I came across the following argument in a book called Home From Nowhere (circa 1994), written by new urbanist pundit, James Howard Kunstler. It, of course, brought to mind the current issue of condos on the isthmus and got me thinking about how having a difference mix of classes living in downtown would affect Oly's poorer classes. I should probably point out that this excerpt is from a long chapter about the importance of civic life/civic interaction to the health of American civilization. In it, Kunstler argues that suburbia and the automobile have been destroying civility in America for the majority of the last century.:

This Sunday, June 15th 2008 Editorial Board of the Olympian officially came unhinged. In an editorial titled End the blight, approve the height they went on a hysterical name-calling rant worthy of, if not inspired by, their on-line comments cesspool. Interestingly enough, the comments sections on both the editorial and the front page article were 90% anti-Triway.

Y'all know how I feel about the Triway proposal. I feel there is there is no need to critique this unpaid advertisement for Triway as written by Oly2012 for it is so over the top it is embarrassing. I suspect it will backfire on it's authors. Weigh in on the editorial and reportage if you's like but I think it would be fun for people to suggest alternative to the End the Blight, Approve the Height cheer leading chant. Here's a couple from the Olympian's comments section

I've never been good with rhyming and poetry and stuff but I'm confident other Olybloggers are. Let's see your whit in verse.

Edit. 16 June 08.

I have willingly removed two offensive sentences at the suggestion of a docent. The sentences were equating prostitutes to the Olympian editorial board.

Hello, I'm here specifically to distribute and request info for the purposes of opposing condo 'development' and gentrification in Olympia. we're one of the last cities of our type in the US and the last thing we need is to become another indistinguishable monoculture smear on the I-5, another bedroom community for white-flight refugees from Seattle or Portland or California. Please, please, please help your neighbors oppose the gentrification of Olympia. I love it here and i don't WANT to seee Oly become Bremerton, no matter what Matt Belcherdorf says.

So- stay tuned. I'll be posting weekly with whatever information i have about the battle against condo development. This will include dates, places and times to act, PDFs to download and whatever else i can bring you. For starters, i want the community at large to remember the date JUNE 24th. This is the date the City council will hold a town-hall style meeting to provide the public the opportunity to voice thier opposition to condo development. They haven't published a time or location for this event, but as soon as i know, you will.

thanks for your ear and it's a pleasure to finally join the conversation i've had so much fun reading over others' shoulders.

-InsertCondoHere