#olympian things

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Intercity Transit workers create sidewalk art under pressure

Intercity Transit customers see a menagerie on sidewalks at the 80 bus stops in the system.

More local solarpunk in Olympia, WA. 

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A little film about Procession of the Species (my favorite very solarpunk, very local festival). 

Costumes I’ve made for Procession include dinosaur, fern, elephant, swan, and, most recently, crocodile. This year I’m going to be part of a bat colony.

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A committee of state and Thurston County stakeholders will seek public comments next month on whether Capitol Lake in Olympia should remain a lake, revert to an estuary or become a hybrid of both.

So in my town, there is a lake. It reflects the state capitol, it’s rather picturesque, and in the summer a lot of fish die and it stinks to high hell. I wrote about it in my Olympia Gothic post. 

Most folks in the area know that Capitol Lake isn't natural. The way all the fish die in summer is a big clue that it isn't what it's supposed to be. But I feel like fewer people know that it's only there at all because during the Great Depression there was a shanty town (Little Hollywood) on the mudflats, and it was considered an eyesore and a crime magnet and just generally a place where poor people lived. So they burned it down and put a lake there, and we've been saddled with dead fish and invasive species ever since. 

You can read more about Little Hollywood here http://olyblog.net/little-hollywood-era-olympia-recalled-de… It's a really fascinating bit of Pacific Northwest history.

Anyway, I just thought this was a fun little tale of how ecological and economic (in)justice intermingled in my town. I’ll be supporting the restoration of the estuary. 

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Looking north up Puget Sound, on a beach where your skin shouldn’t touch the sand or water unless you shower immediately after.