my store is called einmaleins

on the corner of State Ave and Washington St. in Downtown.

www.1x1olympia.com 

mathias

einmaleins

mathias

einmaleins

But I am Just Another Voice

If the city council wants us all to celebrate the diversity and vitality downtown they had better come up with some effective ways to curb this kind of anonymous crime. It kind of crap leaves me and many others bitter, angry, impotent and and wanting to lash out. The rational way to defeat these strong emotions is to move on, find a place in the city or the county where one can have a dog and some space where vandalism is rare and limited to the occasional smashed up mail box or defaced stop sign.

I lived in Seattle, Memphis and Chicago for a total of 8 years and the only place I have had bicycles stolen (2), my apartment building tagged (3 times) my car broken into (4 times) and even vandalized (1) is in the five years I have lived in downtown Olympia. I am at the point should I come across someone vandalizing another's property I will use appropriate tactics, and if necessary force, to detain them long enough for the cops to arrive. Should I find someone fucking up my stuff I will mete out justice myself simply for the cathartic joy of it.

Now that I have indulged my macho blusterings, here's something we can all can do  for our friend Mathias. Go to his shop on the corner of Washington and State and do two things: Let him feel the love then buy something from him.

After that send a letter or email to our city council and demand they do something about this. Rezoning and Parks and social services are important things but the perception and reality of the lack of security for a person's physical safety, their houses, papers and effects in downtown will render all the charrets and public hearings in Olympia moot. 

Don't give up, though. And don't try to hard to make sense of it -- there is no logic to it.

I have the feeling you are a tipping point.  Vandalism is a concern downtown.  Your voice is an important and active one and I hope it draws attention to this issue.  Thankfully, most responsible owners like you quickly remedy damage.  In addition, city probation crews and graffiti abatement by the Olympia Downtown Association (ODA) make significant impact as a good portion of graffiti is quickly covered or removed, never to be seen.

Window damage, however, is different.  It is especially invasive and there are no distinctive tags to identify a culprit.  It seems a pathetic trend in Olympia and I am certainly intent on helping abate it.  I'll encourage the ODA to do so also.  I wrote you earlier today and reiterate:

Anyone interested in this issue should attend the next ODA Safety Committee meeting at 8:00 am, December 11 at Cicada.  Typically, these meetings are attended by organizations such as Bread & Roses, local business owners, city fire and police departments and other stakeholders in our successful downtown community.  The next meeting should be a good start to curbing this issue.  Stay tuned for more.

Here is the Olympian's take on it:
http://www.theolympian.com/southsound/story/680204.html

King 5 will be by later today!

And here is my follow-up response:
http://everydayolympia.com/news/2008/11 ... -response/

Thank you all for making this a community worth caring about!

mathias

einmaleins