Category: Thurston County (Page 9 of 16)

Save Jane’s Chickens (Home-owners’ association vs. neighborhood association)

May 21, 2009 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

Jane Johnson has the horror stories to beat all of local neighborhood organizations gone bad. I’m glad she shared it (treat yourself, read the entire thing):

His latest complaint was that my 2 hens — Lucy and Ethel, kept in a coop in my backyard, out of sight of everyone, was in violation of the covenants that says homeowners in the subdivision can only have “dogs, cats, and 2 caged birds in the dwelling“. Well he’s got me there. I don’t keep the chickens in my home. The Association inspected and informed me that I was in violation and said I have to get rid of my pets. So last night I went to the annual homeowners association meeting to try to appeal or change the covenant to allow for caged birds to be in the yard. I was ridiculed and marginalized. He and the Board had enough proxies to block my attempt to change the covenant. I brought up that other homeowners had fish tanks (visible from the street), hamsters, a snake, and other unallowed pets. They informed me that since there were no complaints about the other homeowners, they had no intention of taking any action on them but since there was a complaint about me they “had” to take action. I have to get rid of my chickens immediately.

The harasser wins. He has succeeded in using the power of the homeowners association to exert control and mess with me.

In Olympia, there are also a dozen or so neighborhood associations. Instead of enforcing seemingly variable rules regarding how one keeps their house (to preserve values, I assume) they help build community by building the neighborhood. Its a very different dynamic than one neighborhood using a civic organization to harass a neighbor.

Here’s the site of the Olympia Coalition of Neighborhood Associations. Not only to our city neighborhood groups work with the city, they work with each other to build a stronger voice for citizens and build better neighborhoods.

Meet Pat Beehler, your Republican candidate for county commissioner

May 13, 2009 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

So, what do we know about this guy? Not a bunch.

The Thurston County Republicans announced his kick-off in a few weeks, implying his has the “right hands” to run the county. Of course, winning one-third of the commission won’t exactly mean Pat’s in charge, but that is just simple math.

Here’s the description from his meetup page for his kick-off:

Pat Beehler is a long-time resident of Thurston County, and is an established community leader. He will bring balance to the County Commission with his quiet and respectful style of leadership. If you don’t know Pat, come to the breakfast and learn about his plan to win!

For work, Pat’s the “director of survey” locally for WHPacific, an architecture firm.

His campaign treasurer is a lobbyist at the legislature, Linda Matson.

Here’s his facebook profile, oddly linked to from his campaign site. Nothing campaign related there, but he seemed to have signed up for it just as soon as he decided to run. It may surprise you, but after checking I have no friends in common with Pat. One of his friends seems to be wearing a cape though.

And, he’s a Rotarian.

Thurston County is Obama County (and what it means)

May 11, 2009 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

John McCain only won 31 of the nearly 300 precincts in Thurston County.

Just a few thoughts:

1. The Republican ticket won just two precincts in urban northern Thurston County, one in Lacey and one in Tumwater. Those should be written off because between the two, McCain/Palin netted just over 50 votes, they were tiny precincts. Democrats rock urban Thurston County.

2. While Republicans dominated in the south eastern portion of Thurston County, their rural dominance isn’t repeated everywhere. The most lacking area is the northeast section, or the Thurston County portion of the 35th LD. Which is a major part of the newly interesting 3rd Thurston County Commissioner district.

3. That said, given all the red around Rochester, if a Republican can unseat a Democrat in that commissioner district, it will be from the south up.

4. In the east of Thurston County, I was surprised by how well the top of the Republican ticket did in an around Yelm. That might help explain how Randi Becker upset the lone elected Dem in the 2nd LD out there. Might also be a warning to newly elected Democratic county commissioner Sandra Romero. If the Republicans take that race seriously and put up one of their own that actually has a chance (instead of getting behind the least bad Democrat), they might have a chance out there.

Karen Valenzuela wins Democratic nomination for county commissioner

May 5, 2009 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

The most interesting part of the nominating convention for the county commissioner position up for election next fall was that it was boring.

Barring Erik Landaas running into the room saying he changed his mind, no one expected anyone to challenge Karen for the nomination. This doesn’t mean a Democrat won’t end up filing against Karen (I guess one already has), but they would do so without the expressed support of the party organization.

Not that I’m saying that would matter, I think the conventions on their own are crap.

But, that nomination sure seems to matter. Jon Halvorson learned that in a much more conservative district just recently.

I always knew the “Seattle chill” was bull shit

April 24, 2009 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

Depending on how you want to view it, Eric at Sightline’s piece about the “Northwest Personality” will either reaffirm your belief in the Seattle Chill or convince you still it doesn’t exist.

From Eric:

Northwest states are among the most open and least neurotic places you can find, but we are also among the least extraverted. Not surprisingly, Oregon and Washington perform almost identically on every measure. More interesting, perhaps, is that Alaska, Idaho, and Montana are also very similar in some respects (though quite different in some others).

…

The good news is that the Northwest is not a neurotic place. Washington is the 46th least neurotic state in the union, followed by Alaska at 47th, and Oregon at 48th. (Idaho and Montana rank 32rd and 39th, respectively.) To get any less neurotic, you’d have to move to South Dakota (49th), Colorado (50th), or Utah (51st).

The other nice thing about the Northwest is our openness. Oregon is the 3rd most open state in the nation while Washington is 5th. (Only New York, Massachusetts, and DC are comparably open.) But move away from the urban Northwest and the openness appears to fall off: Montana is 16th; Idaho is 30th; and Alaska is 49th.

