They’ve taken away an on-street parking space in downtown Bend to put in a rack for 12 bicycles. The politically correct response would be to jump up and down and cheer, but pardon me if I don’t join in.

The multi-bike rack, called a “bike corral,” was installed in a parking space in front of Thump Coffee on Minnesota Avenue. It cost about $3,500, according to The Bulletin’s account, and was paid for by the Downtown Bend Business Association and individual contributors.

Kent Chapple, co-owner of Thump, said the corral was a solution to bike congestion near his shop. “It was really apparent that there just wasn’t enough capacity for all the bikes that wanted to be in this area,” he said. “If we can serve 12 people with one parking spot, that’s 11 more people down here we can serve than with that one [vehicle] parking spot.”

Thump appears to be a sort of haven for bikies. (That’s a new word I made up to identify bike enthusiasts, like “foodies” for food enthusiasts.) Chapple ride a bike to work, as do almost all of Thump’s 10 employees, according to The Bulletin.

This bike corral took away only one parking space out of about 2,000 in the downtown area. But don’t bet that it will be the last one. The Minnesota Avenue corral “could become a prototype for future bike parking structures downtown,” according to The Bulletin’s account.

Is there a legitimate need for even one on-street bike corral, let alone a bunch of them? True, many people ride bikes downtown, and more power to them. But a bike can be parked almost anywhere – chained to a tree, a signpost or a light fixture as well as a bike rack.

In 25 years of visiting Bend’s downtown I’ve never had trouble finding a parking space for a bike. Obviously I can’t say the same about a car.

The downtowners have plans to install 28 more hitching posts for bikes on the sidewalks, and I’m cool with that; it falls into the category of encouraging bicycle use. But when you take away parking spaces for cars and give them to bicycles, that’s an attempt to discourage car use – and that’s too much like trying to dictate other people’s lifestyle for me to feel comfortable with it.

It’s not hard to figure out what the bikies’ agenda is, beyond the ostensible motive of relieving alleged bicycle congestion. “We just want to promote Bend’s bike friendliness,” Chapple told The Bulletin. “We wanted to send a signal that Bend was a bike-friendly community.”

Sending such a signal is okay. But by taking away a parking space they’re also sending a signal – intentionally or not - that Bend, or at least the downtown part of it, is a car-unfriendly community.

It's September 2, 2010, which translates numerically to 9/02/10, making today the most fitting day in the history of time and space to celebrate the legacy of the soap-opera-influenced teenage drama, Beverly Hills 90210.

People are actually celebrating 90210 Day.

If you're not familiar with this show, it was an ongoing saga focused on rich teenage kids (who were inexplicably played by 28 year olds) and the insane high school and post-high school shenanigans that rich teenage kids are known to get into. It was a less funny Saved by the Bell or, to be more contemporary, a less sexy Gossip Girl. My sister was a loyal fan and from the few episodes I sat through, I recall it to be mostly about people taking high school, very, very seriously.

The show -- which spawned spinoffs and a remake that's still on the air -- ran from 1990 to 2000, at which point most of the actors floated off into oblivion.

But that's not stopping fans of the show (or perhaps just fans of '90s nostalgia in general) from gathering for parties today and celebrating on Facebook. It's unknown whether or not these fans will wear  some of the ridiculously high-waisted jeans and poofy hair styles made popular by the program.

Let me beat you to it -- yes, John Mellencamp was probably better than Bob Dylan at the Les Schwab Amphitheater on Friday night. Everyone has been saying this for the past few days (during which I've been battling a print deadline and ignoring my blogging duties) and I'll begrudgingly agree.

People say that Dylan didn't even sing...which is partially true. They said he didn't play many hits...that's not necessarily true. Sure, he doesn't sound that great behind the mic, but his band is still stellar and, most importantly, he allows you to say "I just saw Bob Dylan." Check that off the "things to do in my life" list.

But judge for yourself. Here's some cheap-seats video from the show.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvJKqr-30xg 600x355]

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdBXYK9rDwE 600x355]

I never miss one of Lars Larson’s little commentaries on the Oregon Catalyst site. They’re some of the best free entertainment on the Web.

In his most recent entry, Lars warns of a sneaky plot by the Obama administration to ban bullets.

Well, it wasn’t exactly the Obama administration that wanted to ban bullets – it was some conservationist groups. And they didn’t want to ban all bullets, only lead bullets.

The conservationists don't want to get rid of lead bullets because they’re against guns or against hunting, but because lead is very toxic stuff. Birds and mammals – including bald eagles and rare and endangered California condors – feed on the carcasses of animals killed with lead bullets and die of lead poisoning.

But Lars doesn’t mention any of this; instead he sees the effort to eliminate lead ammunition as a “backdoor” attack on Americans’ Second Amendment rights.

