Bend It Like Oregon

Fast-Growing Western Cities Are Snatching Up California’s People and Ambitions

Californians live in an era of exodus. So, if you want to see the future of California’s people, you have to leave the state.

I got an unexpected glimpse of that future during a late summer visit to Bend, a small city among the Cascades of east-central Oregon.

I spent much of my time in Bend at its newest public school on the city’s southeastern edge. Caldera High School, and its two pristine baseball fields, hosted the regional tournament for the best 14-years-and-under all-star baseball teams in the West.

My hometown team, from …

by Joe Mathews | September 12, 2023

Michelle Wilde Anderson Wins the 2023 Zócalo Book Prize

The Fight to Save the Town Highlights the Work of Sewing Society Back Together

Interview by Sarah Rothbard | March 29, 2023

Michelle Wilde Anderson is the winner of the 2023 Zócalo Public Square Book Prize for The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America.

Zócalo awards the $10,000 prize annually to …

Why Won’t Policymakers Talk More About Drugs and Homelessness?

A Strict ‘Housing First’ Approach Oversimplifies the Complexity of a West Coast Epidemic

by Jim Hinch | May 23, 2022

More than half of America’s unsheltered population lives in just three states—California, Oregon, and Washington—and West Coast voters are demanding a response. Homelessness ranked as the top concern in a …

The Long, Violent 1962 Storm That Inspired the Environmental Movement

100 MPH Winds Killed Millions of Trees in the Pacific Northwest, Changing Its Forests Forever

by John Dodge | June 6, 2019

The Columbus Day Storm of 1962 was the largest, most violent windstorm in the recorded history of the West Coast. Starting on October 12, it swept from Northern California …

The State of Jefferson

by Erica Goss | March 15, 2019

Trucks shuffle in the slow lane.
Mt. Shasta’s a crazy white cone.
I drive as fast as I dare.
Car my shelter, my tiny house
of spiders’ nests and trash. …

Here Are Two Voting Reforms That Could Counter America’s Hyperpolarization

When Used Together, 'Ranked Choice' and 'Top Two' Elections Would Strengthen Major Parties and Favor Moderate Politicians

by John Gastil | August 1, 2018

Political polarization has spread across the globe. The ensuing ideological purity might make each warring faction appear stronger, but in reality, hyperpolarization weakens parties by making them less appealing to …

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