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 Downtown Bend, Oregon | Photo Credit: Miguel Edwards Photography Wow! It was a busy week in Downtown Bend! First of all,... SNOW! The first significant snow of the season. Yea! In Downtown Bend, the DBBA is responsible for clearing a 6 foot path on all of the sidewalks, keeping the ADA parking stalls cleared, and clearing the areas connected to the crosswalks The City of Bend clears the streets, alleys (including Brooks Promenade) and the parking lots, and the business owners clear the area from their front door to the side (their "front porch" if you will). By working together, we all keep downtown vibrant and ready for shoppers and diners! This week the DBBA interviewed over a dozen candidates for a Sales and Marketing position in the organization. This is an important position that will have an incredible impact on the organization & downtown Bend. We'll be excited to announce our new hire in the next week or two! DBBA Board President and the Executive Director met with the City of Bend Economic Development Department to discuss the option of modernizing the downtown business district, with a possible expanding of the EID boundaries. The DBBA Executive Committee will be meeting further to discuss these options and the impact on the DBBA.
 If you are anything like me (and half the other people living in Bend), you've been enjoying these beautiful sunny days outdoors playing, running, skiing, hiking - and loving our Central Oregon landscape. This top from FootZone is the perfect addition to your wardrobe - and you'll look great in it - whatever you're doing in the outdoors! Nike Women’s Element 1/2 Zip Top – Sea Blue The Nike Element Crew returns with an updated design that’s made using recycled materials. An all-new sleeve features a window that lets you easily check your watch. Use it as a midlayer, first layer or on its own. This product is made with at least 75% recycled polyester fabric.  Chef Jaclyn Perez and Betsy McDonald come together to present Bend, Oregon with a unique dining experience at The Lemon Tree in Downtown Bend. Jaclyn and Betsy met while working on Mega Yachts cruising around the world and providing exceptional dining experiences for their clients. The cuisine was completely driven by what was fresh, local and available. Guests were always treated to the specialties of the port of call each day. In this way, Jaclyn and Betsy developed their “Style” of clean, fresh international fare prepared with lots of love! Now the Chefs are home in Bend….get ready to be loved by two chefs with a passion for cooking, a strong affinity for vibrant world flavors and a desire to serve great food to the people of Bend!
Over the last thirty years, Mac & Betsy rode the high seas cruising with various international clients to ports around the world. The vessels they ran ranged in size from 93' (Robyn Lee) to 205' (Lady Lola). International crews were from 4 to 16 depending on the size of the vessel. They transited the Atlantic 8 times, visited all 5 of the Great Lakes and passed through the Panama Canal 6 times. Favorite ports included Barcelona, Cannes, the Amalfi coast, Istanbul, Santorini, Victoria BC, La Paz, and NYC. During their last tenure aboard Lady Lola, they were joined by Chef Jackie and while cooking aboard that vessel, they all agreed that "apres-yachting," there would be a business established that would incorporate all of the foods and ambiance they experienced during all the travels. The Lemon Tree was developed in Tuscany during the summer of 2017 and began in earnest in Bend in February 2018. They opened the doors in May of the same year and are charging ahead with amazing flavors from around the world, locally sourced.
