Beware of apathy

After attending all the Community Assets Committee meetings this past year because I was interested in observing the process, I can say I was pleasantly surprised at how well organized it was. Everybody participated cooperatively, there was no dissension, no politics, no ego trips, and they accomplished their goal of vetting the top three projects voted on by the people who attended a previous town-hall meeting.

Next they offered a follow-up town-hall meeting to explain the results and present a survey, to get more public input about how to proceed. Only about 10 percent of those eligible to vote turned in a survey despite intense outreach. Did the other 90 percent just not want anything to do with it? Did 12 people basically waste their time for a year doing what people asked them to do?

Maybe it's apathy, not toxicity, that's the problem with Sisters.

A lot of changes have taken place in Sisters since the community's "vision statement" was written in 2010. Sisters is not just a cozy little Western artsy tourist town anymore and is poised to come into her own as a full-fledged self-supporting ... what?

Vision statement: "We create our future through a strong planning process that protects town character, encourages environmental sustainability, and defines future development including housing options for all citizens."

That didn't happen. A recession intervened with loss of jobs, business closings, lower property values; loss of homes, farms, livestock, savings; and many families leaving the area and emptying the schools. A lot of old-timers left and new families moved in bringing with them different values and ideas. So the old-timers left are ticked off at the newcomers, and the newcomers don't really care what the old timers think and see Sisters as a blank slate they can write on.

City management seems intent on grooming Sisters as a mecca for tourists from overcrowded cities along the coast who have certain expectations about amenities and apparently like to drink. Bud growers aren't welcome in spite of the plant's medicinal and economic potential.

High-tech entrepreneurs hope to make Sisters a hub for small international online businesses. Developers want to make it a destination resort or a health-and-wellness center. The arts community, which besides the environment is the biggest draw to Sisters, struggles to find support amidst changing business models.

Those who wrote the vision statement didn't anticipate there might be working families who couldn't afford housing. Developers complain there's not enough profit in it for them to build affordable housing, much less apartments for working families, who would become future homeowners with school students.

There's the divide between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots; the property owners and the renters; those inside the city limits, those outside. We have those who can afford to own homes outside Sisters and shop in Sisters and those who have to commute to do the jobs required to maintain a tourist economy and service the wealthy homeowners.

Vision statement: "We have a strong tourism economy because of this beauty. But we are also a diversified entrepreneurial economy that includes arts and culture, light industry, natural resource-based businesses, and small retail. This economy especially supports locally conceived and owned businesses that provide a wide variety of year-round family-wage jobs."

There are people at the City working on making changes and looking to the public for input - so this is your chance to get involved in the new economic development of Sisters.

Take your ideas to City Council. They say they want solutions, not problems. Bring it!

Vision statement: "Highly developed local leadership and an active and informed citizenry make Sisters a fine example of community self-sufficiency and grassroots democracy."

That hasn't happened either. I'd say both sides need improvement - more education about their jobs for city manager, council, committee members and staff; and more citizen education and involvement. It takes a community with a common vision working together to bring about change.