What do you call a region that is neither neurotic nor extroverted? Totally sane. Yeah, say you take a state that ranks both high in neuroticism and extroversion (like Pennsylvania) I guess you could say they weren’t as chill(y) as us. I’d also say they were also totally unhinged.

What outsiders say is our tendency to be on the surface nice but total dicks in action, I say we’re just not as freaking crazy as you are, so can you please get a grip of our sanity?

Also, another note that Eric makes is that as a region, the Northwest flows pretty well as a group through the personality traits, except for openness. As Oregon and Washington rank pretty high the more conservative northwest states are lower down (Montana 16th, Idaho 30th and Alaska 50th). Northwest conservative, in that regard, means you are less open.

Shallow freedom blogging (stopping the next invisible city)

April 20, 2009 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

The Trent at EFF makes the development moratoriums we’ve been going through around here sound like a local government government sitting on top of any sort of progress across the entire county.

Of course, the actual truth is a bit more complicated than that.

First, Trent ignores Thurston County v. WWGMHB, which casts a long shadow over development policy in Thurston County.

He also ignores the several times since 2005 that the county commission has released properties from the moratorium. This you could find out if you follow the link Trent offers:

October 17, 2005 – Board of County Commissioners released pockets of unincorporated land that are within the city limits of Olympia and Tumwater from the moratorium on subdivisions.

…

January 31, 2006 – The Board of County Commissioners extended the moratorium on residential subdivisions for 6 months. The following were released from the moratorium: 1) Subdivisions that do not create lots less than 20 acres in size; and 2) Divisions of land which do not create any additional building sites because two or more single- or multiple family homes (not mobile homes or family member units) are already located on the parcel, consistent with Section 18.04.052 of the Thurston County Code.

…

January 13, 2009 … The Board adopted Ordinance No. 14187 to renew the subdivision moratorium for another six months. This ordinance released a number of properties from the moratorium, and provided a method to be released from the moratorium if it can be demonstrated that the reason for the moratorium no longer exists. Please see the map under the section “Lands Subject to the Moratorium.

Trent also ignores the problem that is presented if you allow growth in the areas still included in the moratorium. Just like the properties above, the moratorium areas but up against a city in northern Thurston County, but are still in the county.

They represent baby “invisible cities,” urban and suburban “communities” like Tanglewild and Thompson Place that were allowed to grow and develop in a pre-GMA Washington. Thurston County’s own invisible city grew from the mid 50s until the early 80s and has filled in since then. Since growth management, it hasn’t been annexed into an existing city or become a city on its own. It remains an urban and suburban collection of neighborhoods that is governed by a rural form of government.

Because it demands a higher level of service than a real rural county, it is sucking the county government dry. Preventing the rise of more invisible cities is just good management.

Local green party seen better days

March 15, 2009 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

Patrick Mendendez would like to think the local Green Party is an alternative worth supporting, but they probably need something to bring them off of life support. They failed to even get a quorum to their recent organizational meeting:

NOTE — a follow-up meeting was planned in two weeks time; however, we did not achieve a quorum at that meeting and the organizers have dropped their efforts for the time being.

This is probably the worst time ever for the even-more-liberal-than-the-Democratic party in Thurston County to be falling on hard times. They have so many built in advantages, at least electorally speaking.

The Top Two primary, at least theoretically, could put them in the general election in two upcoming elections. I haven’t heard of any Republican candidate at all in the upcoming Thurston commissioner race. And, in the fall of 2010 there will be an open seat in the 22nd LD.

Can’t hardly resist it local politics joke

March 12, 2009 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

Response to Thurston Pundits on the new “crazy tax“: maybe its all the new local conservative bloggers.

Ken not running

February 26, 2009 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

Ken Camp isn’t running for Tumwater City Council. I’m going to say he will eventually, but who wants to ruin the first summer of Sounder FC by doorbelling?

Plus, he has another mini-Camp on the way, which is a huge consideration.

In the mean time, Ken should prep himself, which means getting to know the city.

The Tumwater City Council posts their agendas online. I also put together a nice little RSS feed you can subscribe to.

There are a handful of open board and commission spots in the city government, serving on one of those would be a great experience. Of course, you might want to hold out for a spot on the planning commission, the top drawer of local appointed boards.

Read municipal research stuff. Its worth knowing all you can know about local government in Washington State.

Develop a Tumwater-centric hyper local blog. I just thought of this one this morning. All the times I’ve gone to the state library to look at old newspapers, I never found any archives for Tumwater papers. That makes me think that Tumater has never had its own newspaper. It might be a cool thing to be known as the guy who helped Tumwater develop its own news source.

Or not, people migth think you’re some kind of crank blogger.

Erik Landaas kicks off outside the district

February 24, 2009 / Emmett O'Connell / 0 Comments

Erik Landaas is running for county commissioner in the third commissioner district, but he’s starting his campaign way outside the district way over east in the Lacey Community Center.

And, his website is ugly too. Frames? Seriously?!

Here’s a short list of locations Landaas could have considered:

The Viewpoint room at Tugboat Annies.
The Black Lake Grange Hall.
Practically any bar, restaurant or pizza joint in Tumwater.
El Sarape, for example, has a big back room. Its on Capitol Way in Tumwater.
Ballyhoos. Nice place.
Erik Landaas’s house. He lives in the district!

I know, the seat is elected by the entire county in the general, but he first has to win the primary, which is elected by the district. And, at least theoretically, commissioners are elected to represent their districts. So it sends a bad message to not start running in your district.