Category: olyblogosphere (Page 5 of 12)

1. Diggers Outlast Geoducks? Really? The entire world of clam related humor open to you and you go with Diggers outlast Geoducks?

2. Utah2 on r/Olympia went for a nice walk. I love getting to the tops of those hills. They’re small, but man, what a view.

3. Apollo’s Pizza used to be a really neat place. Somewhere along the lines, things changed. I sort of agree with welfaretaco on this one, the economy is a bit of an excuse. You changed, not us. Either way, Morty has a couple of posts on the end of the west side place. With one great memory:

One of my best recollections was around 2007 when there was a bad storm
and the power went out. Ian had a bicycle helmet headlamp he lent to you
guys so you could continue working in the kitchen since the ovens
remained hot and we all ate by candlelight. 

4. Not really a blogosphere link, but just in case you were looking for a little deep reading about Olympia, here comes the Community Renewal Area. I’d explain it, but I’m mostly just posting it here to remind myself to read. Also, Walt went to one of their meetings and taped it.

5. A starling died in Mojourner’s front yard. Good for you Mr. predator bird, kill that foreign interloper.

1. A whale came south to Snazzy Bouquet‘s inlet.

2. Ken tracks the downward trend of the print Olympian.

3. Calavara writes about what he donated to the OFS charity auction.

4. Before the hammer came down on fall, Camille took the bikes out:

In any case, it was so much fun being out, breathing
the fresh air, feeling the wind in my face (even as frozen as it felt to
begin with), taking in the scenery in our little faux-rural community …
even the burn in my thighs felt good. Invigorating doesn’t quite say it
enough. And so hubby says we’re getting up early every morning from now
on to do it again and again and again …

1. On the day before October, October Surprise uploaded Stuff with October.

2. Democracy Wall went downtown to check out the feeding the hungry debate. Very, very much worth reading the entire thing:

The bartender in the 4th Ave. Tavern looked a bit like a pirate, but he didn’t want to be identified any more than the person interviewed at The Reef or, later, the Harlequin Theater staff.  He’d worked at the tavern for over 17 years, he said, including those Thursdays the CFM held their benefit for Olympia’s hungry.  He objected more to the characterization he chose for the beneficiaries than CFM itself.  He, too, had witnessed trash piling up in the tavern’s private dumpster as well as the bed of his pickup truck when he had made the mistake of parking in the lot where the event was held.  He argued many of those attracted to CFM’s hot meals were mentally ill, drug addicts, or miscreants who caused trouble hours after CFM had struck its tents and left for the evening. “When the trouble begins, they’re already long gone,” he said.

…

It occurred to yours truly, in hindsight, that many businesses were reluctant to openly criticize the feeding of the poor for philosophical as well as political and practical reasons, though the owner of the adjacent quilting supply shop had no such reservations. Some business owners who have openly opposed low barrier shelters for the homeless in their neighborhood have repeatedly had their business vandalized in the wee hours. There is a reluctance to be seen/heard, especially on the record, criticizing efforts to aid or assist the poor/homeless. At the same time, there has been considerable vilification of the poor/homeless. They are genuinely loathed by those business owners who see them as an impediment to having a profitable operation or an obstacle to their customers. Moreover, they are blamed for the vandalism and trash in the City’s streets.

…

The depths of perfidy vs. necessity came up again during a dinner meal at the Thai food restaurant just down the street a block or two from the artesian on 4th Ave.  The waitress volunteered, when asked, that she believed many of those who took advantage of CFM’s largess weren’t ‘homeless’, or even poor, at all. She felt they were ‘lifestyle homeless’ who simply liked to hangout and had become a blight on the community.

The issue, ultimately, appears to turn on the degree of tolerance Olympia’s residents are willing to afford the less fortunate, and to some extent, the not so less fortunate. Many Olympia residents are willing to be generous, but many are not willing to risk their own safety to do so. The aggressive behavior of a few street denizens has tarred the lot in the minds of some City residents. But CFM’s “sins” are a red herring. There was not a little trash strewn about the City far from where the poor and hungry were being fed. There was even the occasional hypodermic needle on the pavement.

