I sure like the open government laws. When citizens dig and request information we truly find out what our elected and appointed officials are doing. Story from the TNT:

The Port of Tacoma finds itself apologizing to the Port of Olympia and others after internal e-mails revealed Tacoma port staff withholding public information, insulting the Olympia port and calling people derogatory names.

The e-mails were discovered this week as the Tacoma port reviewed documents in response to public records requests, including one from Friends of Rocky Prairie, a citizens group opposed to the development of the South Sound Logistics Center in Thurston County. The Tacoma and Olympia ports have partnered in proposing the controversial rail center and industrial park.

The 40-plus binders of documents the port prepared for the group included embarrassing e-mails sent between Port of Tacoma staff and from port staff to port consultants.

www.thenewstribune.com

Last night (03/12/2008) I attended an "Oly Alley Project" presentation conducted by Ruth Snyder, a Code Enforcement Officer for Olympia, and Amy Stull, Olympia Police Department Senior Program Specialist. The purpose of the presentation was to bring together members of the ODA to further develop civic-business partnerships around the city's desires and plans for improving downtown alleyways.

Conceived as an offshoot of CPTED philosophies the goals presented were:

• To develop a natural surveillance through lighting improvements and increased foot traffic as a way to discourage illegal activities.
  
• To improve the aesthetics and usability of the alleys through the consolidation of garbage collection.
  
• To engage local building and businesses in this process by making the benefits apparent.
  
• To facilitate maintenance of private properties through the development of comprehensive resource lists.
  
• More active code enforcement in order to jump-start any deferred maintenance.
  

Two facts about downtown Olympia were highlighted: 1) State Avenue is the second most heavily traveled street (by car) in Thurston County 2) Most North-South alleyways in downtown Olympia are no longer large enough for emergency vehicle access. As this presentation was geared toward downtown business owners the audience was asked to imagine what potential customers see as they drive through on State Avenue and several slides were shown to exhibit the high visibility of our alleys. Among those slides were examples of local businesses who have already taken steps to improve the aesthetics of their alleys.

Improvements were broken down into the "3 Steps to Beautification" and were presented along with methods of attaining each step.

link to photoset

You're welcome to stand for peace at the Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation's weekly Sylvester Park Peace Vigil. It happens every Wednesday. Meet at Noon at the NW corner of the park (Capitol Way and Legion Ave). Signs are also available. This event is ongoing. It's fun and rewarding.

more information: Wednesday Sylvester Park Peace Vigil

The oatmeal is cooking and I just wanted to write a note to say that it's foggy outside, so please take it easy if you commute. And be safe. Do you have any special, exciting or just plain interesting plans for today? What's cooking for you?

  The Letter To The New York Times: 

As you said, Obama has gotten this far on hope. We, his supporters have heard his message and we want Barack Obama to know, we've got his back. For every negative campaign that Clinton puts out there, we will counter, not with an attack, but with a good deed. For every tactic of fear, we'll reach out to someone in need; for every attempt to divide on cultural and ethnic lines, we will cross those lines to demonstrate how interconnected we all are; for every sneer that's made at our message of hope, we will demonstrate how that hope brings communities together.

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Olympia Forest Photoset

A new website exists (Beta) which allows persons to rate individual police officers. The site is: www.ratemycop.com Olympia is listed. Police in general are not happy. See this story: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local&id=6006207 Of course, the 1st Admendment should trump any challenge to the posting of publicly available information concerning those that protect and serve. If they are good officers then they should have nothing to hide.

I went for a walk last night. It was good. I went to the Reef and had a brownie a la mode. It was good. My mood was improved too. When I was walking on the bridge I noticed that the lights in the Capitol Dome were extinguished. I presume this is an energy saving measure. I am glad the state government is setting an example of energy conservation.

Here's a 7 image panorama composite from the walk:

larger sizes available

I recently heard that Whirligig is closing and yesterday I noticed a "Going Out of Business" sign on the Chinese(?) wares store located next to Last Word Books on 4th. I remember in a past post on Otto's closure Mathias of einmaleins mentioned the feeling of downtown business owners that with the way things are going more and more businesses would follow.

So I guess this post is for two purposes: 1) To remind people that if they are planning on spending, to please try to keep the dollars local (instead of fast food, IKEA, Walmart, etc.) 2) Does anybody know where to get updated statistics on downtown vacancies? The only numbers I was ever able to find put the percentage North of 16% and called that an acceptable rate (despite the entirety of Pierce County being at 7%, for example). Also, average prices per square foot in downtown Olympia compared to neighboring downtown cores would be good numbers to have.