Over 100 Olympians signed a letter to City officials last month asking them to honor their promise of “public engagement” in redeveloping a westside land parcel known as the Triangle Subarea. Signers want input in defining the area, selecting consultants, and most importantly, assurance that future development prioritizes affordable housing, public spaces, and green design elements. Current residences, bike paths, pedestrian pathways and existing tree stands should be preserved , they say, and a community center should be included in the plans. Read their letter here.
Posts published in “Issue: March 2022”
Erin Jones at Capital High School ♦ Holding Israel Accountable ♦ Stories of How Art Connects Us ♦ The Automat film ♦ The Nuclear Arms Race in Oak Ridge, TN ♦ Olympia Family Theater Poetry! ♦ Tending This Moment: Community Care and Connection ♦ Infused Honeys, Vinegars and Shrubs ♦ KOUG TV at Capital High ♦ Furnace Club
Like most issues of Works in Progress, this one came together while the stories were still (d)evolving. Russia made good on its promises concerning Ukraine, students weary of racist policies at a local high school staged multiple day walkouts, city officials initiated an extensive planning process for Olympia’s Westside...
If eyes are the windows to the soul, mushrooms might be the window to the soil. Fungi are indicators of diversity, burned carbon, the abundance of microbes, or the lack thereof. An undergrowth of fungi could indicate a healthy microbiome or a damaged one, based on what kind of fungi is…
One proposal reflects the City’s goal for its Boulevard Road property of “maximizing affordable housing for working class people.” Or will they go for more “market rate?”
Looking back at the life of Olympian Rachel Corrie and the continuing legacy of genocide.
In 2010, John T. Williams, a 7th generation Nuu-chah-nulth Elder and woodcarver, was walking near downtown Seattle with a closed wood-carving knife. A police officer yelled from his car to get his attention but, because he was hearing impaired, Williams did not respond. Seven seconds later, Williams lay dead in the street.
Employee shortages and low wages. Supply chain disruptions and business closures. Non-existent benefits and unsafe working conditions—the economic consequences of the pandemic have exacerbated an employment market that’s been in decline for decades. According to the New York Times, corporate consolidation and dwindling labor unions have led to worker compensation…
PERSPECTIVE: The situation between the United States and Russia over Ukraine is very dangerous. Russia is a capitalist country headed by an authoritarian and militaristic leader, Vladimir Putin. A major Russian invasion of the Ukraine began on February 24, together with massive bombing.
PERSPECTIVE: In the last several months, representatives of Washington state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) have responded to an unprecedented volume of public outcry and reasoned argument objecting to the agency’s “business-as-usual” plans to clearcut mature older forests on state land...
BOOK REVIEW: Activist and author Catherine Coleman Flowers writes that it is common for accepted methods of wastewater treatment to be unaffordable for Americans who live at the poverty level. If they are unable to pay for municipal services or a septic system, fines or jail time are just the beginning of the problem. The epidemic of raw sewage that leaks into living areas in and outside homes has been proven to lead to parasites like hookworm. Flowers founded The Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice but the fight for recognition of the problem is ongoing.
For five days, from January 31 to February 4, 2022, students from River Ridge and North Thurston High Schools carried out a multi-faceted protest to call attention to the failure by North Thurston administrators and others in leadership roles to address continuing incidents of racism in their schools. A list…
Citizens for a Clean Black Lake (CCBL) will finally get a hearing March 8 on their petition to have Thurston County Commissioners dissolve the Black Lake Flood Control District which was formed improperly and has worsened lake-wide water quality problems. The CCBL request was recently bolstered by a Federal court…