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This view shows one of the main shelters for those experiencing homelessness in the Bend, Oregon area. This was also the residence area of Craig Coyner III. Coyner helped govern the city of Bend, ascending to its highest office & serving as a Bend city councilor from 1981 through 1992. He was mayor for a year in 1984, following in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, who was the mayor in 1911.
For more than 30 years, his former colleagues say, he was a sharp, creative and dogged force in the Deschutes County Courthouse, first as a prosecutor and later as a defense attorney. He was known to represent even the most despicable criminals.
But in the twilight of his life, Coyner disappeared from the lives of those who knew and loved him. Coyner experienced homelessness, the culmination of what loved ones describe as several compounding factors: family conflict, mental illness, substance abuse, the Great Recession and the death of his second wife in 2008.
They were married for 23 years. Coyner never fully recovered from losing her, his siblings say.
On Jan. 13, Coyner was admitted to St. Charles Bend with frozen feet, health care workers told his family. It’s unclear to his family what happened, but at least one of his frostbitten toes was amputated. During his stay, Coyner suffered severe alcohol withdrawal and had a stroke. He lived the final days of his life in the hospital, hardly able to move or speak. Coyner died on Feb 14, 2023 at age 75.
From: https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2023/02/a-former-bend-mayor-died-homeless-what-happened.html
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The United States is one of the most diverse countries on earth, jam packed full of amazing sights from St. Patrick's cathedral in New York to Mount Hollywood California.The Northeast region is where it all started. Thirteen British colonies fought the American Revolution from here and won their independence in the first successful colonial rebellion in history. Take a look at these rolling hills carpeted with foliage along the Hudson river here, north of New York City.The American south is known for its polite people and slow pace of life. Probably they move slowly because it's so hot. Southerners tend not to trust people from "up north" because they talk too fast. Here's a cemetery in Georgia where you can find graves of soldiers from the Civil War.The West Coast is sort of like another country that exists to make the east coast jealous. California is full of nothing but grizzly old miners digging for gold, a few gangster rappers, and then actors. That is to say, the West Coast functions as the imagination of the US, like a weird little brother who teases everybody then gets famous for making freaky art.The central part of the country is flat farmland all the way over to the Rocky Mountains. Up in the northwest corner you can find creative people in places like Portland and Seattle, along with awesome snowboarding and good beer. Text by Steve Smith.