The stretch of 4th Avenue near the artesian has become a tenderloin district after dark. A sense of entitlement has pervaded street elements there to the point of consistently challenging a photojournalist walking through with a camera. A thriving black market in contraband and services can be seen operating there.  It is almost the diametrical opposite of the ambiance surrounding the faith based ministries outreach to the poor, hungry, and homeless through their hot meals event.

3. I’m sure Steven is implying that the Newhouse should really be the poster child of the campus.

4. I guess North Thurston and Timberline played each other last week too. Thurston Problems was having a fun time with it.

1. How do you take a picture of a big tree?

2. A nine year old group of women.

3. And, here’s a pretty nice piece from the OP&L on what’s going on out at Boston Harbor.

4. And lastly, speaking of the people living near the water. I scoffed at Ken’s post a few weeks back questioning whether the Oyster House would have a hard time rebuilding. No one would ever suggest leveling the building deep set in our urbanized downtown for restoration, right. Nope, Janine just did.

The somewhat under cover debate on a low income shelter somewhere in northern Thurston County finally surfaced in August when a possible location on the eastside of downtown. Here are a sampling of the Olyblogosphere discussion so far.

1. Ken has a fairly well written explanation of what the prevailing opinion would be of people living east of Eastside:

Most of us think that all homeless people are drug addicts, mental
patients  and alcoholics, but fully 80 percent of our homeless are just
that – homeless – and without the problems associated with drugs and
alcohol.

They are often homeless for a short period of time before
finding some place to live.
But, it’s the drug addicts and the alcoholics, which we most often
find living on the streets, pan-handling and making downtown Olympia a
place to avoid.

Many people, me included, think that the City of Olympia goes out of
its way to encourage the homeless to hang around downtown.   Most social
services they need are located in the city’s urban core.  And, the city
is always looking at more money for social services.

2. Rob Richards points to a map and a list of downtown businesses that support the shelter.

3. I’ve seen my share of quickly put together super-local neighborhood level websites complaining about certain issues, and of course there’s one for the proposed low income shelter on 10th. Here’s a particularly well done post, taking on the claims of NIMBYism pretty quickly.

4. Plus! North Thurston beat Steilacoom in football. But, the most fascinating thing was the twitter spit in your McDonald’s hamburger that happened later.

1. If You’re Daily Hour With Me goes the fair, one must link to that.

2. Our own Steven L writes about some new exposure in Tumwater.

3. Flatwin is out with a new product.

4. Did you know Olympia is a vegan friendly city? As a matter of fact, no. But, I would have assumed.

1. Did Steamboat Island exist? I think we got it sussed out.

2. This was one of my favorite things the last few weeks. Newspaper asks why one thing can’t be true in an editorial and then says it is true in another item in the same edition. Same day media criticism!

3.  Evergreen Problems has inconsistently been one of the funniest twitter things in town. Since they’re back being funny (but only in bursts) this tweet was pretty on the spot.

4. A really good artists blogs about the buildings around town he’s drawn.

5. And, lastly, Mojourner is (usually) right, it is the watershed.

From stevenl at Olyblog:

Blogs (and such) by date. All from the weird days that stretched between Monday, July 15 to Friday, July 19. Coincidentally, it was also the start of Lakefair week.

Starts out with me on Monday, July 15 and a white powdery substance was found in a state office in Tumwater. Cops were called, big vehicles were in the parking lot. Anything else? It is a mystery.

Then on Tuesday, July 16: Stab and blood downtown. At least this day had a beautiful sunset.

Wednesday, July 17: Fetid Lake of Doom Fair!

Thursday, July 18: Two more knife related incidents. One was a domestic violence stabbing between two folks that literally showed up the day before. The second was a robbery of a downtown bank. I don’t have any links for these, but the attitude was literally “Knives? What’s going on with knives??”

Friday, July 19: Oyster House Burns. Holy.

