The COVID-19 pandemic has left Pendleton’s economy on its heels with a not-so-rosy picture of the future. Familiar with that term ”Black Friday?” That’s the day when retail profits for the year jump into the black and a preview of future financial health. It’s generally the day after Thanksgiving.

For locally-owned small businesses in Pendleton, it’s been the day after Round-Up. If you’re not in the black by then, you just might as well close the doors.

With the shift of retail to the big box stores like Walmart and the internet, the local economy has become more dependent than ever on tourists. That over-reliance on the hospitality sector, a sector notorious for generating minimum wage rather than living wage jobs, has become our Achilles heel.

Our mayor, city council, city manager and city employees are fortunate. They don’t work in the hospitality sector and aren’t personally affected financially by the pandemic. They have, however, determined that whether you frequent those tourist-reliant businesses or prefer to cook, eat and drink at home to avoid contacting the COVID-19 virus, they still have a financial obligation to use your tax dollars in support of businesses that even the banks are reluctant to touch.

City officials have been more than willing to spend hundreds of thousands of your tax dollars on renovating buildings, financing new eating establishments, decorative statues, even speed bumps in an effort to draw shoppers to the downtown area. Then a blizzard hits and they ignore the area completely.

Have you visited the area during the latest wintry weather? It’s deplorable. Unplowed streets and sidewalks are the rule rather than the exception. Then again, none of our current city officials were around when our streets downtown were plowed. The lack of any snow removal along curbs now requires men with shovels to keep the drains clear. Progress?

A major cleanup effort at the airport has done wonders for the economic outlook of that facility. Why is the downtown ignored? It’s unfortunate city management’s vision of the future is just another dog park rather than a well-maintained city with a more diverse economy. As our country moves back into manufacturing, perhaps that’s the direction we should be looking. The latest computer chip shortage is one example of opportunity knocking.

Rick Rohde

Pendleton