A lead bullet ban, he fumes, “would make all ammunition much more expensive. It will make it more expensive for folks to own guns, practice with guns, and even shoot guns. It will make it more expensive for folks to arm themselves as the Constitution guarantees.”

Fortunately, Lars goes on, this sneak attack on our precious liberties was foiled: The Environmental Protection Agency turned down the conservationists’ plea to ban lead bullets “because there was so much public outcry.”

“Another win against the Obamanation,” Lars crows. Poison a condor for freedom today!

UPDATE:  According to the right-wing Weekly Standard blog, the EPA is still considering enacting a ban on lead bullets. Well, this wouldn't be the first time Lars has gotten his facts wrong.

I never miss one of Lars Larson’s little commentaries on the Oregon Catalyst site. They’re some of the best free entertainment on the Web.

In his most recent entry, Lars warns of a sneaky plot by the Obama administration to ban bullets.

Well, it wasn’t exactly the Obama administration that wanted to ban bullets – it was some conservationist groups. And they didn’t want to ban all bullets, only lead bullets.

The conservationists don't want to get rid of lead bullets because they’re against guns or against hunting, but because lead is very toxic stuff. Birds and mammals – including bald eagles and rare and endangered California condors – feed on the carcasses of animals killed with lead bullets and die of lead poisoning.

But Lars doesn’t mention any of this; instead he sees the effort to eliminate lead ammunition as a “backdoor” attack on Americans’ Second Amendment rights.

A lead bullet ban, he fumes, “would make all ammunition much more expensive. It will make it more expensive for folks to own guns, practice with guns, and even shoot guns. It will make it more expensive for folks to arm themselves as the Constitution guarantees.”

Fortunately, Lars goes on, this sneak attack on our precious liberties was foiled: The Environmental Protection Agency turned down the conservationists’ plea to ban lead bullets “because there was so much public outcry.”

“Another win against the Obamanation,” Lars crows. Poison a condor for freedom today!

I never miss one of Lars Larson’s little commentaries on the Oregon Catalyst site. They’re some of the best free entertainment on the Web.

In his most recent entry, Lars warns of a sneaky plot by the Obama administration to ban bullets.

Well, it wasn’t exactly the Obama administration that wanted to ban bullets – it was some conservationist groups. And they didn’t want to ban all bullets, only lead bullets.

The conservationists want to get rid of lead bullets not because they’re against guns, or even against hunting, but because lead is very toxic stuff. Birds and mammals – including bald eagles and rare and endangered California condors – feed on the carcasses of animals killed with lead bullets and die of lead poisoning.

But Lars doesn’t mention any of this; instead he sees the effort to eliminate lead ammunition as a “backdoor” attack on Americans’ Second Amendment rights.

A lead bullet ban, he fumes, “would make all ammunition much more expensive. It will make it more expensive for folks to own guns, practice with guns, and even shoot guns. It will make it more expensive for folks to arm themselves as the Constitution guarantees.”

Fortunately, Lars goes on, this sneak attack on our precious liberties was foiled: The Environmental Protection Agency turned down the conservationists’ plea to ban lead bullets “because there was so much public outcry.”

“Another win against the Obamanation,” Lars crows. Poison a condor for freedom today!

Would the state of Oregon be better off if it was its own banker? Ann Kramer thinks so.

Kramer, chair of the board of the Gorge Grown Food network, an organization trying to promote a regional food system in the Columbia Gorge, writes on the Blue Oregon site that having a state bank could help “recharge Oregon’s economy.”

“The State of Oregon collects and spends lots of money,” Kramer says. “Did you ever wonder where that money goes? Right now, much of it sits in the TBTF [‘Too Big to Fail’] banks and they receive the benefits. In fact, we use the TBTF banks for lots of government services — even paying them to administer the OR SNAP program (food stamps). Instead, a state bank could provide these services, saving us millions as well as interest income returning to state coffers.”

The State Bank of Oregon, she adds, also could team up with local Oregon banks to make low-cost loans to agriculture, small business, economic development and students. “This availability of credit has all but disappeared from the TBTF banks, but with a State Bank of Oregon, small businesses and farms, which are the backbone of [Oregon’s] economy, could once again get back to work!”

Kramer’s model, the Bank of North Dakota, was established in 1919 in response to a populist revolt over the high rates of interest that big out-of-state banks were charging farmers. It was given the mission of “promoting agriculture, commerce and industry” in the state.

“It was never intended for BND to compete with or replace existing banks,” the bank’s website says. “Instead, Bank of North Dakota was created to partner with other financial institutions and assist them in meeting the needs of the citizens of North Dakota.”

