Works in Progress

I live in North East Olympia, where we were recently informed of a development project called Springwood Gardens that would destroy a beloved parcel of forest and farmland and replace it with 39 McMansions and three new roads. The project is called Springwood Gardens. Neighbors received a vague letter detailing…

Right now jurisdictions in Thurston County are updating their Comprehensive Plans. Each jurisdiction’s Comprehensive Plan will guide policy and projects for the next ten to twenty years. The updates are a once in a decade project designed to reflect changing community expectations and changes as required by the Washington Growth…

In Olympia, we believe in taking care of one another—and that means making sure working people have what they need to live, thrive, and contribute to a strong, vibrant community. After encouraging the City Council to move forward on this issue, it became clear that a timely path forward wasn’t…

On April 11, members of the community gathered to hear from Dr. Mimi Syed, Emergency Physician here in South Sound. The event was organized by the Rachel Corrie Foundation in memory of Rachel at the time of her birthday, and also sponsored by PASS – Palestine Action of South Sound.…

Life is full of joy and woe and when this we rightly know Safely through the world we’ll go (from William Blake) Every Wednesday for 6 weeks a small group of strangers unburdened their hearts and shared their personal lives on Zoom bound by a common experience. They were all…

As Washington prepares to officially adopt “The Evergreen State” as its nickname, it’s impossible to ignore the irony of this commonly used description for our corner of the Pacific Northwest while gazing out over mile after mile of muddy brown clearcut wasteland. While the timber industry will claim “it will…

The following are excerpts from conversations between Kim Dobson, host of Parallel University, and Harry Branch, marine biologist, which were broadcast on KAOS 89.3 FM in March 2025. You can listen to Parallel University every Thursday at noon on KAOS. On Budd Inlet – Past and Present Kim – There’s…

The following are excerpts from conversations between Kim Dobson, host of Parallel University, and Harry Branch, marine biologist, which were broadcast on KAOS 89.3 FM in March 2025. You can listen to Parallel University every Thursday at noon on KAOS. On West Bay Kim – So we have a proposal…

In the September 2022 issue of WIP, we wrote about the 25 acres of legacy forest adjoining the the Cooper Crest green space on Olympia’s Westside that were clearcut despite considerable community opposition. The land, previously slated for development, was sold to Silvimantle LLC, investors who anxious to take advantage…

As many of you know, Standing for Nature (the 501c3 organization affiliated with Standing for Washington) has intervened in a lawsuit filed earlier this year by development and business interests—including the Master Builders Association—seeking to overturn Everett Initiative 24-03, the voter-approved ordinance recognizing the rights of the Snohomish River Watershed…

Announcement Calling all Changemakers! The Community Sustaining Fund of Thurston County (CSF) is accepting Spring 2025 grant applications beginning March 17 through April 28 for creative and impactful applications that meet our grant criteria. Funding criteria and applications available at: https://thurstoncsf.org/oly-food-co-op-connection/ How to Support Established in 1987, CSF has regularly…

The cynics of the world say there are no wins in fighting “for”: elections are swayed by “against,” by pitting patriots with snarling teeth against the so-called aliens, by splitting towns, by blaming sick and poor by ripping hearts free of the weeds they used to know as “kindness.” But…

We on the left are having a hard time knowing what to do in this particular and hugely significant moment. Emotionally we perch somewhere between still being in shock, the bargaining stage of grief that does not want to believe that this is really what is happening – to being incapacitated by…

Part I is available here. On April 1, Cory Booker very movingly said in his marathon speech before the Senate, “The Constitution is only a piece of paper unless we live it and protect it.”  We are all the way fully into Constitutional crisis in the past week as the…

Originally Published by PeaceVoice I need some help here. The Trump presidency and the “America only” future he’s hawking to the public like the world’s most arrogant snake-oil salesman feels beyond my ability to address right now, even though I consider doing so my life’s work. But sometimes the news…

Originally Published by PeaceVoice Once we depose Trump and deport Musk we can laugh about their greedy corrupt behavior even as we tend to the disastrous damage they did. They will fail, if Americans rise up in massive nonviolent noncooperation. That is a big IF. But the women of Liberia,…

Originally Published by PeaceVoice Freedom of speech is kind of like eggs nowadays – too expensive! For Columbia University, the cost imposed on it by the Trump administration was suddenly $400 million in rescinded federal funding, at least if the speech was pro-Palestinian and critical of Israel. What choice did…

Originally Published by PeaceVoice Not long after the Trump administration took office, my son noticed several empty seats in his sixth-grade classroom. At first, he didn’t understand why his Hispanic classmates were missing. Later, when my wife and I took him to a protest in solidarity with our immigrant community,…

Originally Published by PeaceVoice How we lost our rights in the kingdom of Musk-Trump As a person who consumes large amounts of information about peace and conflict in the world, I spend a considerable amount of time talking with people about how the governance of their communities is working. I…