We have been here 20 years , folks used to be so friendly , not so much anymore . My wife and I walk allot all over town , I intentionally say hello to everyone and I would say 90 percent of folks never respond , most even look the other way or at their phone when we are ready to cross paths on the trail , riverwalk , where ever . Allot of folks here now act like they are better than you and wont even make eye contact , some actually even seem to get angry when you say hi , its very strange but always an interesting experiment as we walk . My hopes are that folks read this and start smiling and saying hello too , the world needs this.
Saying hi and waving from Cary NC! My wife and I have the same issues going on here as you do there! It’s amazing the effort that goes into not being friendly! Yes the world needs more everyday friendliness. Thanks for your post, we don’t feel so bad now :-)
Born and raised in Bend, left permanently back in 2020. Changed way too much, too over populated, and most expensive city in Oregon now and basically California 2.0. Miss the trails for hiking/running and the smell of the high desert. But otherwise dont miss it.
I grew up in bend, and came back this weekend to ski here. Before all the teslas. It’s so weird it feels like uncanny valley. Foreigners trying to pretend to be from bend so bad they created a national wide cult behind hydro flask. (I skied with the makers kid at mbsef)
@@GoodBoyDanny I visited for Xmas, and you’re spot on, I really don’t recognize the town I grew up in and how’s it’s become a rich persons place to live similar to Aspen, all the locals are and have been priced out. Even La Pine is getting expensive now. I’m 38, so it’s changed a lot in that time.
#10. Do we hate Californians? YES. I moved to Bend in '92 and it turns my stomach to see what it's become. Used to be you could be a waitress or a bartender, or work at the log mill, and you could afford to live here. $600 a month for an entire house. One fifth the population, no crowds on the trails or at Smith Rock. The intersection of Galveston and 14th was a two way stop. No need for roundabouts, there wasn't enough traffic. All gone. So yes, we blame Californians. And everyone else, really. Now the best place in Oregon is......
People forget that for decades everyone from every state was moving to California. I remember the early 2000's californians would complain about the people from the rest of the country moving in to their state.
I'm not from California. But I've only met nice people from California. All the mean people I meet for some reason talk about how much they hate Californians lol.
We moved here from "the city" 11 years ago and I decided then to NOT do the Bendite boring fashion statement of puffy jacket and blue jeans all the time. Everyone looks like clones with zero individuality! So I wear whatever is fun and colorful to me. Unfortunately I have actually had several women say to me "you are always so dressed up". Can I just be unique for heaven's sake, and have some fun without being judged?! By the way, I have a friend who is a beautiful black woman who loves it here. She found her husband here as well. She ALSO wears fun, colorful, "dressy" clothing and always looks like a million bucks! She is celebrating her uniqueness too. Women of Bend - celebrate your femininity and wear dresses more!
I'm an Oregon native from the valley but prefer Bend for the recreation and climate. 40 years ago when I moved here the population was 18,500. Now you've got to be wealthy to live here.
I live in Bend and I love it. Bend doesn't have near the problems of larger cities but still has the problems of most any other city. Yes, it grew. That changes things. It's called time. Worst part about Bend for me is most Bendites do not know how to merge onto 97, they do not know how to turn their fog lights off and they do not understand that flying into a round-a-bout at 30mph screws it up for pretty much everyone else.
Great video. I’ve lived here for 26 years. I find myself saying “that used to be” a lot more than I should. It has gotten unrealistic to live here though. To have your salary at 3x the rent, you really need to make around $40 per hour. The blame shouldn’t be put only on the employers that cannot pay that much, but also the rental companies. Just because you can charge top dollar for a s-hole apartment, doesn’t mean you should. Happy tenants stay long term. It used to be “go home California” now I would take them over the East coasters any day. I have to go farther and farther to get to my “secret” camping spots….they’re all now permanent homes for people that cannot afford the rent, but still work 40 hours a week. Most of the homeless here, just cannot find an affordable place to live.
Bend is not Bend anymore, it's baby Portland. Extreme homelessness issues with no end in sight, they camp anywhere and everywhere they want. They trash neighborhoods and streets. And I'm not talking about the people who are homeless that are actively trying to better their lives. We're talking about drug addicts with major mental health problems who don't want help. And as a result of that, tons of shootings, random assaults and out of control fires have become the new norm. Bend has become too expensive and overcrowded for the majority of the locals to live in their hometown. It's has also become a political nightmare as those who are in charge are clearly blinded so issues are far from getting solved. Not to mention the high percentage of human trafficking that happens :( Bend has been ruined, look deeper for the truth.
Born and raised in Oregon, I went to COCC and my dad grew up in Bend and owns a business there now. So we are very much locals. I don’t live there currently but it is a culture shock when I ever I come to visit. It’s growing so fast and I saw a lot of friends get pushed out due to rising prices. There is a huge class disparity and housing availability is atrocious. I have a very love hate relationship with Bend. I love the art community and the music scene. There is a lot of “yuppies” as we call them that can really kill that Aloha vibe you talked about.
I'm born and raised here, tried doing everything right, going to college, working the whole time since I was 14, putting in the extra hours and sleepless nights, saw when rent surpassed mortgages, but thought I didn't have the money for a down payment at the time while going to college. Now I know I should have tried back then rather than telling myself the time wasn't right. Now it seems I will never own a house where I grew up. Every raise or new better paying job I got put me outside of the help for low income, but the market has spat in my face and blow up. I was close to my 20% down that I was saving for, but now with interest rates and an average price of 750k for a house it seems that you must have the income of two lawyers or doctors to purchase here anymore... I would say growing up here it used to be a ton of rancher cowboys and I don't mean that in a mean way. It's just been interesting to see the shift of things. There used to be a couple of homeless folks that you knew and saw on a normal basis, but now that population has exploded and I don't know if it's the price of living here or the population growth. I still would love to own a home here, but there's not many local jobs that support the housing market here. My father often called it "poverty with a view" to live here 😅 People used to wave more and didn't unnecessarily cut in front of you while you were driving and there's nobody behind you, but now it seems that's become the norm.
