Who’s running the show? Let us give some thought to the idea of how a city gets built. And who has the power to shape how that city gets built. Sometimes it is possible to discover some of the steps that lead to something like the “Missing Middle”—where the idea…
Posts published in “Issue: August 2019”
A new trade enterprise is offering local vets a shot at agricultural entrepreneurship using an innovative business model that its creators say will eventually be self-sustaining, able to cede land and graduate a new generation of farmers every five to seven years. Veterans are invited to apply for membership in…
Port of Vancouver thriving under new Commissioner leadership Last year, WIP reported that citizens of Vancouver WA had elected a second opponent of oil terminal development to a seat on their Port Commission. With a two out of three majority that was able to change the direction of the Port.…
Over the objection of many residents, in November of last year the Olympia City Council adopted a zoning ordinance known as the Missing Middle (MM). The ordinance envisioned an era of new multifamily housing development in older, low density neighborhoods of Olympia. During the public comment period before adoption of…
Council member Lisa Parshley made a motion at the November 27, 2018 City Council meeting. Council member Jessica Bateman seconded the motion. All the other Council members voted “aye” —Cooper, Gilman, Jones, Rollins and Selby. With this motion, the Council approved an eight-year property tax exemption for Pat Rants’ 28…
News sources The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was established by Congress in 1935 as an independent federal agency to protect the right of private sector employees to join together, with or without a union, to improve their wages, benefits and working conditions. The NLRB oversees hundreds of union elections…
A decade and more ago, timber corporations left Grays Harbor—but the people who had given their lives to the timber industry stayed. They stayed in towns where there were no jobs, little housing, few public amenities. They have weathered many storms and taken care of each other for years. Four…
This issue of Works in Progress asks who is in charge. Actually, the question is what is in charge. For several decades a destructive worldview has dominated the US and some parts of the world. We need to replace that with the opposite worldview. A “worldview” is the overall perspective…
Candidates answer: The history of Olympia’s downtown property tax exemption indicates that this subsidy has little or nothing to do with the current construction downtown. The City of Olympia has had a tax exemption available since 1997. No strings attached—the only requirement was to build housing in the downtown core.…
Citizen opposition efforts blocked and criminalized “We the undersigned scientists, doctors, environmental organizations and citizens from 187 countries, urgently call for a halt to the deployment of the 5G (fifth generation) wireless network, including 5G from space satellites. 5G will massively increase exposure to radio frequency (RF) radiation on top…
Lower electric rates Public utilities are able to buy power directly from Bonneville power (BPA) at rates lower than what Puget Sound Energy (PSE) pays wholesale. PSE marks up their wholesale price and retails the power to their customers. Public power residential customers pay about 10% less for their power.…
The Marine Terminal One of the questions for our Port Report series is whether fees and charges that the Port collects from users of their business services produce revenue sufficient to cover their cost. This month’s Report will try to shed some light on that question as it relates to…
Climate change in Washington State has long been a divisive issue cutting deeply across partisan lines. Debates rage over the cost of fuels, the growth of clean energy, and how we can distribute the benefits of an ever-cleaner economy most equitably. Emerging from this divide, however, is a new front.…
Help! I am not an economist. It should not be necessary for all of us in America to be “national debt economists.” This is why we have a—branch government. To oversee our budget—our tax dollars. Unfortunately one of the parties, the supposedly fiscal conservative Republicans, with the help of lobbyists…
Six months ago, in the February 2019 issue of WIP, Linda Orgel reported on a meeting Congressman Derek Kilmer held to discuss economic development in Grays Harbor County. Orgel’s aim in writing was to question the dominant paradigm imposed on rural areas in the name of economic development. She stated…
Willem Van Spronsen, 69, was shot and killed around 4 am on July 13 by police officers outside the Northwest Detention Center, a private immigration detainment facility in Tacoma, WA. We are printing his statement, made public after his death, because reading it forces us to think about the way…
Olympia Assembly As the Abolish ICE movement erupts again, private prison corporations that contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain migrants are feeling the heat. GEO Group and CoreCivic, who together exert near duopolistic power over the private prison sector, have been hit by a wave of bank…
Stand Up for Kids aims to help Thurston County’s vulnerable youth through a unique approach to support. This entails more than just handing out resources and saying, “God bless you”— not that this isn’t also productive. But much more is needed at this time because the homeless population is under…
An urgency to address climate change by a group of tenacious middle and high schoolers was on display July 13 when about 50 people gathered for a rally at the state capitol to share their hopes and fears about life during climate uncertainty, calling listeners to stay engaged in the…
This September 15, the Estuarium is celebrating 11 years of its SSEA, the Sound Cruise! Join them for an amazing day on the water, discussing large marine mammals and enjoying tasty treats and a no host bar. Enjoy a day aboard My Girl celebrating our unique and beautiful estuary ecosystem. Expand your…
Before we can think about “sustaining” the world for the future, we must actively repair the environmental and social damages inflicted by our precursors, from which we have benefitted comprehensively. As designers, planners, and clients of the built environment, we need a more integrated, accountable and proactive approach, one that…
YWCA Olympia is pleased to announce that nominations for their Annual Womxn & Business of Achievement awards will be accepted from now to Friday, August 23, 2019 at 5:00 pm. Established in 1994, the YWCA Olympia Womxn of Achievement Award is one of the most prestigious honors for womxn...
Will the B-Team achieve its goal of war with Iran? With the United Kingdom and Iran in the midst of a tense and dangerous standoff after the tit-for-tat seizure of oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, international observers are warning that the British government has fallen into a trap…
In decades past, we were taught to save the trees. As it turns out, it is we who need the trees to save us. The most current report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommends adding a billion hectares of additional forests to the earth’s surface to help…
I suggest you take a look at the parks that Evergreen has completed in the past few years and your concerns will be no more. They train the volunteers well and there are no issues with building trails in any location. They have helped fix hiking trails that have fallen…