More praise heaped on Bend
City makes Outside magazine's list of best places to live in Northwest
Published: July 10. 2007 4:00AM PST
Yet another national publication has heaped accolades upon Bend, which is becoming known among the lifestyle set as a great place to work and play.
Santa Fe, N.M.-based Outside magazine, which has a circulation of roughly 650,000, ranked Bend in its August edition as the best place to live in the Pacific Northwest for cities with fewer than 100,000 people.
The rankings are based on a city's beauty, and recreational and job opportunities, according to Leslie Weeden, travel director for the outdoor lifestyle magazine.
Oregon's largest city, Portland, ranked No. 1 for larger cities with more than 100,000 people in the Pacific Northwest, according to the rankings.
"Bend is a growing city filled with our kinds of readers," Weeden said. "A lot are active in the outdoors. They are working hard, playing hard, drinking good beer and listening to good music. There also is good nightlife, which is key."
Weeden said Bend's rapid population and job growth, youthful demographics and "realistic housing prices" also contributed to its ranking.
The article divided the lower 48 states of the country into nine regions.The Pacific Northwest states were Oregon, Washington and Idaho, Weeden said.
Bend has been featured in several other regional and nationally circulated magazines this year, including Mountain Bike, Sunset and Via. The city also was listed in May among Inc. magazine's Top 10 Cities for Doing Business.
Last year, Outside featured Bend as the country's top trail-running destination in its annual rankings list.
The national attention has extended the advertising reach for the region, said Justin Yax, public relations director for DVA Advertising & Public Relations in Bend.
The increased editorial exposure may not prompt people to pick up and move to Bend, but it could bring more people to visit the area, Yax said.
Visitors fuel a tourism industry whose impact on the Central Oregon economy is estimated at $498 million a year.
DVA, which worked with Bend writer Tim Neville and Outside's editorial staff on content for the article, contracts with the Bend Visitor & Convention Bureau to promote tourism for the city.
"It reaches a demographic that most other advertising efforts don't reach because of a limited budget," Yax said. "Most of our advertising efforts don't go nationally. This is how we reach the national travel audience." The three-quarter-page article in Outside would have cost $71,720 as an advertisement, Yax said.
Recent media attention has translated to more business for Sunnyside Sports, which rents and sells bicycle and cross-country ski equipment and gear and has been located in west Bend since 1972.
"The magazines have been rating Bend highly for years, so we don't pay as much attention as we used to," said Don Leet, co-owner. "But there are more tourists who come into town that rent bikes and mention the articles. We definitely noticed."
For the last several years, the number of customers per year who came to Bend due to an article that they read has spiked, Leet said.
Last year alone, at least 15 customers said they read about his shop in a national publication, he said.
Jeff McDonald can be reached at 383-0323 or at jmcdonald@bendbulletin.com.
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