According to Friends of the Waterfront, a message from former Washington State Secretary of State Ralph Munroe will air for several weeks on at least one local radio station (MIXX 96). During his time in office, former Secretary of State Munroe served on both the Capitol Committee, and the Capitol Campus Design Committee.

In the radio message, Munroe commends the Olympia City Council for responding to the Citizens' Initiative for an Isthmus Park Feasibility Study. He urges the City Council to delay voting on the proposal to increase isthmus building height limits until all the facts from the study are in. He then urges Olympia Residents who want the facts (and want the Council to consider the facts) from a completed study before a Concil decision about the rezone (which would have such drastic impacts on park feasibility), to then contact the members of the City Council and let them know.

Here's the radio message: Ralph Munroe on the Isthmus [mp3 audio]

Again, the message is to contact members of the City Council to thank them for pursuing the Park Feasibility Analysis and urge them to wait to vote on the proposal to rezone the isthmus building height limits until all of the facts from the park study are in: until the Park Feasibility Analysis has been thoroughly and faithfully completed.

Olympia City Council

Also try these email addresses:
councilmembers@ci.olympia.wa.us
cityhall@ci.olympia.wa.us
and
citycouncil@ci.olympia.wa.us

[Forwarding ...]

Citizen Forum on the Isthmus Rezone

Saturday, Nov. 15th, from 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM

Hello Friends of the Waterfront, It is with gratitude for all that has been done and with a sense of urgency that this notice is being sent. We need to continue our efforts. Please DO NOT take down your yard signs.

Please, attend the ISTHMUS PARK UPDATE and ACTION meeting on Nov. 15th.

Time is short and events are moving very quickly! Let’s not waste all the time, effort and money we have put into stopping this very unpopular rezone request! Attend and bring a friend or family member!

IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO SAVE THE ISTHMUS: UPDATE and ACTION

WHERE: Saturday, November 15, 2008 from 10:00AM to 12:30 PM

WHEN: Columbia Room, State Capitol Building (east door), under the Dome (former Legislators’ cafeteria) watch for signs, easy parking SPONSORS: Friends of the Waterfront, Isthmus Park Association, 2020 Vision Olympia, and the League of Women Voters.

AGENDA:

10 - 10:15 -- Registration, Coffee & Refreshments RECORD your ideas for possible uses for the future park. All Ideas will be presented to the City Council!

10:15 – 12:30 -- FORUM: UPDATE & ACTION RECOGNITION of all the hard work done by so many. (short & sweet) REPORTS on the current status of the Citizen’s Initiative, The Feasibility Study, The Legal Ramifications, the Foundation and the city’s timeline for the rezone request. State and local elected officials to be invited. Time for Q&A, new ideas and small group discussion regarding the Action needed individually and collectively.

For additional information: http://www.friendsofthewaterfront.org

Nearly a half-century ago, activist Jane Jacobs wrote The Death and Life of Great American Cities, a book often described as the most influential ever written on the subject of Urban Planning.

Jacob’s book was an “attack” on modern orthodox urban planning, and in particular, on Le Corbusier’s Radiant City model, which called for monolithic residential skyscrapers studded across the natural landscape and interconnected by elevated high-speed transportation corridors – an ultra-modern utopia promising spiritually-enriching open space and views for the masses!

Le Corbusier’s model heavily influenced HUD’s Urban Renewal movement in the 1950s and 1960s. However, its pitfalls became immediately evident, ultimately inciting Jacob’s 1961 salvo: Too much open space amidst the urban landscape inhibits society’s ability to self-govern – or – limits the number of “eyes upon the street”. Today most of the towers and parks built in the Radiant City tradition have been either razed, or remain as habitat for some of America’s worst infestations of crime, poverty, disease and drug use.

Many in favor of turning the isthmus into a park seek the same populist benefits promised by Le Corbusier. But, like Le Corbusier, they overlook the inevitable outcome of such land use. On the other hand, cradling Heritage Park and Percival Landing within residential, retail and commercial activities – which is to say the everyday activities of citizens – would sew these two great public spaces deeper into the fabric of our downtown, nurturing a sense of safety, function, vibrancy and civic virtue in and around them.

One of the interesting things about working with Friends of the Waterfront against the request to rezone the space between the lake and the sound has been looking at what the planning commission and the City Council actually *see* when they're deciding what Olympia will look like in the future. I'm just starting to do some pages for the FOTW website with comparisons, like this...:

Views from the 4th Avenue bridge

The City's visualization from the public workshop March 22nd — which includes the rezone on the other side of the street, not just TriWay's imagined buildings.

TriWay's visualization — notice that the street lights on the left look about five stories high, making the buildings feel appealingly small...

http://www.nuprometheus.com/friends/comparebridge.html

Best,
Thad

If you'd rather not have a bunch of new 90 and 65 foot high-rises built on the isthmus between Capitol Lake and the Sound, where the ugly high rise is now, you might look at the new website for Friends of the Waterfront. We're opposing the rezone. (We opposed the last request, in 2002, too; it was turned down by the City Council then.)

For more information:

www.friendsofthewaterfront.org

There are lots of suggestions about things to do on the website, but the next really important thing you might do is attend the City Planning Commission meeting at the Olympia Center, 6:30 PM, June 24th, and sign in as opposed to the rezone, or testify against it. (If you want to testify, you'd better come early; Tri Vo has sent out a postcard to his potential supporters asking them to get there and sign in at 5:30.)