A little after 8 pm tonight my husband called to say that it appeared Southbay BBQ (Legion & Jefferson)was on fire. I drove by and saw the street was closed. Several fire engines and a few squad cars were at the scene. No one knows the damage yet, but the external walls didn't seem to be on fire. Having experienced a fire at Clubside that shut us down for a long time, I hope that the damage was minimal, the insurance coverage good and most of all that everyone is safe.

Please swing by einmaleins Friday at 6 pm to check out the 5 benches that local artists have re-created from plain old city benches. The timing is perfect as it also happens to be the August 1st Friday, so when you're done appreciating the benches you can wander about downtown enjoying all sorts of other art, food and shops.

Olympia prides itself, as it should, on being an artistic community.  Downtown merchants pride themselves on being independent, local, family-run and eccletic.  Being independent can sometimes also make it difficult to be patrons to the artistic community as our coffers can run quite low.  That's why this bench program is so important.  Through Dave Rauh's (MIXX 96) hard work, and inspiration and support from Jeff Kingsbury and Stephanie Johnson, the PBIA was able to ACTUALLY PAY artists for their work.  And cover the cost of supplies.  Building these connections between two groups so invested in our community can only translate into greatness for all.  The PBIA advisory board looks forward to being able to continue this program and eventually have all the downtown benches reflecting the artistic prowess of our city.

Please come by and support the artists and the business people who are working so hard to keep making downtown more colorful and dynamic. 

Got to the shop today to find the City of Olympia probation crew (one supervisor and four guys) sweeping, blowing and steam cleaning the sidewalk on 4th ave between Adams and Jefferson. I never have a camera on me, so you'll just have to come by and check it out. You won't be able to tell it's Sunday morning on a block of bars! (I think they hit the alcove down the street next to the Ward's building as well. Most of us know it by its smell.)

All people on the crew today are guys and look to be well under thirty, and are all non-violent offenders (mostly DUIs & possession charges, I think). It is so much better to see people spending time cleaning downtown instead of sitting in jail for a day or two.

For the second time in a week my four year old has awaken screaming and terrified, in a sweat and not totally conscious. He won't talk and can't explain what is happening to him. It only takes about five minutes to get him back to sleep, and so far he hasn't woken again. A brief scan of the web makes it sound like night terrors, which doesn't worry me too terribly, but does leave me wanting some first hand experiences. Anyone out there go through this with their kids?

In chairing the PBIA this year it is my goal to engage other organizations and to stop reinventing the wheel when it comes to downtown topics. (How many websites? How many marketing schemes? How many clean, safe & beautification projects? It’s astounding….) Mathias and I were trying to do a count of downtown stakeholder organizations and stopped at 16. There seems to be a new one every month, and we all seem to like acronyms and numerals. And alliteration. Are we a community of such talented, motivated organizers and activists that instead of utilizing existing structures and organizations we just make our own group?

I want a real inventory of who’s doing what downtown, the people and the groups. Who do you work with on downtown issues? What groups have you heard of?

Last night I attended the quarterly membership meeting of the ODA. The theme was Olympia Goes Green in celebration of Earth Day. It was yet another zero waste event (something we're getting pretty good at downtown) and had quite a decent turnout. Several businesses were highlighted, including 510 Interiors, Eco-Lux, Radiance, Creative Office Supply and Casual Tee. 510 has made quite a name for themselves already, being honored at the Economic Development Coucil's annual business awards luncheon. Eco-Lux is on Washington St. had sells not only amazing organic body care products but also fantastic chocolate. Creative Office is a long-time downtown business and Casual Tee provides a highly needed service in a town like ours that prints more shirts per capita than we really need--environmentally (and economically!) friendly screen printing.

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From the press release:

Artists Sought to Spruce Up Downtown Benches

A downtown Olympia group is inviting area artists to submit designs to artistically enhance existing benches in downtown Olympia. The PBIA (Parking & Business Improvement Area) will be selecting up to five artists for the project, which is designed to add artistic interest to the streetscape of downtown Olympia, engage the local arts community in a downtown project, and create a more inviting, welcoming atmosphere to downtown. Each artist will receive an honorarium of $1000 plus up to $500 for materials.

I'm starting a separate thread because a discussion about the actual proposed PBIA budget, I believe, is important. However, the title of Emmett's post is misleading and a mistake made by many.