The Olympia Standard

Latest Episodes:

#112: What to do with Olympia’s court May 10, 2025

Show notes

Dirk Marler is a longtime advocate for unifying Washington’s fragmented court system. As a Yakima County District Court judge from 1988 to 2003, Marler experienced firsthand the confusion caused by the state’s patchwork of local courts. Later, as head of the court services division at the Washington State Administrative Office of the Courts, he participated in a major early-2000s initiative called “Justice in Jeopardy”, which aimed to modernize and regionalize the courts. Today, he help us parse the large issues in play as the City of Olympia and Thurston County negotiate how to combine our court systems.

InvestigateWest: ‘It’s an uphill battle’: Decades-long effort to unify Washington’s court system again falls short

Washington Courts: Justice in Jeopardy

#111: Don’t think of an Olympia May 03, 2025

Show notes

On this episode, I read my blog post “Don’t think of an Olympia” from Olympia Time, revisiting one of my longest-running gripes: the use of “Olympia” as a lazy shorthand for state government. I explore why this rhetorical habit is more than just annoying, it shapes how people think about power, accountability, and democracy. Drawing on philosophy, civics, and the evolving nature of legislative work, I argue that language matters and urges journalists and political commentators to be more precise. Plus, there are some practical tips for anyone covering state government to avoid flattening complex realities, or alienating a whole town.

Want to change how people think about democracy? Start with how we talk about it.

#110: Gil Carbone and the City of Tomorrow Apr 26, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of The Olympia Standard, we reflect on the life and impact of Gil Carbone. He was a key but often overlooked figure in Olympia’s history. Gil helped lead the transformation from a commission-style government to the council-manager system Olympia has today and served on the city council from 1982 to 1991, including two years as Mayor Pro Tem. We share a classic Gil story about his fiery stand against state interference in local parking enforcement, and we’re joined by his daughter, Carol Carbone, who paints a vivid picture of Gil as a driven, charismatic, and deeply engaged parent and community leader.

For more about Gil’s pivotal role in city government reform, check out Episode #41: City Government Structure

#109: Public Comment 101 Apr 19, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of The Olympia Standard, we dive into the city’s now-dormant effort to revise its Memorandum of Understanding with neighborhood associations and explore how representative those groups really are. We bring academic and personal insights into why public participation in local government remains so limited, from structural complexity and lack of access to the outsized influence of well-resourced voices. We also consider what it takes to make local democracy more inclusive, transparent, and effective.

#108: Out of town corporate single family home ownership Apr 12, 2025

Show notes

I take a look back at a couple of blog posts I’ve written in the last couple of years about corporate home ownership in Thurston County and include some updates for this year.

This is a pretty short episode where I read you back some prewritten material. If you’re really into this topic, I appeared on the Nerd Farmer podcast just less than a year ago talking about the same topic: https://nerdfarmpod.com/2024/05/26/how-corporate-landlords-are-driving-up-rents-emmett-oconnell-olympia-time-219/

Here are the old posts where I’ve covered this issue in the past.

2021: https://olympiatime.com/2021/07/08/the-scale-of-out-of-town-real-estate-investment-in-thurston-county-is-small/

2024: https://olympiatime.com/2024/05/10/re-examining-the-out-of-town-or-just-corporate-real-estate-investment-in-thurston-county/