Keep Sisters Special

Over at HinesSight, Brian Hines is celebrating Sisters, Oregon...

Sisters is special. It’s sort of central Oregon’s Cannon Beach—a town with character, wise business signage and design rules, and artistic flair—while Bend is growing uncomfortably akin to Lincoln City, a minimally planned sprawl of malls, dense slow-moving traffic, and garish fast-food restaurants.

...and lamenting their City Council's failure to keep out fast-food chains:

The city council voted 3-2 to reject a proposed ordinance that would have limited “formula food” to the four existing operations (McDonalds, Subway, Figaro’s Pizza, and Bad Ass Coffee Company).

That’s too bad. Apparently lots of local citizens wanted additional chain fast-food outlets to stay out of quaint, quirky Sisters, while lots of the business and real estate community wanted to allow them. As so often happens, quantity of dollars won out over quality of life.

Read the rest of Belly-dancing and fast food in Sisters and discuss at HinesSight.

June 20, 2005 Posted in elsewhere.