I like Carla's idea. It seems like there is an unfilled niche for Central Oregon; a resort not centered around golf, but focused on hiking and nature and so forth. Sunriver, I think, comes closest with its bike paths and nature center, but it is so big, it seems like something on a smaller scale could also be successful. If it weren't too far from Bend, people could walk, bike or take a shuttle (natural gas/electric maybe?) into town and experience the amenities of the city, with restaurants, bars, shopping, concerts, etc.

“That property is going to be developed.”

ROTFLMAO Put a Walmart on the Powell Butte Site instead so Carla can buy those romance novels she likes.

If so many of these places are losing money, why are in such a hurry to keep making more of them? Sounds like it is time for a new strategy.

I went to high school out there in that region, and I can say this for certain...people don't go to Central Oregon to experience a golf course or luxury hotel in Portland. They go to Central Oregon to experience Central Oregon. And not cheesy fake ranches, people go out there because they want to experience something raw and undeveloped. Something drastically different than what you experience every day in the Metro area. The only thing a vacation destination needs to do to get people to go there out in Eastern Oregon is provide some facilities and advertise the heck out of it.

People who "go to Central Oregon to experience Central Oregon" are NOT the people County Commissioners and Chambers of Commerce (redundant?) want...they want people who have lots of money to spend on lodging, retail, restaurants and so on. Really...how much money can be made from having the place overrun with a bunch of smelly cheapskate camping types, probably with two or three snotfaced kids in tow? So what if the golf courses drain the rivers and the water table?...there will always be enough left for "water features", and that's enough for the resort types.

The FDIC took over Columbia River Bank in The Dalles a few minutes ago. Times are tough on the east side of the Cascades, just like they are in the rest of Oregon.

... allowing prime land to be chewed up by golf courses.

Prime land? For what? It's a desert. You act as if the land around there is some kind of precious commodity.

The place is overbuilt with high end resorts, to be sure. But why pretend this land is some kind of prime farmland? It's freaking scrub land with views.

Posted by: ScaryTail | Jan 22, 2010 6:37:02 PM

... allowing prime land to be chewed up by golf courses.

Prime land? For what? It's a desert. You act as if the land around there is some kind of precious commodity.

The place is overbuilt with high end resorts, to be sure. But why pretend this land is some kind of prime farmland? It's freaking scrub land with views.

What a fucking primate! Go back to Africa if that's all you can appreciate. Quit dissing my mother.

Carla,

You're a real piece of work.
How is it that BO NEVER has any threads criticizing the failed municipal, heavily tax subsidized developments?

You grew up around there?
Well on the destination resorts you simply do not understand and are misrepresenting them.

First they are not chewing up land at any pace or impact as your words pretend.

What's more a golf course does not erase land.

Yeah resorts are having trouble. So are hotels and restaurants in Portland. So is the Beaverton Round, Villebois, SoWa and all of Metro's plans etc.
So is TriMet. Big trouble, with WES and many other areas.

The resorts have been exceedingly attractive and successful for decades. Families of many means have enjoyed the facilities for years. Some more than others of course but there's a lot to do at them. It's not just expensive golf. Families can share a rental house and enjoy all sorts of activities without high cost.

All of the activities you think don't happen have always been part of the central Oregon resort experience. Like everyone else, every time my friends and family have visited there we've "contributed to the fishing/hiking/wildlife, etc tourism". Along with bike riding, swimming, rafting and all sorts of other activities available in and adjacent to these marvelous resorts. All while staying in really comfortable housing.

That't why people from all over bring their families and friends to Central Oregon. To stay at really nice places with many activities. That's why more resorts have been built.

You don't like that.

Do you want some politically correct, heavily tax subsidized version? Interpretive centers with minimal human contact with the environment?

Or do you even know what you're really advocating?.

Remington joins Tetherow,Thornburg, Pronghorn, Crossing Trails, Hidden Canyon and Brasada on the list of Central Oregon resorts who have invested their own money. Their moderate to serious financial trouble effects their own investments, not the taxpayers like so many boodoggles you never address.

So you're genuinely puzzled?

No doubt.

You've also fabricated a silly straw man about "Central Oregon's economy can recover by allowing prime land to be chewed up by golf courses"

What is that supposed to be? If public officials are or will be approving another future resort yeah it will obviously contribute to the local economy.
It certainly won't hinder any recovery in Central Oregon. What's your pitch? Officials should obstruct the project because it would be on prime (private) land and therefore hurt the economic recovery?

Perhaps officials should use eminent domain to take the property and use tax dollars to create that "small, eco-friendly resort with overnight, short term facilities and small footprints."?

Is only that kind of project able to "contribute to the fishing/hiking/wildlife, etc tourism that has such potential in this region"

You've really outdone yourself . Where's the infamous Carla "research"?

