The Olympia Standard

A few of the questions we received from our listeners for our 2020 agenda are about Olympia’s economy. We invited Mike Reid, the economic development director for Olympia, to talk about our economic profile, how our city could change over time, and those who are not yet being served by the economy. If you are curious where some of the numbers we talk about in this episode, check out the rece...

A new decade, a new census! Every ten years, the federal government completes a count of all the people living within the US borders. We interviewed Amy Hatch-Winecka and Sara Porter from the Thurston Regional Planning Council to learn about the on-the-ground efforts to count everyone in our area. These numbers make a difference in federal funding, political representation, community planning, and...

In June 2018, the Opioid Response Task Force started to develop a plan to address the opioid crisis in the county. This plan was approved by the Thurston County Commissioners a year later. We sat down with Katie Strozyk, the opioid response coordinator, to learn about the goals and actions that are being implemented. Those who are interested in getting involved or learning more can check out the O...

What’s in the works for The Olympia Standard in the coming year? We asked our listeners to send us their ideas and questions on issues they’d like us to discuss. On this episode, we reviewed what was submitted and offered our thoughts on how we might approach them. We’re also exploring the idea of growing our team! Listen and see if this might be an opportunity that catches your...

Steve Hall worked for the city of Olympia for over 30 years, recently retiring as our city manager. When someone leaves a position of employment, exit interviews are conducted so that the organization learn from the employee’s experience. This episode is our exit interview with Steve. We talked about the arc of Olympia’s history during his time in a leadership position, how our city ha...

This episode focuses on the response to the crisis of homelessness, both in the city and across the county. We interviewed Keylee Marineau, the county’s Homeless Prevention and Affordable Housing Coordinator, and Cary Retlin, the city’s Home Fund Manager. We talked about what we know (and don’t know) about people experiencing homelessness, the need for shelter beds and permanent...

Publicly funded behavioral health, including treatment for mental health and substance use, is rapidly evolving. We interviewed Mark Freedman and Joe Avalos of the Thurston-Mason Behavioral Health Organization to learn about these changes and how they will impact our community. We talked about the work of the BHO and the gaps in the system, new directives from the Legislature, and the expansion of...

We took a dive into the results of the election and what they mean for our community. Emmett plugged the precinct data onto maps for the port and mayoral races. Dani spoke about her experience as a candidate. We also discussed the future of the podcast, given the results of her race. Download this episode https://theolympiastandard.com/feed/podcast/

On issues of immigration, most people are paying attention to the southern US border. To highlight how these issues impact our own community, we interviewed Steffani Powell, a local immigration attorney, and Alejandra Hunt, who works with Steffani and is on the board of CIELO. We talked about immigration from the federal, state, and local perspective, and what is happening in our community to resp...

Your ballot is waiting in your mailbox today! In this episode, we review all the state and local measures you will vote on. We also interview Maria Flores, who is running for the only contested school board race. Her opponent declined to interview. Why should you care about schools if you don’t have a school-age child? Listen and learn. Download this episode

Dani has returned to the show as we continue our interview with candidates that will appear on the Olympia ballot. On this episode, we interview Joe Downing and Helen Wheatley, who are running for the Port of Olympia commission. We ask about the social, economic, and environmental issues associated with port politics, as well as a question about interpersonal skills. Download this episode

Abby Spegman joins us one more time to interview Nathaniel Jones and Cheryl Selby, candidates for mayor of Olympia. We add a few more questions to the mix, asking about the structure of city government and the role of the mayor, in addition to our questions on how the candidates will craft policy as an elected official. We explore how they think, how they function as a member of a team, and how th...

Abby Spegman joins us again as a guest host to interview Matt Goldenberg and Dani Madrone, candidates for position 3 on the Olympia City Council. Our questions for Olympia City Council candidates focus not on specific policy proposals, but rather how the candidates will craft policy as an elected official. We explore how they think, how they function as a member of a team, and how they work in the...

On this episode of The Olympia Standard, Abby Spegman comes on the show as a guest host to interview Jessica Bateman, who is running for re-election for position 2 on the Olympia City Council. Phyllis Booth, who is also running for this position, did not respond to the invitation to participate. Our questions for Olympia City Council candidates focus not on specific policy proposals, but rather ho...

One of our listeners asked us to cover the state of emergency healthcare in Olympia. We have heard about emergency rooms that are beyond capacity and ambulances being diverted to hospitals in other cities. To learn more about the state of emergency services, we interviewed Michelle James, the chief nursing officer at Providence who also oversees the Community Care Center downtown, and Chris Thomas...

With the public discourse that arose from last year’s election of the Thurston County Prosecutor, our listeners have asked us to keep tabs on issues of criminal justice in our area. We interviewed the recently re-elected prosecutor, Jon Tunheim, as well as the Director of Public Defense, Patrick O’Connor, to track some of the ongoing issues that have been in need of reform. We talked a...

With measles outbreaks occurring in several counties in Washington state this year, we wondered: what would happen if we had an outbreak in Olympia? How vulnerable are we? How do new state laws impact school-age families, and what more needs to be done to support public health? To answer these questions, we interviewed Jeanie Knight, division director for Disease Control and Prevention for Thursto...

On this episode, we explored the structure of city government, the reason we have the system we have, and what a different system looks like in a neighboring city. Olympia has a council-manager system of government, with a city manager to run the day-to-day operations of the city and a mayor that doesn’t have much more authority than the rest of city council. Tumwater has a mayor-council sys...

The Port of Olympia has new leadership and is undergoing a long-term visioning process. We spoke with Sam Gibboney, the new executive director, about the current status and future of the port. We talked about the nature of ports as local government institutions, what our local port does for the county, and what we can expect to see future. There is a critical seat up for election this year on the...

Here is our annual legislative update! As we did last year, we sat down with Representative Beth Doglio to talk about what Olympia brought to the recent session, and how the outcomes of the session will impact people in Olympia. We dove into homelessness and housing, climate change and the environment, the new code of conduct around sexual harassment, vaccine exemptions, and more. Download this ep...

With all the talk about having a walkable, bikeable, transit-friendly city, what does it look like to get there? The city of Olympia is in the process of developing it’s very first Transportation Master Plan . To get a high level view of our local transportation system, the changing needs, and how we will be getting around in the future, we interviewed Thera Black. Thera is a former planner...

To wrap up our series on downtown Olympia, we invited two city employees who focus on downtown planning. Amy Buckler is the downtown programs manager and Max DeJarnatt is working on parking policy. We talked about how the city incorporates various perspectives into their planning efforts, the balancing act of addressing different needs, the vision for downtown, and what work remains. The city&#821...

EGYHOP (Emma Goldman Youth and Homeless Outreach Project) has been around for over 20 years providing services to homeless people in downtown Olympia. As part of our series of perspectives on downtown, we interviewed Cassie as a volunteer with this organization. We talked about why they provide the services they offer, how downtown has changed over the years, and how we could respond to conflictin...

Last year, the Olympia Standard broke the story on serious issues within the Thurston Conservation District ( check out episode 10 ). Since then, two board members have been removed by the State Conservation Commission. We interviewed TJ Johnson to get an update on the situation and the future of the TCD. TJ is a candidate for the board in the current election. More details on how to vote in this...

The main hub for the Thurston County Food Bank is located in an area downtown that has a high concentration of tents. We spoke with their executive director, Robert Coit, about his vision for providing food to anyone who needs it from a central location. We talk about how that area has changed over time, the experience of patrons and workers, and how the Food Bank is responding to changing needs....