Author: Emmett O'Connell (Page 45 of 176)

Where would have the Northern Pacific met Budd Inlet?

October 2, 2012 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

In most local histories that cover the era of the Pacific Northern Railway terminus chase, there is a retelling of this particular episode (this telling from Newell’s “So Fair a Dwelling Place“):

The Puget Sound Land Company, a subsidiary of the Northern Pacific and bought
up large tracts of land on Budd’s Inlet in the name of one Ira Bradley Thomas. Before the rails reached Olympia, Thomas died.

Rather than face the legal delays of probating his estate, the company quickly
bought up new land near Old Tacoma and told the Northern Pacific to change its terminus
to that location.

Had an obscure business man, Ira Thomas, lived just a little longer, Olympia would
undoubtedly have become the western terminus of the first northern transcontinental
railway and the site of the present city of Tacoma might still be a comparative wilderness.

Can you imagine how Olympia could have ended up differently had we, and not Tacoma, ended up the first industrial metropolis on the sound? I can imagine deepwater dredging all the way to Tumwater and down Swantown Slough. Possibly fill all the way out to Priest Point. Certainly a larger and more developed city.

But, the exact extent of our growth would’ve been determined by exactly where on Budd Inlet the terminus was meant for. I think I’ve come up with a general location of where the Pacific Northern Railroad would’ve met the Puget Sound had they chosen Olympia.

1. First, I wanted to find out if Ira B. Thomas really did come to Olympia in the 1870s to buy land for the Northern Pacific. It wasn’t uncommon for land purchases to be made in the name of the Northern Pacific back then. But, what sometimes seem too good to be true and fanciful stories that get repeated in local history, just really are too good to be true.

That doesn’t seem to be the case for Ira Thomas, though. According to at least this federal case, his estate was still being fought over 20 years later. Since probating the case took over 20 years, the Northern Pacific was pretty smart to move onto Tacoma.

2. So, Ira Thomas was in Olympia and he did buy land for a railroad terminus, where was that terminus? Apparently, the name North Olympia Land Company can still be found in some legal descriptions of property around here. At least this real estate database (BackPlant Tract Book by Titlepoint) lists the company as a search parameter for Thurston County.

3. So, where are the lots with North Olympia in their legal description on Budd Inlet? From what I can find plugging around on Thurston County’s Geodata, right here.

4. So, finally, what does this tell us? Maybe nothing, it is possible that Ira Thomas’ mission in Olympia was just a ruse. Possibly like other land buys in King County, Thomas might’ve been trying to divert attention from the mostly empty property along Commencement Bay. Compared to Olympia with 1,200 people, only 200 lived in Tacoma. The Northern Pacific possibly wanted all the land riches for themselves.

Or, maybe, Thomas’ death really did put the dream of Olympia as major west coast city or at least major western Washington to bed. Maybe in addition to being the state capitol, we would’ve had a mighty metropolis to go along with it. I like to imagine what could’ve been.

Update (11/21/12): Just realized that this map (which I’ve looked at dozens of times) gives a pretty great idea of where the Olympia Land Company property was.

Snippet:

Overlay with current Olympia:

Secrets and vagueness (Olyblogosphere for October 1, 2012)

October 2, 2012 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

1. The Man With No Change at Old School:

2. Someone just had an 11 year blogiversary!

3. Alec Clayton talks about the books he’s written and focuses on their autobiographical aspects:

There’s a reason these first three books were set in locales where I have lived and a reason that the main characters were all about my age. Both were to create a palpable sense of place and authenticity. Write what you know is the old axiom. I made the main characters my age so it would be easier to get facts right: getting the popular songs, books, movies at any given time right and ditto for hair styles, fashions and automobiles.

4. Long video, featuring Steven Willis of Morty the Dog, on Comics at Evergreen:

5. And, secrets.

6. And, even though I try to do only five links, this sixth is extra and not really Olympia related. Yelm History Project blog is great.

A data-based perspective on racism in Gonzalez v. Danielson

September 29, 2012 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

My historic look didn’t drill down very far, just looked back in time a bit. But, if you do look down into the voting precincts, as this paper does very well, you find racism present in the vote:

The Yakima and Grant County results indicate that racially polarized voting exists in Central Washington and crosses party and ideological lines. While voters in these counties have consistently voted for more conservative candidates in most recent elections, Danielson outperformed all other candidates, and by very large margins. This is remarkable considering he did not campaign at all. In a similar Supreme Court election, conservative candidate Douglas McQuaid, who also did not campaign at all, received only 28 percent of the vote in Yakima, compared to 64 percent going for Danielson. Not only did Danielson significantly outperform McQuaid, but he also won more votes than the leading Republican candidates for U.S. Senate and Washington Governor who both campaigned vigorously during the election. The data show that Danielson received votes from the same precincts who preferred Cantwell to Baumgartner and Inslee to McKenna. This is in spite of Danielson raising no money, holding no campaign events, making no public statements, and receiving no meaningful endorsements. Voters in Central Washington, who were not provided a voter’s pamphlet, preferred Danielson to González in a party-neutral contest. This patterns revealed here a are textbook definition of racially polarized voting.

Southern California taste for sale on Johnson Point

September 29, 2012 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

Holy freaking best kept secrets of Thurston County! Can you believe this even exists around here?

And, that at least according to the public information on the house, it was built in 1911? Well, not this house really. It probably looked a lot different back then.

The story of how this house came to be apparently begins in the early 1990s when California entertainment executive Charles Brack (who died in 2010) bought the house. Because Brack had some legal issues with his neighbors involving his bulkhead, we’re able to read a little bit about what changes the house underwent:

The Bracks purchased the property at the tip of Johnson Point, immediately adjacent to Grundy’s property, in 1991.

…

The Bracks extensively renovated and expanded the existing house on their property between 1993 and 1998.

Calvin Brack’s son-in-law, Keith Gibson, testified that the Bracks have invested approximately $8 million in remodeling the home and structures on their property.

The Bracks’ property included four separate tax parcels when they purchased it. Grundy asserts the Bracks raised the bulkhead to create dry land for building sites.

…

The Bracks contend it was necessary to raise the bulkhead in order to complete planned landscaping.

What I was most interested in was what the house looked like before the Californians got their crack at it. From the state Department of Ecology’s shoreline photography program, I was able to find these two shots (from 1992 and 1970):

Here’s a zoom of the 1992 image:

Significantly different than the post-Californian version.

And, in terms of the owners (the Bracks), they seem to be pretty interesting themselves. Charles Brack, until 2006, was involved in running KDOC, an independent television station in Orange County. He was listed as CEO of the station when it was sold.

Lacey’s new fiasco fishing pier

September 23, 2012 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

Way back last spring, people were spitting mad that the new Carpenter Road along Lake Lois had walls to it, blocking the view of the lake. From Ken:

Put me in the camp of those who think the City of Lacey made a mistake when it built the new Carpenter Road and put a wall between the drivers and Lake Lois.

Those driving on the new Carpenter Road can no longer see Lake Lois because the wall separating the roadbed from the lake is too high.

That’s what happens when engineers design a bridge and leave out the public in the review process, although I’m not certain a novice would even have understood the wall design even if they had seen the plans.

I drive that part of Carpenter almost every weekday, and since the construction finished, I’ve noticed a lot more people taking advantage of the new wall (as you can see above) as a defacto fishing pier.

Catching up with September (Olyblogosphere links for September 21, 2012)

September 22, 2012 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

1. This is one of the most unique and touching covers of Olympia, WA.

2. Cascadian meadows in spring can be pretty, from Mojourner Truth.

3. Little late in the linking, but I always appreciate Russ Lehman’s take on local politics.

4. And, Mark’s take on downtown.

5. Those who can be rebels by bus do and teach.

Historic perspective on the Gonzalez-Danielson race

August 15, 2012 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

UPDATE 9/29/12: A few smart folks took a close at the precinct level numbers and came up with some pretty solid evidence about race based voting patterns. I stand by my take below, but this research is much more significant and relevant to the election.

Since State Supreme Court Justice Steve Gonzalez won a full term last week, there have been questions about how Bruce Danielson — who didn’t raise or spend any money in a campaign — was able to get more than 40 percent of the vote.