If you knew anything about Central Oregon you would have to know that these resort owners and local officials know all about potential in their region.

If you think a "small, eco-friendly resort with overnight, short term facilities and small footprints" has potential why don't invest your own resources into pursuing it? Or are you only interested in spending other people's (taxpayer) money? You could move there and tell them about all the wonderful Sam Adams, PDC and Metro ideas for them to use?

Some of it is high value forest and farm land. Some of it is gorgeous, wild landscape that is prime for fishing, hunting, hiking, wildlife viewing and other similar types of tourism.

Correct. SOME of it is forestland. But you of course want to prevent development on ALL of it unless it is the type of development you approve of.

I can think of a GREAT place that has land that is "prime for fishing, hiking, wildlife viewing and other similar types of tourism."

SUNRIVER!

People who rent houses there do ALL of that stuff. But I guess you want land for those uses that nobody can visit.

Interesting, the same overbuilt resort argument took hold in Hilton Head and Kiawah Islands, Sc during the last realestate bust in the 1980's. Carla is correct that golf course eat up uge tracks of land and gooble water from the region. Hopefully she and the LCDC over on the west side of the state will allow Central Oregon be left alone to figure out their own fate without outside interferance.

Bend has weighed in on the County Resort mapping project urging a 5 mile buffer around the city limits.

"I grew up in and around that area. It's not just some "desert". Some of it is high value forest and farm land. Some of it is gorgeous, wild landscape that is prime for fishing, hunting, hiking, wildlife viewing and other similar types of tourism.

The land is very precious. The fact that you so devalue it with such a dismissive, elitist tone is ugly and wrong."

Carla,

The land is not farmable, isn't good for cattle, has no water in the form of streams, is extremely rocky, and void of a lot of vegetation besides a few junipers and sage brush.

You're the one with the elitist attitude because you don't realize the enormous tax benefits these resorts bring to areas like Crook County. Brasada Ranch now brings in the most tax revenue aside from Les Schwab, which helps fund schools, parks, etc. That's a reality you seem to ignore.

I agree that too many resorts isn't a good thing, but Remington Ranch would only make the second one in Crook County. And given economic conditions, it's highly unlikely the other two will ever get off the ground.

"Remington joins Tetherow,Thornburg, Pronghorn, Crossing Trails, Hidden Canyon and Brasada on the list of Central Oregon resorts that are having moderate to serious financial trouble."

Duh. I'm not sure what's so interesting about that, other than the fact that destination resorts are tied to the housing market, which is at rock-bottom. It's not as if these resorts are the only developments struggling. Hell, look at all the condos in the Pearl.

Oh, and I'm so tired of your I-grew-up-here argument, as if you truly understand the people, culture, politics, and lifestyle of Central Oregon. You don't. That's an elitist attitude.

A critical point to understand is that the "destination resorts" being built in Central Oregon these days are not really "resorts" at all -- they are glitzy residential developments built around golf courses. They attract few, if any, tourists, and don't even try to attract them. They are primarily places where wealthy people buy second, third, fourth or fifth homes.

Since they aren't really resorts, these "resorts" don't provide even the crummy minimum-wage jobs that tourism generates. They generate construction jobs when they're being built and jobs for a few greenskeepers to take care of the golf courses, but that's it.

The push for more destination resorts is being driven by the local realtor and builder lobby.

"Bend has weighed in on the County Resort mapping project urging a 5 mile buffer around the city limits."

Correction: The City of Bend has backed away from that position.

So, in a section of the state where there isn't much water, why would it be seen as advantageous to build even more mega water sucking golf courses? Other than to provide a few low paying jobs for housekeeprs, greenskeepers, bartenders, waiters and front desk workers?

Bend used to be a nice place.

Reading some of the later responses reminds me that we should decrease the numbers of those people using the Bend area as some kind of upward mobility test. The more they come, the harder it will be when the eco movement turns militant and we start sweeping gated communities, rendering their fat asses for oil. Dirty, blood soaked energy don't bother you none now. Oh, it's YOUR ass. Fuck you.

And they said that you can't burn hydrocarbons and have a net neg yield footprint! Why is it that the voice of priv and opress, like Richard the One Eyed Snake, always confuse grass with sustenance? And they end up like Marie Antoinette. IMHO, Richard could stand to loose about 10 pounds of ugly fat, courtesy of Madame la guillotine! Ben Franklin put it best. I put it to deniers and eco-irresponsibles. Join or die.

Carla is doing you a favor. If I ever knock on your door, it won't be to ask for support in building an eco-friendly destination resort.

Deschutes County Government is the worst. We need a State wide vote for any more of these playgrounds for the Rich only. These people are buying the best places in the State for their use only. When our kids are grown and want to buy a place they will be nothing left. Drive up to the front gates of these places see if they will let you in.

The County wants the land around La Pine. Homeowners out resorts in.