There are things I love that other people do not love.  Sometimes you can convince them, sometimes you can't.  Those that love downtown Olympia love it for specific reasons that mean nothing to those that do not feel the same way.  What I see is that not enough people, and the wrong people love downtown.  Of those that don't love downtown, a good deal of those people don't love it specifically because of the types of people that do love downtown. It will be very difficult to increase the number of people that love downtown by appealing to those that don't love it, or think they don't love it.  Sure, you'll pick up a few converts, but not enough to really have that mass of people you need to defend our treasured downtown.

We have seen, over the last several months a lot of false perceptions about downtown.  False accounts in the Olympian, suspect accounts of problems given as testimony at public hearings.  Those that love downtown are not blind.  We are well aware that things can always be better, we have not seen, however, anything that resembling that which others appear to believe.

If downtown were a single beloved building that was slated for demolition, I suspect that we could get lots of support for saving it.  Downtown is far more complex, specifically because of the people that love it so.  Again, they are all the wrong people.  If he Spar was up for demolition I believe that the public outrage would be without limit.  Much of the population of our county could care less about Greeners, progressives, people with alternative life styles.  Why would they want to preserve something for the likes of those sorts of people?

This business about the homeless is simply eye wash.  What I mean is that it is intentional, but the intent reaches far beyond cleaning up our downtown for the likes of those that do not love it.  The cleansing that is underway is for the developers that will soon be descending upon downtown with their plans and visions for a perfect downtown, one that will appeal to those that do not love the downtown we have.  The plans for the new downtown only resemble the current downtown in the most general sense.  For sure the people that comprise the downtown we love will all be gone.  The businesses we love will all be gone.  Nothing that is downtown is really desired by those that don't love it, and there are far too many that don't love it.

So the plan is to develop a downtown they will love, well maybe not love, but at least feel comfortable with.  A downtown vaguely familiar to them, think Borders books instead of Last Word.  Think Panda Express instead of Chopsticks.  Think Burger King instead of the Clubside.  Think Red Robin instead of the Brotherhood.  Vaguely familiar and comforting to those that don't love downtown.  A downtown they can accept.  A downtown that will be wildly profitable.  Think of the Olympian Apartments as condos, ditto for the Elks.  Think way more condos downtown and the people that have the money to pay 300k for a 1 bedroom condo.

The homeless and the poor are just the collateral damage in this process.  What is more valuable to our city is the creation of a downtown for those that don't love downtown, and that is a lot of people, and a lot of retail opportunities.

The homeless and the poor are not the problems.  They just happen to be people that are in the way of having  that comfortable downtown that a good many people want.  If things are difficult enough for the poor and homeless they maybe will just go away.  We know they can not go away, there is no where for them to go.  I see the migration of people up and down I-5, the homeless and the poor looking to find some community in which they can survive.  People will survive where they can.  It is getting more inhospitable out there for the homeless and thus the constant movement.  Olympia is a caring community in regards her homeless compared to the other communities around.  I believe we do a good job of empowering our homeless and give them at least a little dignity.  You won't get this reading the Olympian, but you will get this if you just listen to the homeless in Olympia.  There is a lot more we can do, but what we are doing in this community is at least heading in the right direction. I guess if we could hide our homeless or maybe have them dress up like potted plants so they can sit on the sidewalks, maybe they would be acceptable to those that do not love downtown.

Let me tell you about the easiest people to convert to downtown lovers.  People not from here.  My out of town guests love downtown.  Maybe it is the people I know, maybe they are like me, but that is not really the case.  The people I know tend to cover all political and economic niches.  Most that I consider friends are really not much like me at all.  So why does downtown appeal to people not from here?  It is exotic, it is different, the people from not here are not tainted by the bad and false press about downtown.  They see it, they experience it, they love it.  They'll remark on how polite our homeless are.  They are aware that the homeless  exist, they just seem to think we have a better brand of homeless here.  They like the energy they pick up on when they are downtown.  They like the fact there is life on the streets late into the nights even on the rainiest days. Some will ask me how do you find a place to live right around here.  I tell them, with great difficulty.  Downtown is really not a place a lot of people live.

The lack of housing in downtown makes it especially hard to get support for preserving the downtown.  Even with life on the streets, people go home, those with homes, at night.  Ir is harder to redevelop a downtown that has lots of people residing there, it is not impossible, but it is difficult.  If the wrong kind of people live downtown, it becomes easier.

I'm not sure what we can do to keep the downtown we love.  I do want to see the homeless defended.  I don't want to see their suffering increase.  I've said this before, regardless of the intention, the recently passed ordinance is an act of violence on the poor, young, and homeless.  Maybe it will behoove the city council to seriously consider a day center for those without homes.  A place to be warm and dry.  A place to get cleaned up.  It would be a help for this population.  Not sure where they would want to locate it.  I suspect as far from downtown as possible.  I find that particularly sad.  I know that our homeless get a good deal from our downtown community.  Again I do believe our downtown is empowering for he homeless.  I believe that, regardless of the impressions of those that don't love downtown, that what we have here gives the homeless more dignity then they get elsewhere.

In closing I'm not sure if I've offered up some solutions.  I hope I've helped you realize the nature of the problem.  Not all problems have a solution.  I'm pretty stubborn, though, and I'll keep trying to make certain we keep the downtown we have.  I will keep trying to make sure it continues to grow and get better, for everyone.  But I am not naive.  I know what comprises downtown is far too valuable for those that seek to profit by it for it to remain the way it is.  Sadly, the changes they will bring will create a downtown we can no longer love.

"I would make it impossible for the covetous and avaricious to utterly impoverish the poor. The rich can take care of themselves."
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