This guy was literally the last customer out the door before the fire took the place down.

And, after that, it all calmed down again. Lakefair parade and fireworks happened, the Oyster House still smells like a left over fire.

1. Alex, the question is “What is homelessness?” And the discussion you thought you’d have follows after that.

2. Marcus, who just moved here just a bit ago, complains that his house doesn’t have AC. Even in the few days a year when it actually gets hot. Well, do you want to be the one to tell him we don’t really plow the streets either?

3. This is a very old post, but it is from a Christian who wrote a pretty interesting piece about the Occupy camp down on the FLOD two years ago. So, it is a very unique post and then worth pointing at. Her old blog (where I found the post) is here, she’s now blogging over here.

For the record, I like the old blog’s title way better.

4. Party in Brandee and Eric’s Driveway for the Capitol City Marathon. It’s a thing!

5. Mojourner is saying turn off this blog and go outside.

1. Local play performed, written by locals, about John Brown, who fought Dixie.

2. Joe Illing writes about his time in Dixie learning to be a soldier back in the day. My favorite part:

The “private” nightclubs of Charleston, Augusta and the other cities I visited helped to pass the time. They were private only in the sense that they had a “private club” sign hung over their entry doors. When patronizing one of these establishments you’d ring a doorbell, a peephole would open, and if you weren’t black you passed their one membership criterion.

Like these private clubs, remnants of the old segregated south were still to be found all around. Restrooms with signs reading “Whites Only,” or drinking fountains marked “Colored” were old and faded, and largely ignored, but not yet replaced.

I found this absolutely alien to the integrated California of my childhood. But as my mandate was to protect the civilized world, I figured it was in my nation’s best interests that I visit as many of the private clubs as I possible in order to understand the social milieu I found myself forced to protect. After all, in my capacity as guardian of the Western World, I had to consider the civil liberties of the girls who visited them in order to dance, drink and meet guys.

 One of Joe’s granchildren is named “Olympia.” I kid you not. I love that.

3. Merwyn lost his Myspace blog, so let this be a warning to you. If it is important, and you don’t have a local copy, make yourself a local copy. Or pray the Internet Archive grabbed one for you.

4. Camp Quixote has been around for going on seven years. Damn Rob Richards, nice personal perspective.

5. Merwyn writes a lot of good stuff (see the link above), but this piece where he parses out his feelings on choice versus life is particularly good:

I am Pro-Life. I believe abortion kills the beating heart of a
sentient human. But I sometimes appear to be Pro-Choice because I know
there’s a difference between contraception and abortion.

And because I believe your right to medical privacy trumps my
opinion. Including the right of a teenager’s privacy against her
parents.

…

And because I agree the lawmakers and activists screaming most loudly
against Roe vs. Wade don’t give a shit about the starving, the working
poor, the disabled, the sick – that they are most likely to support (and
celebrate) executions, the death of foreigners, the denial of
immigrants.

And because I know the mythical fertile promiscuous woman who uses
abortion as birth control is as fictional as the Cadillac driving
welfare queen with crates of lobsters bought with her SNAP card.
…

So I believe what I believe. But I know, beyond belief, that if those
working hard to overturn Roe vs. Wade focused instead on creating jobs,
providing affordable healthcare and affordable childcare, gave school
and daycare teachers a respectable income for the hours they put in,
gave equal pay for equal work, focused on eliminating the attitude that
allows rape culture to flourish – and, finding that those on the left
would actually work with them to achieve these goals – then I
believe that the number of times a woman finds herself having to
consider that choice would drop. It wouldn’t disappear entirely, I don’t
think that can happen. As soon as one’s sure they know the Absolutes,
something new and complex enters.

The world is complicated. Read his entire piece.

5. And, there’s a new park taking shape on the westside. I drove by it last night with a buddy on our way to get a beer. He said it was  a pretty bad place for a park, there on that busy street. How could anyone enjoy it?

I replied it had been left empty for years since a log yard closed down and that it seemed like ever since then, people had been fighting over what was going on there.