Powell’s City of Books "High Desert, Higher Costs" Book Launch with Jonathan Bach

Powell's City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St. Portland, OR 97209

Powell’s City of Books welcomes Jonathan Bach and his book High Desert, Higher Costs: Bend and the Housing Crisis in the American West for an in-store launch event. Bach will be joined in conversation by Brent Walth, associate professor of journalism at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication and author of Fire at Eden’s Gate: Tom McCall and the Oregon Story.

Nestled against the Cascade Mountains, former lumber town Bend, Oregon, entices residents who long to live in a wonderland of sagebrush and forests. But like so many other communities across the West, Bend has too few homes for everyone clambering for access. In High Desert, Higher Costs (Oregon State University Press), Jonathan Bach takes a closer look at the housing crisis in this mid-sized city that is both the population center for rural Central Oregon and a major recreation area. Bach uses Bend as a lens into the growing housing crisis in the region, where residents and tourists alike prize access to outdoor recreation, and housing issues have been brewing for decades. Like other cities in Montana, Idaho, and Colorado, Bend serves as a gateway to popular natural areas while also experiencing a limited amount of new housing, increasing populations, amenity migrants in the age of remote work, depressed or stagnating wages, and a widening gulf between homeowners and renters. High Desert, Higher Costs introduces us to regular people — from the former political candidate evicted during COVID-19 to the nonprofit worker hoping to build apartments for the houseless — who struggle to call Bend home. Bach explores the causes of these issues and the political, legal, economic, and cultural factors influencing them, and also offers potential solutions for current and future residents to build their lives now, and in the years to come, in Bend and throughout the American West.

Visit powells.com to preorder a signed copy.