About a year ago, I took a crack at figuring out how much economic sense the US Open at Chambers Bay this summer made. Overall, the academic research, finds little evidence that large tournaments (like the Olympics) make economic sense to local communities. They’re a loss leader. You pay to have them to bolster your…
Month: March 2015
Our man Joey DiJulio of Burien, the bachelor party and wedding in Philadelphia and the Cascadian Calm (among other regional personalities)
If you were paying attention last week, you saw this story: For weeks, the man from the Seattle suburbs found himself getting emails from people he didn’t know about a bachelor party and a groom he’s never met. He saw names of Philadelphia landmarks like Reading Terminal Market thrown around in the emails but couldn’t…
Solar, the clown and food are real. Cop humor and zombies are not (Olyblogosphere for March 23, 2015)
1.The Sky Like A Scallop Shell loves. I mean LOVES! Solarpunk. So, come as no surprise, Procession is Solarpunk. 2. Yeah sure, they were cute. But the who Zombie thing up at the campus was totally overblown. Style over substance and no, they did not take over “Olympia.” Just the legislative building. And, they were…
Merging Smith Troy and Enoch Bagshaw
About exactly a year back I wrote about how Enoch Bagshaw, legendary Husky football coach, collapsed and died in my own city. It turns out my favorite Olympia politician had his own had in forcing Bagshaw to Olympia. Smith Troy, who eventually was Thurston County prosecutor, and then state Attorney General, and savior of Olympia (in…
When did downtown (or rather old town) Olympia stop being a place where people lived?
We don’t call downtown Olympia “old town,” even though that’s where the city grew from. I’m not sure to what extent, but at a certain point in our history, the nature of downtown was much more residential than it is now. This is simply because no one in Olympia lived anywhere else. But, now downtown…
Did Washington State politics change been 1928 and 1930?
Before the 1932 election, there was hardly a Democrat in the Washington state legislature. One Democrat in the senate in 1929, eight in the house (compared to 89 Republicans). Everything chanted in 1932 when the landslide went to the Democrats. By 1935 (after the entire Senate has seen an election since 1932), the partisan split…
It isn’t about a primary vs. a caucus, it really just is about what’s best for the party
The proposal by Secretary of State Kim Wyman to hold a presidential nominating primary in Washington came with one interesting wrinkle. The partisan preferences of individual voters would become public. Now, I am leaning on my memory of previous caucus vs. primary fights, but this is the crux of the debate. Primaries are fine (according to…