r/olympia

Please, please people put your dogs on a leash unless you're at a designated off-leash area. Tonight at LBA park I was walking my leashed dog when two off leash pit bulls with no owners in sight aggressively approached us, low to the ground and growling. I picked up my 50 lb dog so she couldn't get bit and yelled at the dogs to back off.

I yelled out for the owners if they were around. No answer. The dogs kept getting closer and growling so I set my dog down and got the Costco bear spray out. I yelled to the one car in the parking lot if these were their dogs. "Yeah, so what" they answered as their dogs still kept approaching and growling. I said "I am going to pepper spray your dogs if you don't call them back", and almost immediately one of the dogs made a lunge and I sprayed it.

Two women came out of the car yelling and screaming. I explained that their dogs were being aggressive, that my leashed dog had been attacked in the same parking lot once previously by off leash dogs, and that dogs are required to be leashed in LBA Park except for one small section of trail off in the woods. Of course all I got was being told that I was a bitch and that I should "fight her like a man". I offered her some bear spray if she was going to try and attack me as well, which she declined. They were clearly drunk or on drugs, slurring their words, and drove off yelling "fuck the police" before the cops showed up. White Lexus sedan - police have the plates.

Please people. Just leash your dogs. You don't know how they will react to other people or dogs, or how other people will react to them. I genuinely felt like my dog was about to have her leg ripped open again and had nowhere to go with pitbulls on either side of us. I love dogs and hate that I had to do this, but I'll do it many times over if it means keeping my dog out of the hospital.

LBA in particular only has one small area that is off-leash. Learn where it is and keep leashes on outside of that area. The fields, pathways, and 90% of the trails require dogs to be leashed. There are clear signs communicating this. As for me, I'm headed back to Costco tomorrow to buy more bear spray.

Honestly it's my fault at this point for starting to believe them when they say they're listening to the public and working to rebuild relationships and restore trust and blah blah blah. Nope! The five-person clown show just appointed one of the administrators who squandered $3.8M taxpayer dollars as the library's interim director.

For the curious, Andrea Heisel, who they just appointed:

-Said out loud and with her whole chest and I quote "we don't decorate our shelves with books anymore" when a librarian requested more large print books for her branch in response to patron demands (then denied the request for more books)

-Told librarians in one branch they needed to reduce their collection from 14,000 items to 7,000 in a refresh (staff negotiated her back to 10,000; not sure about the other branches whose collections she cut)

-Told staff she knew there were a lot of "big feelings" about her paperless holds—a phrase which here means "staff no longer pull holds for patrons; patrons download an app that tells them their book has come in, and then they have to find it on the shelves themselves, good luck or whatever"—but they needed to get over it because it was going to happen anyway (she quietly rolled it back, but stay tuned for a reappearance now that she's in charge)

-CREATED THE LAYOFF PLAN that laid of 61 frontline union staff only (but it's okay, the board promises she wrote a GOOD layoff plan this time!)

-Bravely took a paycut to checks notes $169K. Good thing she was given $105K in raises over the last three years or else she'd be living in poverty like the rest of her staff

-Either actively collaborated in or simply stood back and watched while $3.8M taxpayer dollars disappeared

-Similarly, either actively collaborated in the creation and enforcement of or stood back and quietly oversaw the implementation of a disgustingly toxic, punitive, nightmarish work culture that has led hundreds of staff to resign over the last 16 years, many of whom struggle with ongoing mental and physical health concerns because of the APPALLING environment she helped create and cement

I can't believe this has to be spelled out, but: The person who blew holes in the ship cannot be trusted to right the sinking ship. Endorsing a levy lid lift with a person who destroyed the budget herself would be SHEER unhinged insanity at this point, and I hope and pray no one goes for it. I also hope and pray the staff walk out or stage a wildcat strike. Best case scenario: all the libraries straight-up close until Andrea and this entire insane board resign

Last week the City of Olympia issued a press release stating it would coordinate with the City of Lacey and Thurston County on a regional response to The Jungle. On Monday, May 18, signage was posted at the encampment announcing that a By Names List would be generated for closure — and that this list would close on May 28. This timeline is deeply concerning.

The By Names List is a tool that grew out of the nationwide Built for Zero movement. It is designed to identify individuals by name alongside their specific needs — barriers to housing, health conditions, history of homelessness — with the goal of enabling individualized case planning, service matching, and housing placement. Generating a By Names List requires outreach workers going into an encampment repeatedly, building trust, and conducting individual intake interviews. It is relationship-based work. And critically — it is intended to be a living, continuously updated document, not a one-time snapshot.

A By Names List is only useful if it accurately reflects who is actually living at the encampment at the time of closure. Closing the list on May 28, 2026 — when actual closure won't occur until 2027 or 2028 — means the list will be significantly out of date by the time it matters most.

