And welcome to OlyBlog.

Especially about the east bay condos, I totally spaced on those. Might also explain why the downtown precincts didn't swing towards Meta, too many old folks on Capitol Way now-a-days.

I do have to take issue with this:

and more little local businesses (Oly Food Co-op, San Francisco St Bakery). In short, more community life.

In southeast Olympia, at least, there is a lack of diversity of zoning that would allow little local businesses. I understand that some of the new developments out here (the Briggs Village and the one south of LBA park) will include some commercial zoning, but aside from the Boulevard Nursery and the Pit Stop, we're stuck.

In this map, the light pink is standard residential, dark pink is "neighborhood village," which allows commercial, but isn't built yet. The blue is two family residential and the purple is multi-family residential.

Its one thing to say that there are no businesses in SE Olympia, its another thing to say that the city never planned for businesses to be in SE Olympia. 

Most non-Republicans are reasonably concerned about the way the country is going to hell in a handbasket. Many Republicans apparently think that the rapture will intervene before the glaciers melt or the debts come due. Maybe they're "happier," but I'd consider a morose Democrat much saner any day.

Peace became pizza. -- Guglielmo

I'll back off on the word "community". That word is too loaded.

But I believe that voting patterns do indeed have a strong correlation with how people conduct themselves, including where they choose to live. (If there were no correlation, then every vote count in every precinct would hover around a statistical mean.)

Here are some patterns I have seen that relate to voting results by precinct in Olympia. This is based on ringing literally thousands of doorbells across the city. (Note that these are tendencies; there are exceptions to every rule.):

- The more liberal precincts are closer to downtown, and the people there are more likely to say they go there a lot. People in the more conservative precincts are more likely to say they don't like downtown.

- The more liberal precincts are more likely to be older grid-pattern neighborhoods. The more conservative precincts are more likely to be suburban-style cul-de-sacs.

- The liberal precincts have greater diversity of age and wealth. - The liberal precincts are poorer on average.

- The liberal precincts have more neighborhood associations, and have more active participants in those associations. The more conservative precincts are more likely to have homeowners associations, which have a different purpose and culture.

- The liberal precincts have more local small businesses in or near them. Yes, this is partly a function of the zoning, which did not allow for small commercial spaces in subdivisions until recently. Also, the liberal precincts are closer to the 4th/State and Harrison corridors.

- The liberal precincts tend to participate more in city programs for neighborhoods such as tree plantings, putting up entrance signs or kiosks, or block watches/night out.

- When some weird/cool artistic event comes along (painting a mandala in the street, neighborhood arts walk), it is almost always in the liberal precincts.

If you still don't believe there's a fundamental cultural difference in different neighborhoods, just do a survey of the bumper stickers by precinct.

I like Wilson's description that, broadly speaking, there is a progressive Olympia sense of community (I'm back to that word) and a more conservative sense of community, which is probably closer to that found in Lacey and Tumwater. As Wilson notes, there also may be differences between them relating to church going or public service groups or whatever; I don't have information on that.

The difference lead people to, among other things, live in certain parts of town based on what better satisfies their own sense of community. So, there is a stratification in our community that follows geographic, political, and cultural lines.

My biggest fear, politically speaking, is that if the more pro-downtown, pro-diversity, pro-neighborhood association, pro-weird/cool elements of the community are outnumbered within the Olympia electorate, then the Olympia city council starts looking a lot more like the Lacey city council and stops promoting the things that make Olympia different and (to my mind) special.

Matthew Green

Seems like a lot of generalizations about "progresssive" and "conservative" (which is an interesting choice of editorial words given the discussions taking place in another string about social contract) from a small voter sample in Olympia.

The facts:  There are 60 precincts in Olympia.  Hogan won 4 (05, 18, 20, 44).  Mah won all the rest.  In the four precincts Hogan won, she received 389 votes (54%); Mah received 336 votes (46%).  [In precint 20, Hogan had one more vote than Mah, 67-66].

There are a variety of reasons people vote for one candidate over the other.  In my travels around the community during the weeks before the election, a repeated theme I heard about the Mayoral race was:  experience in local governance (or perceived lack of).  Experience has nothing to do with "left" vs "right".

Julie, you live on what is a very odd street in Goldcrest.  I have no idea why.  At Halloween only 1 or 2 houses seem to participate.  The rest are dark.  I live on the adjacent cul-de-sac and every house participates.  When Christmas lights go up every house on our street will have lights.  1 or 2 on your street.  I agree that Goldcrest is a very conservative neighborhood.

But, before we are labels we are people and if you can't find neighbors on your street you can find them on ours.  It's a short walk.

I support those speed reduction devices, by the way.  Too many close calls by the crosswalk intersection.  Cars have no business doing 40mph on Goldcrest Drive.  I also support any tree trimming that reveals street signs covered up by branches or the trimming of branches falling into the roadway.  Try to read the Sunnyvale CT sign the next time you're approaching your house from the front entrance (off Cooper Point).

I'm hearing you say that these precincts are not conservative because they are full of Democrats. I pointed out earlier and Matt Green seconded that these precincts ARE indeed conservative in comparison to most other precincts. There are a lot of Greens and people with other political ideals in this town that are much more liberal than conservative Democrats are, and there are a lot of conservative Dems (centrists) in this town.