Join Us This July On The First THURSDAY Rather Than Friday!

We don't want to steal you away from your BBQ on the 4th, so we decided to move it up a day.
So, join is on Thursday evening for some cool downtown evening shopping and dining.

• einmaleins and Chris Hyde invite you to discover the amazing world of knives.
Pocket Knives we’ve had since we were Kids, Kitchen Knives we care about since the Food Network and we might even be able to distinguish between a Santuko and a Chefs Knife.
But, what is a Mushroom Knife? Or what are the benefits of carbon steel over stainless…?
Get answers to this and experience more at einmaleins.
As usual we will provide the obligatory refreshments and will have some band-aids ready - just in case.

After an interesting conversation with another business owner this afternoon, (who doesn't share my view on the development of downtown) I had a thought...

What are the underlying issues with the Triway development on the isthmus?

Yes, there is the view and the history and there is the luxury condo-problem and the tax breaks, ...

But, I have a view questions floating around in my head I would like to get some answers from you Olybloggers:

Is downtown good the way it is?

Should it stay the way it is?

Do we need change? Do we mean by change development?

Does development mean more housing? If housing, where and who could build it?

So, if you followed me so far, let's get down another few questions:

How much does it cost to build a multiple story building in downtown.

Who could take on a project like that, finance it, fund it, etc.

Are all developers evil?

If so, who else could build a project like that? 

Let's find a solution to those answers and we can come up with a masterplan of how we want Olympia to look like in 10 years - hey, it's Olyblog2018?!?!?

And, then write a "buisness plan" of how we can achieve that.

That's what I did when I wanted to open my business:

Answer all the questions I could think off, write the answers down, answer more questions and write them down and before you know it, you got a working business model.

If we could create some synergy (gotta love that word!), perhaps we could shop the idea to a view developers around town/state and see what they say and perhaps we can come up with an alternative plan/solution for downtown. Usually it's much easier to convince people that they should consider your voice, if you have a plan...

So, with those words I shall leave you for the night to ponder...

 

cheers,

mathias

Late notice! My apologies. Join the Parking and Business Improvement Area (PBIA) Advisory Board to the City Council for a regular meeting tonight at the MIXX 96 conference room (located on Washington between State & 4th downtown Oly)from 6-8 pm.  Public comment welcome at the beginning of the meeting. Agenda attached.

The public hearing for Larida Passage is tonight and the city is expecting a lot of people to show up. But, like a lot of folks, I'm not going to be able to attend and just emailed in my comments to the council and planning commission.

Rules for this thread: Share what you're going to say tonight or are emailing in. But, don't respond to anyone's comments. There are plenty of other threads here for back and forth, this is just internet public comment time.

Email for the city council (citycouncil [at] ci.olympia.wa.us) and planning commission (cpdinfo [at] ci.olympia.wa.us).

I definitely think we should bring back the cobblestone streets to downtown. I spotted the work crew cutting up the pavement to install the new bulb-out along Capitol and shot the cobblestone being exposed for the day. I really really like it. Though it is probably not the best to bike on. It is sort of amazing that the first layer of pavement didn't destroy or distort its cosmetic look.

Much talk about TriWay right now. Though no one seems to be talking about the Colpitts development at Columbia & 5th Ave. For this project, 88+ parking spaces will be removed and the city will spend $200,000+ on clean-up. In the spirit of taking a look at what could be, I did some (crummy) photoshopping of what a 7-story building would look like around a sea of 1 to 3 story structures surrounding it.

The 100+ units of housing will sell for "market rate" which could mean anything from about $290,000 to $400,000. The project will also have a 2 level parking area.

So why aren't we as focused on this project as being out of place, or not catering to a more affordable level? With the 'view' and alternative use argument aside, these two projects only have a difference of a few hundred-thousand dollars.

I came across the following argument in a book called Home From Nowhere (circa 1994), written by new urbanist pundit, James Howard Kunstler. It, of course, brought to mind the current issue of condos on the isthmus and got me thinking about how having a difference mix of classes living in downtown would affect Oly's poorer classes. I should probably point out that this excerpt is from a long chapter about the importance of civic life/civic interaction to the health of American civilization. In it, Kunstler argues that suburbia and the automobile have been destroying civility in America for the majority of the last century.:

I'm relatively new to town and have seen a good deal of graffiti and heard and read alot about the different approaches locals take on that issue.

So, my question is, what is the right response in that situation:

• Should I take offense, be angry that someone smeared stuff on my window, that I now need to clean-up?

• Is it art and I should feel honored that someone choose my store window for their self-expression?

What I did learn is that being angry and upset is usally seen as a lack of character and open-mindedness, since the place I pour my heart and money into supposally doesn't belong to me but to the people with markers and spray-cans.

So, enlighten me, invite me into your worldview. Perhaps I can learn something or even better, perhaps I could get to know the person responsible for it, so I could buy him a cup of coffee.

 

mathias

einmaleins