Fix the problems in downtown Olympia

I don’t get it. We have a review board that oversees architectural design in downtown Olympia so we don’t have to look at unsightly buildings. Well, what about having to look at the parking lot tent encampment along State Avenue? I don’t think a cattle feedlot could further degrade the visual aesthetic of our city.

Now, I’m sympathetic to the homeless, but what we have in downtown Olympia are mostly street people plus some mentally ill. We need to separate the wheat from the chaff. People who choose to live on the streets because it’s free and easy need to be removed from the sympathy equation.

I think downtown Olympia is circling the drain when it comes to the problems our street people cause. And here’s a little story to illustrate this point. I was recently hunting ducks in Eastern Washington when I got checked by a state warden. When he found out I was from Olympia, he asked what’s up with all the tents and street people? He and a couple other wardens had been to a training session in Olympia last August. They specifically chose to stay in a hotel downtown because they had heard about Olympia’s good restaurants, bars and entertainment venues. But the street people they encountered while walking between these places disturbed them so badly that he said next time they are going to stay in Tumwater.

Helping people who won’t help themselves only enables their personal failures to continue. Stop helping adult street people.