Governor John Kitzhaber, First Lady Cylvia Hayes and Bend community leaders laid out a blueprint for economic success and livability in Central Oregon for the years to come.
The sold-out event at the Tower Theatre was a joint venture of the City Club of Central Oregon and Bend 2030—both groups aimed to shine a spotlight on the region’s “triple bottom line” of economy, community and environment and the Bend 2030 vision for achieving our goals in each area.
“Last January, Bend 2030 was the City Club’s featured monthly forum,” said Betsy Warriner, chair of Bend 2030, which is a board made up of more than 20 community leaders. “That presentation led to our unique partnership resulting in tonight’s event. The SuperForum is very much in tune with our mission at Bend 2030: to convene members of our community; connect great people, ideas and projects; and to align our community around its long-range vision.”
The evening began with a VIP reception backstage for Kitzhaber and Hayes, but by 7pm the theatre was packed with more than 400 attendees from the larger community. The Around the Bend Players comedy troupe kicked off the show with some classic eastside-westside humor and then it was straight into the theme of the night—“Prosperity with a View.”
Much of the rest of the evening was a robust discussion of the initiatives defining progress in Central Oregon, with Kitzhaber and Hayes hammering the message that we must focus heavily on economic and environmental sustainability models based on optimizing human happiness.
Kitzhaber said we will achieve real community health only if there is “a sense among our people of belonging, commitment to our goals and a sense of giving back to the greater good. The vision and engagement of what we want has to come from the community level up.”
Through immediate electronic polling via keypad, audience members backed up much of what Kitzhaber and Hayes had to say. Questions such as “Should taxpayer dollars be spent to ensure non-essential but livability-related amenities in our community?,” often yielded overwhelmingly strong alignment with the speakers’ thoughts.
The main message of the night, stressed again and again by every speaker was that it’s up the people who live here to get involved and create the community we want to see.
“We as citizens have a responsibility to engage and be a part of the public process,” said Bill Buchanan, the President of the City Club of Central Oregon. “A new movement is afoot and we’re thrilled to be part of it.”
Funding for the event was provided by the generous support of the Leadership Alliance of Bend 2030, including BendBroadband, Bend Park and Recreation District, Brooks Resources, Central Oregon Community College, the City of Bend, Deschutes Brewery, OSU-Cascades, St. Charles Health Systems, US Bank and jointly The Garner Group/Sunwest Builders/NorthWest Crossing.
Bend 2030 announce their new website at www.Bend2030.org that will help connect and inform the community of the progress and the opportunities surrounding the Vision.
For more information about the City Club of Central Oregon visit www.cityclubco.org http://cityclubco.org.
