From Janine Gates via email:

...I attended the Triway Enterprises "open house" last night at Tumwater Lodge, met Jeannette Hawkins and Mr. Tri Vo, the project developer, the project designer, and others. A Triway-hired limo driver enthusiastically insisted on taking me the short distance from the overflow parking lot up to the lodge. That about says who was really invited to this "open" house. I walked back to my car.

I asked Jeannette who was invited. She said the Chambers, the Olympia Downtown Association, the Westside Business Association, the 2012 group, etc." By only inviting such an elite sliver of the community, an opportunity for real dialogue was missed. I asked when she was going to invite the local environmental community to participate in the discussion and she laughed, saying that she had lots of time, "until September." Mostly likely, she had no intention of reaching out so I asked if she would be interested in coming to a forum that SPEECH would sponsor and she said yes, she would welcome the opportunity. So, SPEECH will be sponsoring a forum, date and time to be announced soon, stay tuned.

Do these people really want to work and play with us? I don't think so. I've lived here 25 years and I still don't personally don't know anyone who could afford to buy one of those condos, which they said would retail for $800,000 - $1 million each. They said there is a pent-up demand for view condos at that price. Build it and they will come seems to be their philosophy. But at what price are we wiling to sell the soul of our community - our views, our way of life, our sense of community spirit?

Press release via email:

Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles responded to a report of two people in the water in the vicinity of Steamboat Island ten miles north of Olympia, Wash., today.

A Good Samaritan called 911 and reported seeing two persons wearing life jackets and in need of assistance.

The report was then forwarded to Air Station Port Angeles, which launched an HH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew to respond. Before the helicopter crew arrived, a Good Samaritan brought the people to shore. 

Members of the Thurston County Fire Department reported that the two individuals were responsive but hypothermic.

The helicopter crew transported the individuals to St. Peter Hospital in Olympia.

It was reported that the two were aboard a work barge that sank.

There is no pollution reported and the cause of the sinking has not been determined.

 God speed Coasties.

The Kitsap BlueJackets and the Olympia Athletics will play a two game series down here in early June.

This will be the first "home game" ever for the Olympia Athletics, which despite their name, are a travelling farm team for the BlueJackets.

This series will also be a preview for South Sounders of the level of baseball when the real-deal WCCBL franchise is expected to start playing at the Lacey Athletic Center in 2009. The baseball field that the new team will occupy is currently under construction.

I couldn't find the actual story that talks about the new team on the Olympian's website, but here's a place that points to it.

Saturday 07 Jun
Saint Martin College (Lacey, Wash.)
5:00 p.m.

Sunday 08 Jun
Tumwater High School (Tumwater, Wash.)
5:00 p.m.

Just a few thoughts about this:

1. I know Debra Vinsel, Joe Hyer and Jeff Kingsbury (Kingsbury less so), but I was embarrassed by this video. It smacks of propaganda and boosterism. At certain points it was trying to be cute, but I was turned off by the "lets mention one more good thing" about downtown feel to it.

2. It would have been better to spend a few hours just talking to people about downtown, unscripted. Even if this video wasn't scripted, it sure felt like it. The blooper reel at the end reminded me that they had practiced their lines.

3. I know I harp about this alot, but the benefit of blogging and engaging in comment threads is that you avoid this kind of shmaltzy-staged stuff. Just talking on a blog (not this blog probably) in a direct way is more meaningful that this video.

Lacey's recent decision to put into place a restrictive homeless encampment rule will likely land the city in court. Tent city ordinances in Western Washington are popular fodder for the federal and state court system, usually pitting local governments against churches on the grounds of the free expression of religion.

"The whole idea of reaching out to the poor and needy is part of our Jewish tradition," said James Mirel, senior rabbi at the Temple B'nai Torah to the Seattle Times in 2005.

One of the most interesting details in the run up to the city council's vote on the ordinance was the closed door session a few months back between the city attorney and the council. What advice did Ken Ahlf give his clients? Probably, be careful guys, you might get sued.

Ahlf had similar advice in the public back last August when a council subcommittee first took up the topic:

I went to the Thurston County Democrats meeting earlier tonight, and Sandra Romero was nominated by the precinct committee officers in commission district two, beating out former Lacey City Councilmember John Halvorson 77 to 63.

This "nomination" business is fall out from the Top Two primary decision. I've been complaining about it all week:

What's likely going to happen tonight (Thurston County Dems nominating mess/sham)

What we should have done (sham nominating conventions)

"Nominating conventions" are baloney, B.S., horse puckey

Comments closed here, go over here to talk.

Hannah over at Greener Living reports:

Evan and I started to walk down around 3, got there at about 3:30 thanks to Evan's crazy fast walking pace, got some sorbet because it was weirdly hot/cold outside. The parade didn't start until 4:30 and it took just under an hour to reach us at the end of its route. The cool thing was, however, that people came down the street with wheel-barrows full of free sidewalk chalk. How cool is that?

While Joshua over at For all the people writes:

I wasn't able to be at arts walk when it officially started, but I was able to peep some pre-browsing/walking/chatting/hanging/catchinguping with several friends. I love how olympia just brings people together. I see someone I know almost everytime I am downtown.

Give your reports below, but don't forget to show Hannah and Joshua some comment love as well.

My Favorite Cut-Outs by tricyrtis hirta.

Other local blogging:

Olympia Salvage Blog: Arts Walk This Weekend!

Earball Visions: Oly, here I come!

Oly-Rafa: Arts Walk Celebration - Tile Painting and Performance for Olympia Rafah Mural Project

While not technically an "antiquated plat," like I wrote about before (look at my earlier post for background), I found something very interesting in the maps prepared by TRPC for the city in their discussion of the old, planned neighborhoods.

At one point, the city had laid out block in what is now Capitol Lake. Here it is overlaid in Google Earth:

Probably the most interesting reading I've come across in the city council packets has been a discussion on antiquated plats and what to do about them. Basically, there are planned neighborhoods across Olympia that have never been developed.

Some of these neighborhoods were planned well before modern standards were in place, so there is a risk of some of these plats being developed with none of our modern standards enforced. We're not talking about plans that were laid out in the 1980s, this is more like the 1890s.

The city is going through the process now of finding these "antiquated plats" and scrubbing them from the books.

Pete Swenson from Thurston Regional Planning Council wrote a facinating memo on the topic. The entire piece is available here, but here's a bit: