Latest news with #OlympiaCityCouncil
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Letters object to reparations, oppose Americorps cuts, and call out mountain biking damage
Just read the article about Olympia City discussing possible ways to give reparations to Black descendants of slaves. First thought: Black descendants of slaves is redundant. Then it occurred to me there are descendants of slaves who are not black. Then I thought no, no, no. In what world is it OK to address discrimination with discrimination? 180 or so years ago, the US acted disgracefully, so the Olympia City Council thinks treating Blacks better than everyone else now fixes that? That would be called discrimination. Blacks being treated better than everyone else, other Blacks, whites, women, Asians, American Indian, etc. Not a good look. Social programs are meant to help people with less, not some people with less. I have not voted for a Republican in at least 30 years. I am starting to look for a Republican to vote for or a Democrat with some common sense. Where did all the non-crazies go? Who believe in social welfare programs, not Socialism? And don't want to tax us to death? There must be Democrats who aren't Socialists, there must be Republicans who aren't Trump cultists. Aren't there? Sandy Novack, Olympia Donald Trump just gave the commencement address at the University of Alabama. It was the usual exercise in self-congratulation, dissing of Biden, threats to journalists, etc., etc. We know the drill. He dressed this one up with stories of how he made it against all odds and how these graduating students must do that too. 'Never, never give up.' But this selling of 'you can too, look at me' fell flat, coming a few days after the Trump/Musk attack on Americorps, a vital program supporting students in financial need who work on community projects (from local agriculture to just housing to disaster relief). Trump/Musk have issued stop work orders for Americorps projects, dismissed 85% of AC staff, and pushed 32,000 young people to exit the program (losing living allowances and support for student loan repayments). Campus Compact urges contact with Congressional reps to let them know of our concerns – for students, recent grads and community organizations. Washington state's Attorney General has joined with 19 others around the country to challenge this Trump/Musk escapade – one that will severely limit higher education's availability to students with limited resources. The Evergreen State College's Center for Community-based Learning & Action is deeply concerned about how this Trump/Musk maneuver will undermine students and the community projects they work on. Trump wants to lure people into modeling themselves after his self-serving success. But he's light-years away from grasping the life of students and the daily realities of community life. Lin Nelson, Olympia In reference to your recent story on Orogenesis, a proposed 5,000-mile mountain bike trail spanning from British Columbia to Baja California: The major harm that mountain biking does is that it greatly extends the human footprint (distance that one can travel) in wildlife habitat. E-bikes multiply that footprint even more. Neither should be allowed on any unpaved trail. Wildlife, if they are to survive, must receive top priority! What were you thinking? Mountain biking and trail building destroy wildlife habitat. Mountain biking is environmentally, socially, and medically destructive. There is no good reason to allow bicycles on any unpaved trail. Bicycles should not be allowed in any natural area. They are inanimate objects and have no rights. There is also no right to mountain bike. That was settled in federal court in 1996. It's dishonest of mountain bikers to say that they don't have access to trails closed to bikes. They have EXACTLY the same access as everyone else — on foot! Why isn't that good enough for mountain bikers? They are all capable of walking. Mike Vandeman, San Ramon, California
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
City of Olympia and school district to research how to address childcare affordability, availability
The Olympia City Council and Olympia School District board of directors met March 6 to discuss ways to make the community more affordable and accessible for youth and families. Staff will be drafting an interlocal agreement between the two governing bodies to research ways to partner on providing more child care access to families in Olympia. Superintendent Patrick Murphy said many families and their children in the community aren't getting their early learning or child care needs met. He said just this week, regional leaders attended the United Way's ALICE Summit regarding 'asset limited, income constrained, employed' households who are struggling to pay for high housing and child care costs. 'There's a lot of people that are working really, really hard, and they're still below that poverty number, that they don't qualify for any extra help,' Murphy said. 'They can't afford child care, and it's just this never-ending cycle that they can't get through.' United Way's statistics show there are only about half as many licensed child care spots available as there are children under kindergarten age in Thurston County. Meanwhile, half of children arrive at kindergarten without the skills they need to succeed. Murphy said there's no better investment than early learning, and the earlier children are able to receive high quality child care and education the better. He said getting kids into preschool prepares them better for kindergarten, which can have a massive impact on their life. He said it also contributes to the economic well being of the entire community. Murphy said the district doubled its transitional kindergarten programs this year from one to two, and it added an Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) to McLane Elementary on the city's west side. The City of Lacey is partnering with North Thurston Public Schools to open a new child care center. He's hoping Olympia can do something similar and partner on costs and space. City Manager Jay Burney said the cost of child care continues to rise and is unaffordable, which is hurting young families. Murphy said child care in Thurston County is currently more expensive than UW's tuition. Yet the average salary for a child care facility director is below the county poverty line as well. 'So it's not like we're attracting people to go into these — I hesitate to call them professions because they're a community need,' he said. 'So there were a lot of things that were said at that summit yesterday that I think were a call to do something.' Council member Robert Vanderpool said it could be beneficial for the two entities to conduct a study to better understand the community's needs. He said he also wondered what the cost of converting an already-standing space into a child care facility would be. Vanderpool said the funding model is also something that needs to be considered. He wondered if it would be set by a nonprofit, or if child care could be made a utility rather than a private benefit. That means the public would collectively pay for services. He said that sort of model could mean a greater need for state funding. Mayor Pro Tem Yến Huỳnh said she wants to make sure the two bodies leave the meeting with tangible next steps. She said there are a lot of resources for more information on the topic, and it could be a good opportunity to have conversations with private child care providers and local nonprofits that serve children. Huỳnh said folks talked optimistically about the state budget, but it's looking like a tough time to be asking for additional state funding. With federal funding sources up in the air right now as well, she said she wants to make sure staff research other options. Burney said next steps could include he and Superintendent Murphy getting together with their counterparts in Lacey to learn more about their child care facility partnership. Then the city and OSD can put a funding request together. 'We're going to need a proposal, like we're going to need a building, we're going to need a site, we're going to need a framework of a partnership to ask for money,' Burney said. 'So I think the more we can do to learn about what this model looks like and how they came together, and then maybe we could kind of share that learning, and then kind of figure out where it goes from there.'
