Tenants in three duplexes located on 10th Avenue SE received a sixty-day notice to vacate in early July, 2019. A one-bedroom in the duplexes rented for around $800 per month. Some of the tenants went to the City Council to connect the elimination of their affordable housing with the increase…
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This winter, some Washington state farmworkers shared personal stories with representatives from the United Farmworkers union. Some have UFW contract protections, while non-union workers are literally left out in the cold. Farm work is among the most dangerous industries in the nation. Performing the demanding physical tasks necessary in farm…
In February, former member of Congress and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich flew in from Cleveland to kick off Power to the Public, a campaign to bring public power to Thurston County. Kucinich has deep roots in the public power movement, going back to his successful efforts to save Cleveland’s municipal…
“We do not inherit the earth from our parents, but rather borrow it from our children.” – Squaxin Tribe Protecting water resources as the sea level rises Global sea levels have risen about nine inches in Olympia since 1880, and the rate is accelerating. It is estimated that another 2 –…
Spring brings a new beginning with freshness in the air and increasing light each day. It’s a time of optimism and energy. This January, our community lost a man who embodied that optimism and energy. Thomas Wilson Nogler passed away while helping a friend clear brush. Tom was known to…
The era of dam building is over. In 2018 alone, 86 dams were removed from rivers and streams in the United States. 550 miles of streams and rivers were returned to a free-flowing state, generating an ecological revitalization comparable to that seen on the Elwha River after dam removal.
The Antarctic has registered a temperature of more than 20C (68F) for the first time on record, prompting fears of climate instability in the world’s greatest repository of ice. (February 12, 2020, The Guardian) It’s like being on a bus. Up in front is the driver; the passengers are in…
It is worse, much worse, than you think. The slowness of climate change is a fairy tale, perhaps as pernicious as the one that says it isn’t happening at all, and comes to us bundled with several others in an anthology of comforting delusions: that global warming is an Arctic…
A heavy haze hovers over the Cosmopolis area more days than not. Foul odors travel along the Chehalis River shoreline south towards Westport. About 12 miles south of the mill you can step out of your front door into acrid smelling air. The smell increases as you get closer to Aberdeen, but once across the Chehalis River bridge into the city, it usually dissipates.
On April 19th 2020, Olympia Assembly will be hosting a Spring Assembly, focused on ecology and food systems. The assembly will occur at 5:00 at Mixx96 (119 Washington St. NE). Our general assemblies occur once per season (winter, spring, summer and fall) and are a place for community members to…
In his application to build 181 houses on an environmentally sensitive site at Green Cove, Jerry Mahan has benefited continually from city assistance. Staff at the Department of Planning and Community Development recently decided to give Mahan another 90 days to respond to further questions that arose during their substantive review of his project.
It’s no accident that on the same day the Senate voted not to hear witnesses in its sham impeachment trial, theTrump administration announced it was adding six countries, including Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, to its restrictive travel ban. Beneath the rhetoric, both actions are about race and racism. As…
African American Vernacular English (AAVE) speech or Black English (often used as an umbrella term for the many varieties of speech used by African American communities) is a prime example of how a regular way of speaking can have a major impact on people’s lives.
Recently, someone told me they went to college to study the meaning of being an Indian. It does pose a funny question: what is the meaning of being an Indian? I’ve always felt I needed to create spaces where there have been none for someone like me. Many Indigenous people…
I am the creator of A Green New Global Deal Facebook page. I ask you to remember that the fight over climate change is not just for us. It is our children and future generations who will be dealing with the full effects of the reshaping environment. It is time…
Concert by Tom Rawson • Parallax Perspectives • Inside‘Outsiders’
Shut up and write! • Power to the People public meeting • Rental housing community conversation • Transracial adoption • Islamic Center open house • IWW orientation • Talking about Injustice • Dine out 4 Girls • Workplace Organizing Collective • Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, • Blintzapalooza! • SPS Salmon Enhancement Group • Earth Day Climate Rally • Benefit Concerts
What does Olympia’s Community Planning and Development staff do with the comments they solicit from the public? For sure they don’t summarize them and link the results to their eventual proposal.
If we look around we can see a difference between values that are professed -- and those we express in how we behave. But this is a moving target.
I’ve been working closely with the 4th Ave bridge camp as a member of Just Housing Olympia. The City recently decided to halt progress toward moving the encampment to another piece of City property, and instead to proceed with sweeping the encampment.
April 12, 1953 – January 4, 2020 Tom was a beloved member of the Olympia community, helping start the Olympia Food Coop, the Crisis Clinic, Heartsparkle Players, and the Community Sustaining Fund, among many other projects and activities. Tom was a tireless activist for many other political movements, including mental…
When we look ahead to 2020 and beyond we see struggle, promise, hope, and victory for self determination, from Gaza to Santiago to Hong Kong to Kafranbel to Baghdad. Resisting authoritarianism When you zoom out over the past decade, you notice how more people in more places around the world…
They say that “one cannot live by bread alone”—and so it is, that along with food, there are some other material necessities. For the past 34 years, people in our community were able to find a whole range of necessities —personal hygiene and household cleaning products—that weren’t available at the…
The Community Farm Land Trust (CFLT) is a local nonprofit formed in 1997 currently owning two farms and holding a protective agricultural easement on another. As an organization, the Trust has developed a distinct set of values that guide its work. The staff and volunteers keep a focus on our…
In his latest effort to implant a housing project in Green Cove Basin, developer Jerry Mahan is refusing to provide information that the City needs to review his application. In a letter from his attorney Heather Burgess to the City, Mahan said he would not do any more environmental testing and demanded that the City complete its review without further information.