Homelessness is a dynamic, person-specific problem that changes from night to night and person to person. Over the next 18 to 24 months, people on the list will move, die, enter housing, be incarcerated, or simply leave The Jungle. New people will arrive — as they always have, particularly when other encampments are cleared. By the time closure begins, the list may describe a population that no longer exists in its current form, while the actual population at the site has no individualized housing plan at all.

Closing the list creates two classes of Jungle residents. Those who were present before May 28 will have individualized housing plans. Those who arrive — or reappear — after May 28 will not. This is precisely the kind of situation that produces the "lost in the shuffle" outcomes we have seen before. Twenty-five people fell through the cracks when the City of Olympia cleared Percival Creek Canyon in October. Sixteen people fell through the cracks when WSDOT cleared another section of Percival Creek in April. The same story has been told after every single encampment clearing in the Encampment Resolution Program process.

There are many reasons a person might not be available for a By Names interview during a ten-day window. They may be new to the location. They may have been temporarily absent. They may be incarcerated — and notably, a Department of Corrections warrant violation currently carries a 30-day hold. The City of Olympia is allowing 10 days to generate a By Names List for the largest encampment in Thurston County — home to at least 125 residents, established for approximately 20 years. Ten days.

At last night's City of Olympia Council meeting, Mayor Payne noted that he feels caught between the needs of Jungle residents and advocates on one side, and community members who want The Jungle gone yesterday on the other. I understand that. It is a genuinely hard balance to strike, and our entire community is grappling with how to hold accountability and compassion at the same time.

The question for the Mayor and his regional partners to consider is this - how will it look when The Jungle is declared "cleared" — but it isn't really? When a rushed, inadequate process produces the same outcomes it always has — people cycling back to the streets, new encampments forming elsewhere, taxpayer dollars spent with little to show for it? The political fallout from a failed closure will be significant. The human cost will be worse.

Closing the list well before encampment closure signals that the list is being used to check a box — to demonstrate that outreach happened — rather than as a genuine tool for ensuring every Jungle resident has a real path to housing.

So the question for leadership is a simple one - are they committed to actually closing The Jungle - meaning every resident is connected to housing and services - or are they committed to checking a box? Because they are not the same thing. And the community deserves to know which one leadership is choosing. 

Whether you view The Jungle as a humanitarian crisis that pulls at your bleeding heart, or whether you just wanted those junkies gone 5 years ago, you should care about how the closure process is implemented. The process will define the outcome. 

Hey all,

We recently connected with services for our 12 yo in crisis, but does anyone know where parents can go? I have a therapist but I feel like that isn’t enough.

We’re dealing with feeling the need to run away, self harm, etc. I’m the first one to brag about my “gay agenda” working on my kid so I feel like we’re super affirming. All of this is out of left field and I just need some other parents to talk to.

Any ideas appreciated, and hate will be promptly ignored or reported. Please also bear in mind, I’m on reddit, I obviously know how to google. It’s just that my executive function is running in the negative currently while getting my kid’s needs met. Please be nice.

Good afternoon everyone, i unfortunately have fallen under some real hard times and need to get rehome my cat. i need some resources on how to handle that. i love her to death but i dont want to make her live in my car.

I’m trying to apply for a radiology tech school but to even have a chance to get in I need 900 healthcare hours when can I volunteer as a 17 Y/o I want to atleast get 100 hours if possible

wavescrashing.bandcamp.com for vinyl and CD.

I hope this is ok, I wasn't really sure where else to put this.

As the title says I'm writing a blog post/interview about Gabi and her store and I was wondering if people would be interested in giving me quotes or stories that I could use for it.

If you are interested feel free to comment or dm me, and let me know if posting your username is ok, or if you'd prefer to stay anonymous.

Hey! I'm trying to find Stormwater Retention Ponds for a school project, and I'm coming up short. I know there's some in a neighborhood near yelm highway, but beyond that I'm lost. Anyone know some ponds that have some water in them currently?

I’m getting an MRI at Oly Ortho and I have a 14k solid gold permanent bracelet that I will need to remove. I got it placed at Bellevue Square Nordstrom’s but would like to avoid driving all the way up there (I live closer to the coast). Does anywhere have recommendations on a place in or around Olympia that will re-weld it back on? Thanks.

I've been (unsurprisingly) unable to reach the IRS. Even the number that is supposed to be for talking to humans only gives me the automated hotline. The bot understands the request for a representative, but refuses to connect without knowing why and then it just forwards me to the "it's delayed" response. I already know that.

It's been more than 75 days since they accepted our return, and past the 60 days they told us it would be delayed - not audited, mind you, just delayed. The direct number to the local office feeds me to the same robot, even when I tell it I want to make an appointment.

Can I just go into the Olympia office to talk to someone or will my first visit be just setting up an appointment? Can I even get in to do that?

I'd appreciate any feedback about how helpful the local office is and/or advice about how to successfully get our money back. The supposed reason it was delayed was that we claimed the same child tax credit that we've claimed for the same child for the last 14 years. Unfortunately there were withholding mistakes due to multiple jobs and we significantly overpaid.