Yesterday, the detailed precinct-by-precinct data for the recent April 25 election was released, and a certain trend became evident when I mapped out the results. This exercise serves as an essential reminder that even so-called “blowout” elections can have nuances that are crucial to comprehend if we aim to understand our community. Here are the…
How our history of downzoning is an argument against “local control” in the legislature and has huge impacts on racial discrimination in housing
Eastside Olympia in the midst of large downzone. As the legislature discusses zoning reform that would allow for modest density increases in exclusionary singe family neighborhoods, it is important to focus on the history of so-called “local control.” The ability for local governments to determine their own zoning fate has become the primary argument…
Why we don’t see the news
Say you live in a neighborhood with older, educated people. The kind of people who make up the majority of print newspaper subscribers. Would you be afraid if you saw the newspaper deliveryman in the early morning? Would you recognize him? During the same period of time we have seen the evaporation of local news,…
Three ways to think about pedestrian deaths in Thurston County between 2006 and 2020
Somewhere back in the peak of the pandemic, there was a popular Facebook post here in Olympia that I thought was interesting. The post pointed at the signs distributed by Intercity Transit asking people to slow down. The social poster asked why we didn’t have signs asking for people to stop committing other crimes. The…
How an incumbent sheriff loses
Sheriffs have incumbency power. A lot of elected officials do, but with the acquittal of Sheriff Ed Troyer in Pierce County last week, it is worth looking into how sheriffs stick around and how some of them lose. Troyer survived the court case (which would not have kicked him out of office), and will also…
A deeper look into Sheriff Sanders’ Thurston County
In my original post about the results from the 2022 general election, I vaguely pointed to results comparing how well successful candidates Sheriff Sanders and Senator Murray did against each other. Basically, both won by doing well in the dense, urban part of Thurston County. But, when you take their precinct results and compare them,…
Some maps to help you understand the November 2022 General Election in Thurston County
1. Sanders won the Sheriff’s race leaning on urban voters, but… Here are Sanders’ results in raw numbers. Blue he did better, and red worse. This is the prototypical Thurston County partisan map. Democratic candidates tend to do better and run up the score in the urban areas, and try to tamp down their losses…
What a map of taxes-by-acre in Thurston County teaches us about downtown Olympia
This is a map of election results in Thurston County. It shows a fairly typical result by precinct. More liberal candidates (in this case Joel Hanson in last year’s port race) doing well in the urban core and more conservative candidates (Amy Evans) doing well in rural areas. This is a map of property taxes…
In response to “In Defense of Priest Point Park”
In the debate over renaming Priest Point Park to Squaxin Park, David Nicandri has written “In Defense of Priest Point Park.” I’m glad David’s thoughts were finally posted. I had heard through the grapevine that he had come to a position counter to honoring the wishes of the Squaxin Island Tribe. His long-time work in…