Washington Center, SPSCC are key to local quality of life

posted 08:41 AM 06/28
Permanent Link.

Olympia is celebrating its recognition by a personal finance magazine as one of the 10 best cities in America. The magazine based its acknowledgments on “cities with stable employment, even in tough times … independent of the national trends.”

Both the magazine and the community leaders celebrating the award missed a couple of noteworthy contributors to, in their words, both the economic and cultural vitality that makes Olympia a vibrant place to live.

The magazine said, “Olympia is a cultural diamond in the rough of the Pacific Northwest.” But during a lunchtime ceremony announcing the award, during which a speaker read a list of the 50 things that makes Olympia great, no one mentioned The Washington Center for the Performing Arts.

Yet the Washington Center is arguably Olympia’s greatest cultural asset. National touring companies seek out our stage, along with A-list performers and, of course, scores of community groups.

Another regional magazine recently named the Washington Center as the “Best Place For Culture” in the South Sound and gave its second-place award to the Broadway Center in Tacoma.

The Washington Center draws its audiences from all over the Puget Sound area, including Seattle, where patrons seem particularly fond of our ballet and other dance productions. You need only to ask restaurant owners to appreciate the center’s impact on downtown businesses.

South Puget Sound Community College was also missing from the magazine’s article about Olympia. It said The Evergreen State College and Saint Martin’s University are drivers of the area’s growth and character, but neglected to mention one of the region’s largest two-year institutions – and one of the main feeders of students to Evergreen and Saint Martin’s.

The presence of SPSCC fills a critical gap in post-secondary education by offering attainable and affordable one- and two-year degrees in both academic and vocational disciplines. Its importance to our community cannot be overstated.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, you should know that I am a new member of the Washington Center’s board and of SPSCC’s foundation board. I may have been in Olympia only two months, but I accepted these appointments precisely because I understand their importance to the community.

George Le Masurier, publisher of The Olympian, can be reached at 360-357-0206 or glemasurier@theolympian.com.

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