Initially mentioned by Eli Sanders, there have been claims that Gonzalez didn’t get more of the vote because of racist tendencies of rural Washington voters against candidates of Hispanic background. Here are clips from Tacoma News Tribune, Seattle Times and the Everett Herald that show some of the discussion.

It may very well be true that a certain percentage of people voted against Gonzalez because they don’t like minorities, but this doesn’t necessarily bear out against historical context. In two other state Supreme Court races in 2000, candidates that spent no money at all got at least 38 percent of the vote.

Here is a spreadsheet that puts these three races (two in 2000 and Gonzales vs. Danielson this year) in terms of vote percentages and campaign expenditures. Just a side note, these two 2000 races were the only two when one literally unfunded candidate opposed a well funded candidate in a state Supreme Court race.

One of the 2000 races, Jim Foley lost to Tom Chambers, but received over 43 percent of the vote in the November general election.. Similar to Danielson, Foley was ranked as not qualified to serve on the bench. But, in a sort of opposite name phenomena of Gonzalez-Danielson, the scuttlebut in 2000 was that Foley did so well because voters confused him with former Spokane congressman and Speaker of the House Tom Foley:

Chambers, 57, who raised more money, $355,947, than any of the other candidates, said he at times found himself hard-pressed to compete with Foley’s familiar name.

Although he beat Foley by a wide margin, he said he wished the margin had been even greater.
“It would give me greater comfort,” he said.

When Foley ran unsuccessfully against Faith Ireland in 1998, he said he had a “million-dollar name” because voters mistakenly link it with former U.S. House Speaker Tom Foley, to whom Jim Foley is not related.

Here is another Seattle Times story that discuss the dynamics of that race.

In the other race (the deciding vote took place in the September primary), Bobbe Bridge defeated a Tacoma lawyer Scott Schweiger. Like Gonzalez, Bridge has earlier been appointed and had already been serving on the court when she won. She also spent $153,000 in a race that ended months before November because she was able to knock off her only opponent in the primary. But, despite her opponent not raising or spending any campaign funds, Schweiger received 38 percent of the vote, very close to Danielson’s total. This article indicates that there was little, if any, discussion at the time how Danielson finished so well against a well-funded candidate.

A significant difference between the 2000 races and Gonzalez-Danielson is the lack of a statewide voters pamphlet. It is hard to gauge the impact of the lack of this information had on voters this year, but you also can’t discount information available now more readily available from the internet and from newspapers.

What we should be able to take from this information is that there seems to be a floor that literally unfunded state Supreme Court candidates won’t fall below. And, Danielson performed within the normal range of similar candidates in recent years.

Amazon attacks Olympia! edition (after a long summers break) of Olyblogosphere links

August 13, 2012 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

1. One particular slice of the Return to Evergreen features Morty the Dog. Sweet.

2. Does anyone want to help out with Olynews.org? I like Olynews.org, but like a lot of small web projects around here, it suffers from people like me who fail to have a lot of energy. So, if you have energy and no particular project, why not right?

3. Accidental Naturalist reflects on the closing of Fireside Books. Or, rather, “Amazon Attacks Olympia!” MWWWAARG!!!!

From the post:

This wonderful, small, independent bookstore in downtown Olympia has been owned and operated by Jane Laclergue since 1995. Jane has many fans and friends in town, many dedicated readers, grateful authors, and fabulous staff–many sang her praises at farewell/retirement party of Jane Wednesday night. Her passion for books, her charm, her personal approach to book buying has made Fireside a favorite place of mine to buy books over the past several years.

Though Jane is of retirement age, the closing of the Fireside Bo
okstore comes at time when fewer people seem to consider reading a priority pastime and more readers are acquiring digital books or ordering from online distributors such as Amazon.

…

Every book we buy on Amazon or other online booksellers is one less book sold at a bookstore. At the end of the month there will be one more empty store in Olympia, one less place to visit. Is Orca Books next? Our only remaining independent bookstore? What about the other used book stores tucked into our downtown? What about Barnes & Noble, our only remaining chain bookstore in the great Olympia area? Oh, and what about all the other stores that offer products that could be acquired online?

