Interesting trends developing, at least to me. Most of these are totally anecdotal and may or may not reflect reality.
Old line businesses and events going out of businesses, (Book Barn and Cascade Music Festival), while new businesses to town wonder what all the fuss is about. Bend is wonderful!
Lots of petty crime. The Bulletin appears to downplay it, KTVZ through their mugshots seems to emphasize it.
Live music venues sound like a good idea, but apparently are harder than they look. Summit has dropped the nightly acts, and door charges on weekends. This goes way, way back, folks, as far back as I can remember. Live comedy seems even worse.
Lots of motorcycles and bikes on the road. Lots of accidents.
Parking lot emptier at night when I leave, than in the morning when I arrive. How does that portend for 41 restaurants?
All the houses in my neighborhood are still for sale, some for over a year, and all have 'Price Reduced' signs.
Most of the empty spots on Greenwood are still empty, and if they haven't rented by now, you have to wonder about fall and winter.
Credit is not only harder, but harder to deal with. Having to reapply. Having them refuse to do things they've always done in the past. Interesting to me, my business vendors are still treating me the same, if not better.
Traffic seems down to me, empty parking spaces in front of my store even in summer.
The bearish blogs, which had been fairly quiet, gloating in their rightness over the spring, are suddenly screaming danger. (Bill Fleckenstein's Daily Rap today: It's About to Blow!) Almost nothing in the mainstream news; slight downtick in unemployment, downward movement in housing prices, which must be a good thing and so on. But really, none of the urgency.
Commercial Real Estate still mostly ignored. I'm beginning to wonder if we'll have a perfect storm. Housing bust, credit tightening, declining dollar and increasing inflation and deficits, big banks going under, high unemployment, commercial real estate bust, ever increasing gas prices. Seems like a certain negative synergy is developing, right now.
Stock market drops 358 points today, I don't know how much this month.
Public floating through my store still seems generally uninformed and unconcerned.
Old line businesses and events going out of businesses, (Book Barn and Cascade Music Festival), while new businesses to town wonder what all the fuss is about. Bend is wonderful!
Lots of petty crime. The Bulletin appears to downplay it, KTVZ through their mugshots seems to emphasize it.
Live music venues sound like a good idea, but apparently are harder than they look. Summit has dropped the nightly acts, and door charges on weekends. This goes way, way back, folks, as far back as I can remember. Live comedy seems even worse.
Lots of motorcycles and bikes on the road. Lots of accidents.
Parking lot emptier at night when I leave, than in the morning when I arrive. How does that portend for 41 restaurants?
All the houses in my neighborhood are still for sale, some for over a year, and all have 'Price Reduced' signs.
Most of the empty spots on Greenwood are still empty, and if they haven't rented by now, you have to wonder about fall and winter.
Credit is not only harder, but harder to deal with. Having to reapply. Having them refuse to do things they've always done in the past. Interesting to me, my business vendors are still treating me the same, if not better.
Traffic seems down to me, empty parking spaces in front of my store even in summer.
The bearish blogs, which had been fairly quiet, gloating in their rightness over the spring, are suddenly screaming danger. (Bill Fleckenstein's Daily Rap today: It's About to Blow!) Almost nothing in the mainstream news; slight downtick in unemployment, downward movement in housing prices, which must be a good thing and so on. But really, none of the urgency.
Commercial Real Estate still mostly ignored. I'm beginning to wonder if we'll have a perfect storm. Housing bust, credit tightening, declining dollar and increasing inflation and deficits, big banks going under, high unemployment, commercial real estate bust, ever increasing gas prices. Seems like a certain negative synergy is developing, right now.
Stock market drops 358 points today, I don't know how much this month.
Public floating through my store still seems generally uninformed and unconcerned.