Letters to the editor for Oct. 1

Downtown homeless camp moving near elementary school

The city of Olympia plans to move the downtown Olympia homeless camp to the old Quality Inn site on Quince Street Southeat. Children ages 5-14 attend a school steps away from this proposed site. Exposing children to the known dangers of a low-barrier mitigation site is terrifying.

Downtown Olympia has seen businesses vacating their premises because of assaults, robberies, vandalism, and drug use. Assistant City Manager Keith Stahley told this very newspaper that concerns of the nearby businesses and property owners factored into the decision to move the camp from its current site. Why then should children be subjected to the same dangers?

I understand that homelessness is a major concern and the people experiencing it need help. However, physically moving the mitigation site from one parking lot to another even larger parking lot in no way changes or provides any new means in dealing with this issue. Available resources should be applied to mental health support, job training, and drug rehabilitation.

To reiterate, low barrier sites such as the one proposed have little to no oversight on the background of residents. The mayor and City Council have an obligation to ensure that young children attend school without fears of assault and exposure to drugs and crimes.

Nancy Wang, Olympia

Lessons in state spending

Living in Olympia and hearing from friends who work for the state is an eye opener.

Elected leaders, state departments and managers strive to spend every budgeted dollar, whether needed or not, just to ensure they get the same dollars in the next cycle. Internal auditors verify that budgets are properly and fully spent. Spending to the limit is happily rewarded.

Like our households and small businesses, why can’t our state government spending policy reward spending less with greater productivity? Our state’s budget office shows an ongoing budget surplus. During last year’s COVID-year election, the Office of Financial Management projected more than $700 million of surplus.

Then Gov. Inslee shut down our economy, lowering the estimate, aiding his call for new/higher taxes. Our state does not need new or higher taxes. As taxpayers we deserve efficient management and effective government. The new two-year budget revenue projection is $59.3 billion. The next budget cycle is expected to exceed $63 billion. How much of these billions are approved waste?

Our government is our state’s largest business. Its policies and growth increases our dependency on it and lowers our standard of living.

Gary Campbell, Olympia

Fabric bags help reduce plastic waste

I saw that plastic bags are being banned again finally after the delay due to COVID-19. After looking deeper and seeing that everyone is having to pay for store bags, I think it is the perfect time to implement fabric bags into our daily lives.

I 100% agree with banning plastic bags in order to reduce the amount of unrecyclable plastic in our waste. I also believe we should follow Bellingham and take the extra step and ban plastic non-reusable silverware.

Many other countries have been using simple fabric bags to get groceries and just for general use. Using these bags would eliminate costs every time we need to use bags. Having personal bags would be the best option for people who really want to reduce plastic in our environment and I recommended everybody to take action and start now!

Cameron Jones, Olympia