While I agree that its sad to see a local bookstore (or any type of local store) close, I don’t necessarily blame ebooks. While the newspaper column that AN links to doesn’t spell out whether Fireside has lost money (does say the recession has been hard), it does point out that Fireside lacks an even basic website.

Not to get into a long response on a link post, but I’m more inclined to believe that people who read ebooks are more likely to buy more books overall (so the one ebook for one local book think doesn’t stand up).

4. This is a very old post from a looks like dead blog, but it is so so very epic: “San Francisco Street Bakery and the Problem with the Left.” Bam!

Read on:

When I walked through the wide open door of the brightly lit establishment I was greeted by no one even though several people were scurrying about doing baker-type things. It wasn’t until I had walked across the room and taken the cream cheese from the refrigerator that a fellow with a stupid indie rock beard and wearing the tight black uniform of a Northwest leftist/anarchist/post hippie type finally took notice of me. It took him a second, seemingly, to muster up the wherewithal to tell me in his passive/aggressive way that, “Um, sir, the bakery’s not open for another half hour.” What he meant was:

Hey weirdo, what’s wrong with you? Get the fuck out of here.

No, really what he meant was that the place wasn’t open for business yet. Eh, anyway. This post is a great example of the Olympia vs. everyone else culture shock thing. Read the entire post.

I’m not saying I’ve never been annoyed by bad customer service in Olympia, but I’m just as likely to get bad service in Yelm or Lacey or Shelton. Those aren’t homes of leftist hippy types, right? Anyway, bad service is bad service, so don’t chalk it up to people’s politics or culture.

Epic storms and hidden histories edition (Olyblogosphere for July 17, 2012)

July 17, 2012 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

1. Assemblage has another one of those hidden histories of Olympia. This time, murder on Butler Cove.

2. grsshpprkm has a pretty epic take on the storm on Friday. From hours into minutes:

3. Elaine over at epersonae is back bike commuting:

Yesterday…I went a little crazy. I had PT in the morning, and decided to take the Xtracycle “just in case” I wanted to ride further towards work than usual. I rode ALL THE WAY in, 10 miles altogether from PT, with a stop at a grocery store for water & baby wipes. I was exhausted but euphoric. Riding home was somewhat more stressful. Google Maps recommended a different route coming home, and it looked feasible. However: the trail part was bumpy & buggy; I had to make a left turn across a five-lane, 45MPH road; a lot of it was bike lane on a fast busy road; I had to cross another major arterial at a crosswalk at a complicated intersection; and I hit a stretch so steep that I walked about 3 blocks. Coming up the hill the other side of downtown I was going so slow I realized I could walk faster than that. Sigh.
Still, I’m glad I did it. I know it can be done, and I know I’ll do it again. (Almost certainly NOT taking that route home again. C made a suggestion that sounded good that I’ll try next time.) Hopefully by the end of summer I’ll be riding more of the route more regularly.

4. Not the first time someone has taken a photo of the titular cross street. But, its nice every time someone does.

This is not a Thumbs Up Experience edition (Olyblogosphere links for July 9, 2012)

July 10, 2012 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

1. This is Olympia. This is not a Thurston County Thumbs Up production, though it is tourism related.

2. Its fun to read the run-down of the local issues suggested to someone who hasn’t been paying attention trying to write an English paper. But, I would tend to agree with this guy.

3. Andy at Thurston Pundits (a conservative blog, to say the least) writes why he likes George Barner for county commission.

Basically I think he’s coming from an assessment that government at all levels has overstepped its bounds and is now stepping on more people than its helping. While a lot of Democrats are running away from their party to keep their office, I have a degree of certainty that this not a calculated power grab because he’s likely going to be running against the local Democrat machine on this run, and that is a strong machine here in Thurston County.

4. I like taking random drives through the countryside. So, this video by rtpwyk is nice.

5. Given the now dead Olympia Views’ commentary on the Cooper Point Journal (implosion, Kafkaesue, sucks), Seth Vincent’s self eval on his time as CPJ staff adviser us super interesting.