What I think about when people say there is nothing to do here

Every once in a while someone tells me The Dalles is boring. That there is nothing to do. That it is just a pass-through between Portland and somewhere else.

And every time, I want to ask: are you showing up for it?

Because this town has First Friday events all through downtown. It has the Art Center, and Brick City Lego events, and about a million holiday bazaars when December comes around. It has small businesses in places you have not looked yet, stores selling things you cannot get at Fred Meyer, run by people who are genuinely trying to keep their doors open in a hard year.

The one I care most about

Last year I organized a Sensory Santa event. One-on-one time with Santa for kids and adults with special needs. No lines, no chaos, just space and joy, and family pictures that a lot of those families had never been able to take before. We are doing it again this year.

I have a brother with special needs. I have aging parents. I am raising my kids here. My investment in this community is not abstract, it is personal. And that is why I believe what I believe: if you pour into The Dalles, it gives back.

The work part

You do not have to love it here on day one. I did not. I left at nine, spent a decade in Walla Walla, and came back not because it was familiar but because the people here got me. That took showing up.

So if you want to love it here, you have to do the work. Go to the thing. Buy from the shop. Drag a friend along. The community responds to that, every time.

That is really what I mean when I say don't just live here, engulf yourself in it. And if you are weighing a move, or weighing a neighborhood, tell me what you are looking for. I am an open book about this place, the good parts and the tradeoffs both.