I thought your evaluation was honest and non-biased. If people are that easily offended that is their problem, not yours. I grew up in Portland and spent 12 years in Astoria. I now live in St. George, UT which has experienced the same growth as Bend, and a lot of people moving here from California (some people here have t-shirts that say, “Don’t California My Utah”). More expensive than when we first moved here in 2018. We bought our house for $475,000 and could now sell it for $950,000. Crazy!!! I always thought that if I moved back to Oregon I would chose Bend because of the weather and the fact that it is about the same size as St. George. I’m not a big city girl. Thank for the information. I found it very helpful.
I recently went to Lincoln and had a surprisingly good experience. Honestly, I didn’t think I would like it as much as I did, so I’ll swoop through Bend next time 😊
Having lived here for over 30 years, the area has really become a flashpoint between the political extremes of the right and left. The number of people in each party may be close to even, but they are VERY politically distant from each other. You start reading the local newspaper and government, talk to people about how they agree/disagree with people at work, and it becomes VERY clear just how much of an identity crisis this town has. It's like living in the Facebook comments. :(
I don’t want to move away just cause I’m broke. And I’m a nice person with a family too. Buuuut one of my family fell off the wagon entirely and is still bouncing down the road damaging whatever it touches. sooo I feel unfit to be apart of society. My family baggage is too trashy for polite society. Drugs and abuse are here too plenty. Be careful out there.
I think we can talk ourselves into or out of anything and the same goes for Bend! Bend is truly a magical place for all ages. Yes the outdoors are amazing, yes the coffee, food trucks, and breweries are top notch, yes theres techies and granola vanlifers. It may have been a small sleepy mtn. town back in the day but with technology putting this place on the map and tourism its here to stay and will only continue to grow in size. If you're wondering what it will look like in 10 years, look at other well known mtn towns that are beautiful to visit for adventures.
The dogs are very friendly in bend. The people , not so much. Worked on many custom homes in the bend,Redmond ,sisters area. Met some nice folks. Also many, too many posturing ,phony, outdoorsy types who seemed to have no real purpose, and only nonsense was spoken among them. But, they really looked the part, all had the same apparel on. Patagonia, Texas, and beanies, very unoriginal. Glad to be back in Montana, around Genuine humans,..although Bozeman suffers from the disingenuous posers that bend attracted. My home state of Montana is doomed, because they're coming, in suvs and puffy jackets,.. jamming up the trails and highways throwing they're cliff bar wrappers all over. I wish they would all climb up Smith Rock and state up there.
In the 80s I lived in Burns (yuk) and would spend a lot of time in Bend. It was a great little college town then: easy to get around; not real expensive; home to a lot of artists and other creative types. Now it's probably five times as big with lots of traffic and expensive. It's not Portland (yet) but it's working on it.
He's not even from there originally. He has a very poor understanding of the culture there. And he only explained the west side of town. The problem with these people is they move to the place I grew up and they tell each other how it is, which isn't true, and then they keep telling everybody it's a certain way when it isn't. And that has successfully gentrified the city. The locals are moving away because people like this guy are moving in and driving the cost of everything up and changing the culture for the worse.
Moved to Bend from Northern Az. Nice parks, lots of places to swim. The only thing I am not happy with is how they take care of the roads in the winter..... even with 4 wheel drive, all wheel drive and studded tires....I hear all the money goes to Parks and Recs.
I have lived in Oregon for over 45 years. I avoid central Oregon as much as possible. I can certainly understand why certain types of people are attracted to Bend, but those are not the types of people that I like to befriend.
forgot to mention it's full of trust fund babies and rich people living off of their inheritance. people that ruined the town buy out pricing the hard working locals that lived here before.
Love the all the surrounding wild areas but I stopped going into Bend long time ago. Too many awkward interactions with utterly isolated caucasians with absolutely no clue that anyone differently pigmented could share outdoor recreation interests. If i had a dollar for every time I was asked if it was my "first time to Bend?" I would be able to buy a house there.
Ive been wondering what bend is like since i had to leave in 1976 not by my choice as a teenager ive thought about coming back and visit all my relatives graves however i believe all or most of my relatives are gone. I spent the 60's and half of the seventies living in bend. Oh well maybe in the future
We hate dogs, makes us uncomfortable. green bags left in many places! dont want to track pet shit in our house! And getting tired of wicked prices for food especially tired of burgers and crappy battered fries!
i really want to move my family out there from AZ. Its horrible living here. nodder city. and going outside is not nice even a little. i hope if we do, we are welcomed.
Oh man, what you just said about the people with money was DEAD ON! I have only met COOOOL AS FUCK rich people. We worked construction and house cleaning. I know what I’m talking about. I can’t believe that I am in line at the Safeway with the people that live up on Aubrey Butte in some of those places.
got nipped at by a dog last time i was in Bend. Riverbend Park. bit a hole in my sweat pants. 70 y.o. couple with a pittie cross. Unprovoked. not amused!
I highly doubt that’s what he meant. I think he meant the opposite. Not enough black and brown. Racism exist but I don’t think it’s as prevalent as certain circles would like you to believe. Everybody just relax and enjoy life. If we actually come across an actuall racist then address it then. Meanwhile just be happy.
