something I had never experienced. Where I come from you only move back if you have no options; This set BeautiFULL Baker City widely apart from anything I had experienced, until I Lived here...now I understand Fully. Change is inevitable but, we can form that change to something we can all embrace. Thank you for all that you and Jenny and you boys do to make this town what it Longs to be. Hugs my friend.