Two articles in recent weeks on affordability in Bend, both in wages and housing, present a pretty stark difference in viewpoints on where Bend is at, economically, these days. Compare and contrast…

First, from CNBC: Bend, Oregon, is becoming a commuter town for Silicon Valley despite the 10-hour drive

While most people jump in their cars or walk to public transportation to get to work, Darren Pleasance starts up his plane.

Pleasance’s family decided to make Bend, Oregon, their permanent home in 2010 even though it meant flying back and forth to the Bay Area for him. When he was tapped by Google to lead its global customer acquisitions team a couple of years later, he explained he would be out of the country most of the time.

Allowing him to remain a 10-hour drive — or a 70-minute commercial flight — away from Mountain View, California, wouldn’t be that big of a deal, he contended. Plus, the licensed pilot promised he would check in often, whether it was virtually or flying himself in. Google agreed – and the situation has worked ever since.

…

While Bend isn’t even in the same state as San Francisco or Seattle, it’s becoming an option for the tech community, especially those with families who are finding themselves outpriced by exorbitant housing prices…. according to the handful of Silicon Valley and tech industry folks who’ve moved up there, it’s the ideal balance between having an actual life outside of work and being in the same time zone as the main tech hubs — despite the long commute.

Cloud-based network technology Kollective was based in Sunnyvale, California, 2½ years ago, when CEO Dan Vetras found out his rent was going up three times because Apple had moved into its office building. So he floated the idea of starting an office in Bend.

“Honestly it was an easy sell to get people to go somewhere where the weather is nice nine or 10 months of year,” Vetras said.

…

At the same time, Seven Peaks Ventures’ Abrams said its part of the tech community responsibility is to help Bend grow, yet allow it to retain its charm so it doesn’t become another San Francisco.

“Because it’s easy to get to Bend, and there are a lot more people coming from the Bay Area and elsewhere, our job is to find out how to diversify the economy and not screw up the environment,” Abrams said.

Or they could just encourage people not to move to Bend anymore.

“Bend sucks, don’t move here,” Kollective’s Vetras said cheekily.

And then, this article in the Bend Bulletin a few weeks ago: How do lower-wage workers make it in Bend?

No one moves to Bend to work behind a counter, and neither did Silea Kalebaugh. She grew up mostly in Central Oregon, graduated from Bend-La Pine Schools in 2013 and has struggled ever since to keep a full belly and a roof over her head.

It helps that she’s held down a job at a gas station, where she was recently promoted to night-shift supervisor. “That job’s honestly been a godsend of sorts,” Kalebaugh said. “I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have that job. I’d be screwed.”

Jobs are easy to find in Central Oregon these days, but many of them are in low-paying industries. Retail, leisure and hospitality are still two of the largest sources of employment in Deschutes County. Health and education services is the second-largest industry, but it covers a wide range of wages with thousands of people working in low-pay settings, such as residential care.

So how do people with the least earning power survive? Roommates are a common solution. Kalebaugh and her boyfriend share a bedroom in a house occupied by three other adults. But there’s more to it than housing. People who talked with The Bulletin said they make ends meet through various combinations of public assistance, lucky breaks and constant hustling.

“We can’t take days off because if we do, we can’t pay our bills,” said Jessica Kelley, 35, who works at a mailing store to help her husband support their combined five children. “Thank God for Grocery Outlet,” she said, naming a discount grocery store in Bend. “We eat a lot of the same things over and over and over.”

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The Bend life can be a grind, but Noah Campana, 37, is trying to claw his way out.

Landing the job at St. Charles was a game-changer for Campana. He still picks up odd jobs to help make ends meet, but because he works at the hospital, he can afford to buy health insurance for himself and his three biological children. Grossing about $2,300 a month, he also pays for rent on an east-side house, about $1,300 a month, other bills and groceries. “It’s tight sometimes,” he said. “A lot of times I’m making payment arrangements.”

Campana said he lives by the assumption he’ll fall through the cracks, so he’s persistent. It’s how he got into his rental house after being seventh on a waiting list. And it’s how he finally got a job at St. Charles after five years of applying. One day he went into the building and decided not to leave until he’d talked to someone in human resources. “I said, ‘I will scrub blood off the ceiling if you guys hire me,’” he recalled.

I suspect there are far more people in the area able to relate to the Bulletin article than the CNBC one.