My hometown has grown and morphed into a place quite different than when I was a kid. Even today it continues to change rapidly both in good and bad ways. The downtown continues to be a hot spot for residents and tourists alike for art, music and Oly's special brand of culture. However, Olympia's composite score shows that suburban sprawl plays a large role of development that's taken place there in the past 40 years and is prominent outside of the downtown area.
My heart breaks when I come back home to visit for holidays and learn that yet another beautiful swath of land is slated to become another development with single-family housing. Talking with a family friend who grew up in Olympia in the 60's, she remembers riding her horse up and down College St.- Back then it was a two lane road surrounded on either side with second growth forest, pastures and farms. Today, it looks like any road in the U.S. - four lanes surrounded by single family housing. This is just one example of many showing the development that has overtaken most cities around the country today.
However, what I really want to focus on is something of greater urgency. The LBA woods in SE Olympia is 150 acres of undeveloped land, providing an incredible resource for residents to hike, bike and even ride horses. In 2012, the land had been slated to become two new housing developments. Fortunately, the developers are willing to sell this land to the city to make it into a park, preserving the precious ecosystem and benefiting thousands in the area. This window of opportunity is limited, however, so we much act quickly to save it. The number one thing anyone can do to help is to sign the petition. I can't say how important it is to do all we can to save the woods. Suburban sprawl, void of culture and community is simply not an even trade for a forest, full of life and beauty.
For more information about LBA woods, please visit their website.
SAVE LBA WOODS!
My heart breaks when I come back home to visit for holidays and learn that yet another beautiful swath of land is slated to become another development with single-family housing. Talking with a family friend who grew up in Olympia in the 60's, she remembers riding her horse up and down College St.- Back then it was a two lane road surrounded on either side with second growth forest, pastures and farms. Today, it looks like any road in the U.S. - four lanes surrounded by single family housing. This is just one example of many showing the development that has overtaken most cities around the country today.
However, what I really want to focus on is something of greater urgency. The LBA woods in SE Olympia is 150 acres of undeveloped land, providing an incredible resource for residents to hike, bike and even ride horses. In 2012, the land had been slated to become two new housing developments. Fortunately, the developers are willing to sell this land to the city to make it into a park, preserving the precious ecosystem and benefiting thousands in the area. This window of opportunity is limited, however, so we much act quickly to save it. The number one thing anyone can do to help is to sign the petition. I can't say how important it is to do all we can to save the woods. Suburban sprawl, void of culture and community is simply not an even trade for a forest, full of life and beauty.
SAVE LBA WOODS!
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