Olympia on path to a better city in 2017
The city of Olympia saw many changes in 2016. The year that beckons should bring even more.
Several changes underway should make our capital city a safer and better place to live, shop and play. Olympia Mayor Cheryl Selby, who is completing her first year in office, cited some of these improvements during a recent interview with The Olympian Editorial Board. Here are some we see as significant.
▪ DOWNTOWN AND HOUSING:
City leadership has long dreamed of having more housing units in the downtown. Several new projects are in place or moving toward completion. This is part of a larger strategy to revitalize and change the city core. The “downtown strategy” still needs work in the coming year.
Signs of progress include the large 123 4th Apartments opened in the spring near Heritage Park. Counting that and other projects in the works, housing stocks should grow by 700 market-rate units over just a few years. Units at 123 4th are pricey — some studio units going for more than $1,000 and more luxurious 2-bedroom units costing more than $2,000 a month.
If the downtown projects are successful, they should draw in more working people who have money to spend in shops and eateries
▪ DOWNTOWN AND BLIGHT:
City actions have spurred design work for projects on abandoned and under-developed lots via the city’s Community Renewal Area, or CRA, ordinance.
The first of these replaces the eyesore left by a long-ago fire that destroyed the Griswold office supply store along East Fourth Avenue. The hiring of a city economic development officer has helped coax that project and a second one forward, according to Mayor Selby.
Selby says 11 developers are now active in the downtown, which bodes well.
▪ PARKS:
After voters approved a tax measure for parks in 2015, the City Council approved the purchase of 225 acres of open space, including a large tract near LBA Park. Those deals won’t close until 2017. That is when revenue from the parks tax on property begins to trickle in to city coffers.
▪ PUBLIC SAFETY:
Led by Police Chief Ronnie Roberts, the Police Department has taken giant strides to retrain officers in conflict resolution and how to manage the most volatile persons they encounter. It’s all part of Roberts’ cutting-edge efforts to reshape community policing.
Roberts won an award for his reform work in the wake of a 2015 police shooting of two black suspects, and he has worked with the reinvigorated Black Alliance of Thurston County to build better relationships. It is vital to establish realistic policing expectations for our community, including sexual and racial minorities. Roberts’ team of officers is doing that.
On the down side, an evening police foot-patrol in the downtown was scuttled in August for lack of staff and money.
A public-safety ballot measure is on the drawing boards for 2017. It’s too early to say, but this could pay for body cameras for police officers.
▪ COURTS:
The municipal court is evolving. A federal grant helped the city establish a first community court, which links defendants with medical care, drug rehabilitation, anger management, and even housing and job-seeking help.
▪ HOMELESSNESS AND MENTAL HEALTH:
Our Thurston County government opened a mental-health triage facility near the county jail as a way to separate criminal suspects from individuals who need mental health care. Also, a community care clinic is in the works for downtown that can provide mental health services.
Looking ahead, the city’s 10-year plan to end homelessness needs freshening up. And the Home Fund group is seeking a ballot measure or some other fundraising action in Olympia, Tumwater and Lacey for transitional housing units.
▪ CAPITOL LAKE:
Planning to decide the future of the state-owned, man-made lake is well under way. If state lawmakers approve funds that Gov. Jay Inslee and our community requested for 2017, we’ll all have a better idea of which options are environmentally feasible and most affordable.
Advocates of an estuary are pitted against fans of a lake that is filling up with silt. Long term, any decision to remove sediments may affect operations at the Port of Olympia shipping terminal.
▪ ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT:
The imminent departure of the Olympia Toyota dealership for a larger space in Tumwater is leaving a hole in city tax coffers for spring of 2017. That loss sparked a keener city effort to find tenants for Toyota’s property at the Auto Mall.
As one year ends and a new one beckons, our mini-metropolis, Olympia, has well-identified problems. It also has the capacity to create a more prosperous, vital and welcoming community.
There is a lot to build on in 2017.
This story was originally published December 29, 2016 at 9:45 PM with the headline "Olympia on path to a better city in 2017."