It was another great week at the Downtown Bend Business Association (DBBA)! This week we held our monthly board meeting. At the board meeting we engaged in a robust discussion about the future of Downtown Bend and how to meet the needs of our district. With the new EID specification being presented to City Council in March, the board worked to define the EID boundaries, rate, scope of work and duration. All board meeting minutes can be found here. If you are interested in serving on the board, we'll have 4 new position open in July. Please let us know if you are interested and we'll let you know when the application process begins. If you are interested in knowing more about the EID process, click here. We got all of the holiday decorations completely taken down, finishing up with the Holiday Tree just 2 days ago. We are really grateful to our community partners for helping us by suppling a lift for us to do this work. As a small non-profit, if we had to rent a lift every time we needed one, decorations would soon become cost-prohibitive for our little organization. We also have come home to the truth that many of our holiday decorations have come to the end of their life. We'll be looking at ways to fundraise the money necessary to purchase decorations to replace these assets over the next year. If you are interested in donating, or helping us find donors, please contact us. We met with several building owners in the district and got some wonderful feedback, suggestions and kudos. We love to hear from our stakeholders. If you are interested in scheduling a meeting with us, please click here. If you'd like to make an anonymous comment or suggestion, click here. The Downtown Bend Business Association (DBBA) is a small nonprofit dedicated to increasing the economic vitality of Downtown Bend by enhancing the experience, image, and lifestyle of the Economic Improvement District (EID)
About Lone Crow Bungalow Lone Bungalow owner Rebecca Chase reflects back on her rustic cabin on Camano Island with a smile, having spent countless summers and vacations on Juniper Beach in the picturesque Pacific Northwest town. Several years working as a wholesale rep for gift shops across the Pacific Northwest and Alaska gave Rebecca insight into owning a shop of her own, and when Lone Crow Bungalow came up for sale, Rebecca knew it was kismet. The longstanding downtown Bend business is known for handcrafted goods. As the new owner, Rebecca has embraced the shop’s history while weaving in new artisans and makers from across the country. Come see what’s new.  John Paul has been designing & creating handmade jewelry in downtown Bend, Oregon for over twenty years. After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Metalsmithing from the University of Wisconsin Stout, he spent several years apprenticing with master metalsmiths in Madison, Wisconsin and Vail, Colorado before making his way westward, eventually settling into life surrounded by the high desert slopes of the Cascade Mountains. It is here in the shadows of the looming volcanic peaks that he has been diligently working ever since, to perfect traditional fine metalsmithing techniques while skillfully incorporating his love of old world blacksmithing practices. Combining the two disciplines has required much trial & error, but the result is a body of work that is entirely unique: pieces that incorporate a variety of precious & ferrous metals, while showcasing the best of earth's brilliant gems. John Paul's work carries the weight of a long history of craftsmanship and has a presence that is best experienced in person. Next time you find yourself in beautiful downtown Bend, Oregon, swing by for a tour of our current collection. There's magic in holding the pieces, turning them over and over in your hand, enjoying the feel of the forged textures of the earth: stone & lava, sand & leather.
 It was a great week in Downtown Bend, and the DBBA was hard at work to build Downtown Bend strong! This week we were very happy to install new updated parking banners in Downtown Bend to help streamline our parking communication. Parking in Downtown is easy and convenient. If you have questions or comments about parking, please contact us. A big shout-out to the City of Bend and the Downtown Bend Parking Advisory Committee (DPAC) for working with us to make this possible! We were happy to be asked by City Council for our opinions and concerns for Downtown and for our City, and we joined other community groups for a listening session with City Council to kick-off collaboration and development. Ryan and our on-the-street staff were hard at work this week taking down all of the Holiday decorations. Ribbons, bows, lights, snowflakes and (next week) the community tree all need to come down and be put away for next year. Taking down decorations takes 2-people, and it requires putting things away neatly and into the DBBA storage unit to say safe and ready to put up again next year. Our staff did a great job this week in getting decorations down and safely stowed for next year. We researched some options for Bend Oktoberfest, Downtown Bend's largest fundraiser, for 2021 including meeting with the governor's office and other event organizers to try to gain an understanding of when events would again be an option (phase 3 of coronavirus recovery). Although there is not guarantee that we'll be able to hold large events by next September, the DBBA Board instructed staff to prepare to hold the event. This triggered a shift in priorities as DBBA staff shifted their workloads in anticipation of putting on a 2-day, 15,000 person event in 2021. We met with Scot Bres, and the OSU CoLab, this last week to discuss a partnership where they can help the DBBA design testimonial videos & assist with meeting production. We look forward to moving ahead, and we'll give you more updates as we develop this partnership! We are also excited to announce that we are once again working with the Kids Center to participate in the Blue Ribbon campaign - so keep your eye out for blue ribbons in Downtown Bend, and if you are a business interested in participating, please contact us for more information. We also met with Miguel Edwards, as we work to put together a Sculpture Tour in Downtown Bend. This is an exciting development that we are hoping to bring into fruition this spring. All this - and so much more! The Downtown Bend Business Association (DBBA) is a small nonprofit dedicated to increasing the economic vitality of Downtown Bend by enhancing the experience, image, and lifestyle of the Economic Improvement District (EID). |
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