“In the years since the two old friends had fallen out of touch, Mr. Coyner had been pulled through a vortex of the same crises that were churning through many boom towns across the West: untreated mental illness, widespread addiction, soaring housing costs and a waning sense of community. After a life spent as a pillar of Bend’s civic life, Mr. Coyner had somehow reached a point of near total destitution, surrounded by the prosperity he had helped create.” Mike Baker in the NYT (Gift Article) with a story that seems emblematic of what’s happening in many American towns where times are really good except for those who have it really bad, for whom it seems worse than ever. It’s an epic, if tragic, tale of two cities in one lifetime. Homeless in the City Where He Was Once Mayor. “When his other daughter, Ms. Emick, held his hand and bowed her head, Mr. Coyner reached over and touched her head. She hugged him, the kind of embrace they had not shared in 35 years. She wondered how the city her father loved had missed so many opportunities to help him. If he had been a dog, she said, somebody would have rescued him long ago.”