I just went to The Olympian website looking for news about the suicide jumper on Capitol Blvd... and was surprised to find an article that paints Triway in a pretty negative light and casts doubt on their ability to responsibly develop the Isthmus.

Excerpt:

Residents have complained of crawl spaces filling with water and lawns installed improperly — among many other things.

Triway project manager Janine Smith declined to comment, "until we have a meeting with the city of Olympia."

Triway is the same major South Sound developer that has asked the Olympia City Council to raise building height limits on the strip of land between Budd Inlet and Capitol Lake.

What's going on here?

Here is the video from the September 30, 2008 Olympia City Council Meeting. The meeting included deliberation over a proposal to rezone an area of the "Isthmus" in downtown Olympia in order to allow the development of a mid-rise luxury condominium project. Original video (w/ better A/V synchronization) is available at the city website, City of Olympia. Video on the flipside.

What is the normal course of progress? What does progress mean to you?

Ever since Peter's testimony last week, I have been thinking about the normal course of progress, and what it means in the context of the proposed Isthmus Building Height Rezone.

I am sorry, and with all due respect, I do not consider spending $50,000 in public money, on a study for a private luxury condominium development project (a development that has very dubious public interest merit) to be in the normal course of progress.

Okay - so the City spends $50,000 on a project that will of be of potential direct benefit to those who need it least. Meanwhile; regular, ordinary, average, normal Americans are losing their jobs and their home mortgages.

I don't consider spending $50,000 of public money on a private luxury condominium development to be good public policy. I don't consider the rezone proposal, the proposed Larida Passage, or the City's facilitation of the rezone to be anything like what I would consider to be the normal course of progress.

Also check out a poem I just weblogged: Empty Store Fronts.

- Whitlock

p.s. So then what is the normal course of progress, what would it look like? I am going to be thinking about that, and I'll get back to it. In the meantime, please discuss.

This story has been updated with the complete collection of videos posted here: http://olyblog.net/video-city-council-public-hearing-isthmus-building-height-rezone

Have you seen the video from last Tuesday's public hearing? It's 5 hours - but if you're interested in the rezone issue, this is a must-see (yes - all 5 hours.)

I was truly impressed by the depth and breadth of the public comments presented to the Council last Tuesday.

Video from the hearing is in four parts. The introduction is just under 30 minutes, parts one and two are a little less than 100 minutes and part three is a little over 50 minutes.

Here are the videos. The video and audio isn't synched perfectly (especially the introduction (-maybe it can be repaired)). But the video does seem to work (at least it does for me.)

Here they are:

Introduction:

Part One:

Part Two: