On the corner of Cooper Point and Harrison, it’s a typical mall setting. Cars dominate the foreground, small chain shops border the asphalt parking lot; a Starbucks serves a steady stream of customers. One thing is not typical....
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If we are willing to understand war, any war, there are a few principles to keep in mind.
Length of Rope ♦ The Paper Moon ♦ Koresh Dance ♦ TSTSC Plant Sale ♦ Wild Grief ♦ Bicycle Challenge ♦ Deschutes Estuary ♦ Mycology Club ♦ Sharing Time with Elders ♦ Thousand Chestnuts ♦ Black Rose ♦ Olympia Lamplighters ♦ Women of Color ♦ More….
For April, we invited the community to submit stories related to how we use—or misuse —time. We just didn’t realize the submissions would reveal as much about the messengers as their messages....
Students from area high schools and their supporters* staged a walkout/demonstration on Friday, March 25th in Olympia to draw attention to the urgency of addressing climate change. Planned to coincide with Greta Thunberg’s global “Fridays for Future,” Climate Strike, students gathered to demand that Washington State legislators implement more of…
YOU WRITE TO WIP: Must be nice to have the “authority to spend taxpayers’ money, support real estate developers with sweet deals—including incredible tax incentives even when interest rates have been near 0% for many, many years.
A stable pH level is vital for healthy lake ecosystems. Moderately high pH provides the best productivity (for fish and other organisms) in both freshwater and marine habitats, but acids eliminate aquatic buffering by reducing alkalinity. Black Lake gets its name from humic (and other) acids that naturally occur from…
BOOK REVIEW: The idea of police being that positively engaged with the community seems Rockwellian and made me want to read Radley Balko’s new book, Rise of the Warrior Cop, to better understand whatever happened to “officer friendly”.
Residents of West Olympia, mostly from the SW neighborhood, gathered for dinner and a photo at the Mediterranean Breeze restaurant to celebrate delivery of a set of principles to guide changes to a “Capital Mall Triangle Subarea” selected by City Planners for new “transit-oriented” investment.
PERSPECTIVE: Current analyses assume that renewable energy technologies like electric vehicles, wind power and solar power are the answer to limited oil reserves. Those assumptions should be re-examined before we commit more resources to their development.
Dave Jette, one of the founders of WIP and longtime contributor, passed away in January 2022. The Seattle Times published an obituary that provides a contour of Dave’s life, including his love for his family, his passion for organizing hiking trips, his accomplishments as a physicist researching radiation treatments for cancer, and his political involvement.
Panattoni will begin developing warehouses without overall planning input from Tumwater
The City of Olympia gets about 72% of its operating budget from property taxes paid by residents and sales taxes paid by everyone who buys things or pays for services here. Lately property taxes have loomed larger and larger in the budgets of residents. And as for sales tax,at 9.4% Thurston County ranks higher than 90% of other Washington counties.
Peace, in the deepest sense—in the midst of war—requires a clarity and courage well beyond the boundaries of linear understanding. The warning lights flash. World War III has entered the red zone.
PERSPECTIVE: The Washington Department of Enterprise Services has announced the “Estuary Alternative” will likely be the preferred option for the Capitol Lake/Deschutes Estuary. The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) team expects that alternative to be confirmed in their final EIS next fall.
Olympia residents turned out in force... Remember that “urban village”
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.
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.