The touristas are here! (Portland, Bend: real estate, 2015, rent)

[BendLocal]

Bend has been turned into a MAJOR tourist town. On the way back from the mountains today I got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic right around Widgi Creek. By far the worst I've ever seen. Bachelor has been slammed all week with huge lines. And the snopark lots are packed too. Ugh!

[Dry Side]

How do you know it was tourists? See lots of out of state plates?

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Bend has always been a major tourist town, even way back to the days of the Model T Ford.

45 years ago, there was always a major traffic jam on third street. Getting down third street was like driving in Los Angeles. Of course, third street was miles shorter back then.

Ski tourists don't drive out of state cars. A lot of them come from Portland and the ones from out of state fly in and rent cars.

As the population gets bigger, the lines get longer. There are so many more people in the state now.

[BendLocal]

As oregonwoodsmoke says, many of the tourists are from Oregon with Oregon plates. But I've seen many out of state plates this holiday season. And if you're up at Bachelor you can get a good idea of the mix by speaking with fellow riders on the lifts or people in the parking lot.

Of course there are locals up there too, but locals are out every weekend and I've never seen locals create a traffic jam all the way to Widgi Creek or fill up Bachelor's lots like we've seen this week.

IMO, just 8 years ago Bend wasn't what I'd describe as a major tourist destination - especially not during the winter. But the City of Bend has spent many millions in public funds to change that.

[Thom52]

Bend is a tourist economy.
Success at being a robust tourist economy has its price.
You don't get it both ways.

Either other jobs types need to be brought in, or you have to put up with the bad along with the good.

Not everyone can be a Real Estate agent, selling only to local people. The math just doesn't work.

[BendLocal]

At this point a relatively small percentage of the Central Oregon economy is from tourism but the City of Bend is using public funds to grow that percentage. Based on the crowds in town I'd say its working!

See the pie chart on page 4.

2015 CENTRAL OREGON PROFILE

[Thom52]

Originally Posted by BendLocal

At this point a relatively small percentage of the Central Oregon economy is from tourism but the City of Bend is using public funds to grow that percentage. Based on the crowds in town I'd say its working!

See the pie chart on page 4.

2015 CENTRAL OREGON PROFILE

That is definitely a very interesting page! thanks for sharing!

Fascinating things to be gleaned from diving into the stats.
The average business in Oregon employs less than 15 people. I would definitely say Oregon is not being overrun by mega-corporations!

By far, the biggest employers in Central Oregon is a single hospital and the government infrastructure. I must say, even the local "large" hospitals anywhere I have lived are not even a significant blip in the overall employment numbers.

Behind those, in Central Oregon, you can pretty well clump the Service Sector jobs, which need to be fed by people coming in that can afford services. A purely service sector economy is next to impossible to maintain without outside money infusing. (let us avoid a political discussion about the USA now being almost entirely service sector). So, if you have almost no industry, the influx is people just living there (doing what, you may ask?) and touristas.

Note that a lot of the pie chart left over is related to people building and selling houses to each other. Once again, that closed loop can only sustain itself so long without some sort of influx of money.

IMHO, Bend has a decent strategy they are gambling on. Most of the "industry" they are bringing in is "clean", with a heavy slant towards software and minimum impact high tech. Tourism is about as low impact as you can get, albeit we will have to grit our teeth through seasonal traffic jams. And like it or not, with the USA in general going to almost exclusively a service sector economy, it seems like a fairly safe gamble to build on.

Or I could be entirely wrong. Finances/Economics are not my forte.

[delta07]

Having moved here in 2008, when the economy took a downturn, we lucked out with quite a few years of less tourists. But, it's definitely feeling super crowded here this year. I was at Trader Joe's the other day & there were plenty of out of state plates in the parking lot. It's starting to remind me of Breckenridge, CO with the tourists. Yes, it's something out economy relies on, but man, it sure is hard to live with it on a daily basis.

[BendLocal]

Originally Posted by Thom52

Tourism is about as low impact as you can get, albeit we will have to grit our teeth through seasonal traffic jams.

Is tourism low impact? First we have the added stress on the water and garbage infrastructure that an influx of 20,000 daily visitors causes during the peak periods. Then we have the additional wear and tear to the roads in and around town, to the trails in the forest areas, to sensitive wildlife areas. Let's not forget pollution from thousands of tourist autos used to get around on daily basis during peak periods.

[Thom52]

Originally Posted by BendLocal

Is tourism low impact? First we have the added stress on the water and garbage infrastructure that an influx of 20,000 daily visitors causes during the peak periods. Then we have the additional wear and tear to the roads in and around town, to the trails in the forest areas, to sensitive wildlife areas. Let's not forget pollution from thousands of tourist autos used to get around on daily basis during peak periods.

Would it be lower environmental impact to have some sort of industry spewing toxic smoke out of smokestacks, huge trucks running around with heavy loads, and the forest areas being stripped of all trees, and/or large number of commuters driving to those toxic producing factories?

There is no ZPG in our country. All the "extra" people around these days have to go somewhere.

I am not arguing that it isn't a PITA putting up with crowds. There are always tradeoffs.