Olympia Time

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Category: Lacey city council

A map of Lacey that you can’t unsee

January 9, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Take a close look at this map:

What do you see?
This map is from a page buried deep in the city of Lacey’s 2017 State of the Streets report. I took a look at the report originally because I was looking for data on pedestrian accidents. Which, by the way, are collected by the federal government, but are also very hard to work with.
Anyway, I found this map and had an immediate head-smack moment. What I saw totally blew me away.
Can you see it yet?
Now take a closer look:

I zoomed into the area around where Martin Way crosses underneath I-5 between College and Carpenter Roads. City-owned roads on this map are black (residential), green (arterial) or red (collector). The gray roads are not city-owned.
According to this map, Lacey is essentially two cities.  

In the Southwest corner of the map, you have the (mostly) original core of Lacey that existed near when the city became a city in the 1960s. This area is a collection of neighborhoods and commercial strips south of Interstate 5. This was essentially the bleeding edge of suburban development from Olympia that wanted to be on its own.
The Northeast Corner of the map is is everything that was annexed into the city beginning in 1985. This is generally what we call today Hawks Prairie. It was historically Hawks Prairie too, of course.
But, these two parts of Lacey are not connected by Lacey owned roads.  The two roads that would connect Lacey together, Carpenter or 15th Ave SE/Draham, are owned and maintained by the county.
This makes total sense to me now, because the entire “loop around the north to annex around the older Tanglewild neighborhood” always seemed so blatant. So it made sense that you could easily drive from one part of Lacey to the other without traveling on city roads.  Just go down Martin Way.
But, before I saw this map, there’s no way I thought you couldn’t, in fact, drive on city roads to get from one end to the other.

Lacey election results: I don’t care who started it, you’re both in trouble!

November 4, 2009 / / 0 Comments

My coworker recently on Facebook:

My new thing is I will not pick “winners…” in “She hit me – he threw something at me” fights. “Everybody loses!” No T.V. (which they already have two days of that a week) Tuesday EITHER!!

The city of Lacey and the Lacey Fire District got into a very public fight and both got sent to their room.

All three challenged incumbents for city council positions in Lacey were shown the door last night. As Ken Balsley probably correctly asserts, the results had a lot do with the engagement of fire department union. I’d also point out that this was the first time in a lot of years that three good candidates squared off against three incumbents in Lacey.

What should also be noted is that the one fire commissioner in the Lacey 3 was also booted out in favor of a guy that said he would cooperate with the city. While as far as I can tell Gene Dobry is short on specific remedies for the stalemate between the city and the district, he sure doesn’t like fighting:

The past two levy failures for the fire district show a lack of confidence by the citizens, as well as an economic situation where taxpayers can’t afford to pay more, Dobry noted. He believes the fire district needs to work harder to live within its means while providing the best service to the people.

“Although litigation was prevented, the contract with the City of Lacey will end a year earlier than planned,” Dobry said. “Then what? Does the district rely on county tax revenues entirely? Does the city start its own fire district? These are likely to be lose-lose solutions and not worthwhile endeavors for Lacey-area citizens who need consistent protection.”

Dobry is speaking out for the people on uncontrolled spending and ineffective leadership. He is seeking the office to ensure the best interests of the people will be served. He lives in Lacey with his wife Rachel.

And…

Current leaders must accept responsibility for failed policies, overspending and the disharmony created with its city partner. I offer fresh leadership with a plan to restore confidence in the district. Introducing my “R” plan: revive the volunteer force, renegotiate with the city, and refuse to overspend. If you agree, I ask for your support and your vote.

So, while I’d say the fight between the district and the city had a lot to do with the elections results, there were no winners. Both the city and the district were punished for not being able to come to agreement.

Lacey residents don’t go out at night, don’t travel beyond city limits

August 24, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Ken of Lacey has a problem with a political forum being held at night in a neighboring city by a countywide organization.

Much better for residents to take a long lunch to hear another forum in the middle of the day.

So, let me get this right. Lacey residents can’t drive three miles out of town to attend a forum in Olympia, but they have time to take off in the middle of the day to attend a forum that is marginally close? O.k.

Lacey is chickensh*t if it doesn’t annex

May 8, 2009 / / 0 Comments

The looming invisible city, which Ken addresses well here.

Here’s the money graph:

Lacey City Manager Greg Cuoio told the group that the City of Lacey comprises 38,000 people in 16 square miles. The urban areas around Lacey hold 30,000 people in their 16 square miles. Cuoio said the general fund budget for Lacey is $38 million. If it were to annex the urban areas surrounding the city, it would receive only $10 million in tax revenue.

“That’s a deficit of about $28 million dollars a year,” Cuoio said. In addition he added, “it would take between a half billion and a billion dollars, to bring those areas up to city standards.”

Makes you wonder why Thurston County is having such money problems and Lacey isn’t, huh? Well, it likely isn’t better management, but just better annexing. Lacey has tons of shopping and very few actual residents. If it were to bring in the residential areas to the southeast, it would bankrupt the city.

But, as Ken points out, Lacey is already using the non-city residential areas to place city owned parks, senior centers and community spaces. Maybe they should just suck it up and start annexing their shadow city.

After a year of living in Lacey, Jason Hearn is the answer

October 9, 2007 / / 0 Comments

I don’t make referring to letters to the editor in the Olympian a common practice, but this current municipal election is so not exciting to me (oh, where are you Ira when I need you?), so the Hearn/Olsen match up in Lacey is all I have.

And, the letters coming in supporting Hearn are just priceless. Here’s the first one, but this one actually points out that based on a year living in Lacey, Hearn is your man for the job:

I have been a Lacey resident for only a little more than a year, and I have come to love it for its distinct differences from other places that I have lived…

I have become acquainted with Hearn through chamber activities. His unwavering volunteerism to his community is to be commended. I want a council member who is willing to listen to the citizens of the city of Lacey and not special interest groups. As a councilman, Hearn will take a balanced approach for growth, transportation and the environment. Hearn deserves Lacey voters’ support.

First of all, the “balanced approach to growth, transportation and environment” sound like “ok, when you write a letter to the editor about me, mention these things.”

Second, have you met Russ Olsen? I’m not saying Jason isn’t a great guy, but if you haven’t met both candidates, how do you make such a strong endorsement especially on such a vague basis?

Third, if you never remember Lacey and Pacific avenues going both ways, don’t bother.

Russ Olsen gets Olympian’s nod and Jason Hearn should buy a bike

October 4, 2007 / / 0 Comments

The Olympian must have thought Russ was a really smart guy for someone who went to North Thurston, so they gave him the nod in his race against secret Christian Jason Hearn.

One thing about the endorsement did puzzle me was Hearn’s description of traffic on College St:

…he lives 1.6 miles from the Lacey library and on certain days it can take 17 minutes to get there.

Ok, I looked it up, and Hearn lives in a neighborhood south on College down by Chambers Lake. If he walked to the library it would take him about 30 minutes each way. Well can’t do that.

If he bought a bike, it would take him 12 minutes each way (being charitable). Driving up and down College during heavy traffic takes more time than it would to bike the same distance.

College Street is already built out as much as possible, there is no adding lanes to get more cars in there. If Hearn really wants to lessen the time to get from his house to the library, maybe suggesting alternative modes of travel would be a good idea. True, biking up and down College would suck (because of all the traffic), but the road does have pretty wide sidewalks.

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