Eric Hardmeyer, president of BND, explained last year in an interview with Mother Jones magazine how, by being cautious in its investments, the state bank managed to avoid the disastrous impacts of the real estate bubble: “We’re a fairly conservative lot up here in the upper Midwest and we didn’t do any subprime lending, and we have the ability to get into the derivatives markets and put on swaps and callers and caps and credit default swaps and just chose not to do it, really chose a Warren Buffett mentality — if we don’t understand it, we’re not going to jump into it.”

The BND, which has about $4 billion under its management, acts as the repository for all state taxes and fees and pays back the profit it makes in the form of dividends to the state treasury. “Probably this year we’ll make somewhere north of $60 million, and we will turn over about half of our profits back to the state general fund,” Hardmeyer said. “And so over the last 10, 12 years, we’ve turned back a third of a billion dollars just to the general fund to offset taxes or to aid in funding public sector types of needs.”

When the state faces a budget shortfall it can call on the bank for help. Hardmeyer recounted how, after the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s, the state fixed its $40 million deficit: “The governor just simply said all right, we’re going to turn back 1% of all general fund agencies, and the Bank of North Dakota, you will declare another dividend to make up the balance. And so we did that.”

Inspired by the success of the Bank of North Dakota, 11 other states are now looking into the idea of starting their own version, and Kramer thinks Oregon should be one of them. It’s hard for me to come up with a good reason why it shouldn’t.

Adventure Galley, the Bend-rooted band I've blogged about and wrote this feature story about, is in the finals of the Toyota Music Rock the Space contest.

The band cruised its way out of the preliminary rounds and then made it into the finals, thanks to the success of their song "Addict" -- a track that showcases the big, almost orchestral sounds of the electro rock band.

Drummer Brock Grenfell, who's here in Bend for the summer before returning to Eugene to continue class at the U of O in a few weeks, stopped by the office today and said there are still a few more days to vote for Adventure Galley in the contest. So click here and head over to vote for the band -- all you need is a MySpace account.

If they win, the band will receive some $40,000 in prizes. So yeah, help these guys out!

As if he didn’t have enough headaches being behind Chris Dudley in the polls and in the race for campaign cash, John Kitzhaber has gotten involved in a scandal.

On second thought, better put quotes around “scandal.” Maybe it’s a scandal, maybe it’s something else.

The background: Cylvia Hayes is the longtime “significant other” of John Kitzhaber. She’s also the founder and CEO of 3E Strategies LLC, a Bend consulting firm that specializes in sustainable development, renewable energy and that sort of thing.

Last spring 3E was one of the bidders on a contract with the state Department of Energy for a project that was being funded with federal stimulus money. The contract ended up going to a Seattle firm, R.W. Beck. But, according to The Oregonian and other media, state officials then “encouraged” Beck to take on 3E as a subcontractor.

“At the time, some Energy Department staff members raised concerns about the way Hayes' company was promoted by the agency after losing the bid, and findings by state auditors triggered [a] criminal investigation [by the state Department of Justice and US Attorney’s Office], sources familiar with the investigation say,” The Oregonian wrote.

Hayes released a statement today saying she hasn’t been contacted by investigators and denying that she did anything wrong or that Kitzhaber had anything to do with her firm being picked as a subcontractor.

“It is … clear from the timing and leaks by anonymous sources that some people are attempting to exploit for political purposes the fact that I am in a long-term personal relationship with John Kitzhaber,” the statement said.

“Please allow me to set the record straight: John Kitzhaber has no involvement whatsoever in my company. While John Kitzhaber has sat on the board of my non-profit sustainable development organization, he has at no time had any material involvement with my small business; not as a board member, nor as an investor.  He has also never played a role in my efforts to compete for contracts, either in the private sector or the public sector.”

What to make of all this? Well, it might be worth noting that the story initially was broken Monday by Nigel Jaquiss of Willamette Week, a Portland alternative newspaper.

Jaquiss, who was a Wall Street trader before he decided to go into journalism, is Willy Week’s star muckraker, and he specializes in raking muck of a sexual nature involving Democratic politicians. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for revealing former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt’s sexual abuse of a 14-year-old girl, and he broke the story of Portland Mayor Sam Adams’s relationship with a young man who may or may not have been underage when Adams first got involved with him.

There’s no evidence yet that Kitzhaber had anything to do with applying improper pressure to the Department of Energy to steer a contract to Hayes’s company – assuming any improper pressure was applied. It’s even questionable how much weight he still swings with the department, having been out of office for seven and a half years.

But the media now have a reason to put the words “Kitzhaber” and “investigation” into the same headline, and a lot of voters will subscribe to the where-there’s-smoke-there’s-fire theory.

Is it all a political hatchet job, as Hayes is claiming? To use the most shopworn of editorial writer’s clichés, time will tell. But from where I sit right now it smells a little like it.