I was part of the first wave of the Californian invasion of Washington and the development I see happening here is a pretty consistent deja vu.

I'm interested in hearing how important urban planning is to a mayorship. What degree of urban planning does or can a mayor do? Does he rely upon specialists? Is that formal or informal? If the mayorship does not have access to an urban planning resource, what can the community do to support gaining access to resources?

I'm also interested in hearing perspectives on what happened to the Olympia brewery ... not the closure .. businesses and corporations come and go. But that's actually my point.. businesses do come and go why not assume the business will go away eventually when negotiating away local resources like water rights?

How did a South African corporation gain permanent, infinite rights to our local natural resources enough to dictate what we can and cannot do with it in the future?

(I'm referring specifically to the fact that beer may never be brewed in that location again.)

How does a community maintain control of natural resources while also attracting healthy businesses to the area? Is giving it all away really the only way to attract healthy businesses? Change the context and the answer is generally no for all the same reasons.

Given that the biggest "business" in Olympia is government, how can the city find a more stable tax-base without some day finding a way for the state government to pay for the services it recieves from Olympia?

We saw a small move in this direction by using the utility tax to fund the sidewalks initiative last year.

We're also seeing in Tacoma a "service fee" based system, where the city government would zero out the B&O tax and the local property tax, and instead tax everyone (from residents, the business to government offices) by what services they recieve.

Could this be a solution for Olympia?

It is my understanding that the building is to be condominiums. How much money did the city contribute (i.e. road repair, sewer, water - other utilities - and any other costs or financial incentives) - if any? And, how long will it take for the city to re-coup its investment in the project?

Will you push for the city to adopt a ten year plan to end homelessness?

Making downtown more attractive to shoppers is obviously a priority, people have called for benches and public bathrooms, is this something you will advocate for?

Youth hanging out at the transit center has been on peoples minds since it became a big issue last summer. Business owners just want them gone, and after talking to the kids it's clear that they wouldn't be there if they had somewhere else to go. This is the case with most of the homeless population. Would you support the creation of a multi-use drop in center providing recreation, laundry facilities, showers and resources available to those with nowhere to go during the day?