Bend Current, Newsletter for the Community, December 2024

A Look Back at 2024

The close of a chapter invites reflection, and we want to share some highlights from 2024 with you.
Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter and staying connected to City news. And if you’ve shared your ideas and input by writing an email to City Council, giving public comment at a meeting or attending a City of Bend event: thank you. We look forward to all that we will accomplish together in 2025. Our community is stronger because of your participation.

Watch the 2024 City of Bend Year in Review Video.

This year, our City of Bend staff and City Council dedicated their time to accomplishing some important work for our community, including:

1. Earning Grant Funding for Affordable Housing

This year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded the City of Bend a $5 million dollar grant for affordable housing. The purpose of the grant is to increase housing production, improve access to housing, and to make housing more affordable for low-income persons. Nationwide, housing production hasn’t kept up with population growth since World War II, and Bend has been designated by HUD as having an off-pace factor – in sum, we don’t have enough housing and need to build more.

Making sure people in Bend have access to affordable housing is a priority our City works hard to accomplish. And it looks like our strategies are working. Data from 2024 indicates that our efforts are working, and rents are stabilizing in Bend. Not coincidentally, 2022 and 2023 were two of the biggest years for multifamily housing development – 1,321 units were added to our local housing inventory. Explore trends related affordable housing at the City of Bend Housing Data Dashboard.

2. Conserving Local Water Resources for Our Future

Up to 60% of our clean drinking water gets used for outdoor irrigation – and up to 50% of the water used for outdoor irrigation is lost due to inefficient irrigation practices or landscape choices. This year, the City of Bend’s Turf Rebate Program helped community members realize the benefits of transitioning from a turf landscape (or lawn!) to a native or pollinator friendly landscape. Some of those benefits are lower water usage (and lower water bills!), stretched water supplies, and a more resistant landscape. Good news: we’ll see the program come back in spring 2025, and you can join the interest list by emailing conservation@bendoregon.gov.

Read more about the City of Bend’s Turf Removal Program.

3. Making East to West Travel Safer for Everyone

The Midtown Crossings Improvement project features improvements to corridors that connect east and west Bend, including Greenwood Avenue, Franklin Avenue, and Hawthorne Avenue. The Greenwood Avenue Quickbuild was installed this year and transitioned a four-lane road section to three lanes, with a dedicated center turn lane. That center turn lane has been shown to decrease crashes by up to 30%. The project also involved adding protected bike lanes, shortened crosswalks, and improved crosswalks.

Look out for more major changes to our east and west connections in the coming years – the Hawthorne Overcrossing, a pedestrian and cyclist bridge that will span Highway 97 and the railroad tracks, is in design phases right now. The Hawthorne Overcrossing will be built with State and Federal grant funds (totaling $32 million). In other words, funds for the Overcrossing are not coming out of the City of Bend’s budget.

Read more about the Midtown Crossings Improvement Project.

4. Delivering the Right Response for Our Community

On a year-by-year average, Bend Police officers respond to about 80,000 calls for service, including calls related to domestic violence, assaults or DUIs. They also receive calls related to mental health emergencies, and Bend Police officers are not necessarily the best people to respond to those. In 2023, Bend PD started working with Deschutes County to deliver a program that dispatches mental health professionals to respond to mental health related calls. Since the Community Crisis Response Team started responding to mental health related emergencies in 2023, they’ve fielded almost 3,000 calls. For some in-person calls, they jointly respond with Bend Police officers, but about 85% of the calls are handled without law enforcement involvement. Learn more about the types of calls that Bend PD responds to by visiting the Bend Police Department Data Dashboard.

5. Keeping Response Times Fast

Bend Fire & Rescue targets a six-minute response time within the Bend City limits. In 2024, they exceeded that goal. A response time is measured from the moment someone calls 911 to the time that an apparatus (fire engine or ambulance) arrives on scene. In an industry where seconds matter, Bend Fire & Rescue monitors their response times rigorously. In medical calls, every 30-60 seconds that they are not getting CPR, their chances of survival decrease by 10%. In structure fires, every 30 – 60 seconds, a structure fire can double in size. But our firefighters, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians deliver more than just a fast response: this is the fifth year in a row that Bend Fire and Rescue has received recognition from the American Heart Association for the life-saving care that they deliver. Check out the Bend Fire & Rescue Data Dashboard to learn more about response times!

6. Bringing New Voices into Our Local Government

Photo credit: COCAP (Central Oregon Civic Action Project)

Local elected leaders want to hear from more community members about issues – and potential solutions – that they care about. Civic Assemblies use a lottery system (much like a jury selection process) to randomly select individuals to do just that: learn about and debate a relevant local issue. Deschutes County hosted its first Civic Assembly in fall 2024, and 30 people came together for five days to discuss youth homelessness. But they did more than spend time talking. At the end of their time together, the Civic Assembly also used facilitated deliberation to come up with recommendations about how to solve the problem of youth homelessness. Their recommendations will be handed over to Deschutes County elected officials, the Bend City Council, the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, and others – those elected bodies will deliberate on the recommendations and respond back to the community.

Public Safety

Will you be Ready When Disaster Strikes? Let us Know how You’ve Prepared!

We love Bend because it’s surrounded by wild places, but our Central Oregon environment also contains potential for natural disasters. City Council Goals include planning for large-scale emergencies, such as wildfires, and our Department of Risk and Emergency Management wants to learn how prepared you are if disaster strikes our community.

Please take five minutes to complete our Emergency Preparedness Survey, which is available until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, January 14. The results of the survey will be used to develop targeted outreach strategies – in other words, what you share will help us learn what our community needs to do to prepare for a large-scale emergency and develop tactics to make our city more resilient. p.m. on Tuesday, January 14. The results of the survey will be used to develop targeted outreach strategies – in other words, what you share will help us learn what our community needs to do to prepare for a large-scale emergency and develop tactics to make our city more resilient.

Transportation & Infrastructure

Open House Invitation: Learn About Changes Coming to Olney Avenue

Changes are coming to Olney Avenue to make it a safer road to walk, bike, roll, drive and more! Construction begins in February and will be completed in phases to help minimize traffic impacts. You’re invited to a Pre-construction Open House:

Where: Element Bend Hotel, 1526 NW Wall St.
When: Jan. 14, 2015, from 4:30-6:30 p.m.

Can’t make the in-person open house? There is an online version (that includes the same information) available from Jan. 14-28 on the project website at bendoregon.gov/olneypedbike.

The project construction area includes Olney Avenue from the Portland bridge to NE Second Street. Safety improvements also include two intersections: Wall Street and Olney Avenue, and NE Second Street and Olney Avenue. To increase efficiency, save money and reduce construction impacts, water, sewer and stormwater improvements will be completed during the Olney transportation construction.

Environment & Climate

Looking for New Year’s Resolution Ideas? Save Water and Money!

During the winter months, the City of Bend calculates its residential customers’ “winter quarter average,” which is the amount of water used on average during the months of December, January and February. A City of Bend water customer’s winter quarter average is then used to calculate their residential customers’ monthly sewer charges.  

If you are a City of Bend water customer, conserving water indoors during the winter months not only saves water, it also helps lower your sewer charges throughout the year. Now, more than ever, is the time to make sure you’re using water wisely inside your home.  

For more tips on managing and reducing water use inside your home, visit bendoregon.gov/conservation.

Future Closures

City Offices Closed in Observance of New Years

City Offices will be closed Wednesday, Jan. 1 in observance of New Years Day. As always, local first responders will be serving Bend around the clock, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

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