Olympia, WA @ Sylvester Park & BOA (4-30-14) — A day in the park across from the elegant sandstone old State Capitol building was almost perfect except for a few quirks in some of the denizens there, one in particular. He’d done 17 years in prison, he told the photographer, and was suffering from PTS syndrome. It was a balmy afternoon, the temperature at 82 degrees, a light breeze, benches to sit on, a water fountain, emerald green manicured grass and very light traffic. What could be more perfect?
Well, a couple of things, maybe more. Like Seattle, Olympia isn’t known for it’s hospitality when it comes to bathrooms or public toilets. Sylvester Park has none. Starbucks, across the street does, but the combination is only given to paying customers. Bubble Island, next door, offers apologies, but no relief. The public restrooms at Heritage park a few blocks away are fenced off for renovations, the gazebo in the park is barricaded and locked against potential public use (accompanied by WSP harassment for anyone who steps over the low wrought iron barrier to try), the wooden towers on the public boardwalk park are padlocked shut to prevent the public from enjoying them, and all the city’s public restrooms are locked promptly at 5:00 pm daily, reportedly to prevent the homeless and drug addicts from using them.
Too Manicured, too much nice gear to be ‘homeless’
Hip Hop Culture
Spring Fever
Young Lions
An employee at Bubble Island explained it was the owner’s policy to refuse the public (even customers) the use of his toilet. Olympia is schizoid on this issue, preferring to remain in the stone age when it comes to public health. Nightly, its dispatcher calls patrol units after receiving various complaints ranging from “homeless woman defecating behind a dumpster” to “white man dancing in the street”. Officer Clancy is, no doubt, anxious to speed to the scene of the dumpster before she gets away. The city imagines locking the public toilets will prevent people from doing ‘bad’ things (needles/syringes)…at least there. So the needles now appear in parks, on parking lot pavement, the sidewalks and street corners. No medical treatment facilities for treatment of drug addicts are apparent. The police are charged with arresting and housing them in jail–not exactly an optimal situation to treat drug addiction or those with mental illness. Still, it’s popular with the ‘tough on crime’ set.
Nice Gear
Bikes, Camping Gear, and Guitars
Family Affair
Camera shy much?
Why city residents tolerate the padlocking of public and recreational facilities they have purchased with their hard earned tax dollars remains a mystery. The Artesian well on 4th is now fenced off too for gentrification. Community cynics suspect once completed, it too will be burdened with attenuated hours like Sylvester park where anyone visiting it after dark may be cited or arrested for trespass. Time will tell, but the historical track record of the municipality isn’t good. Right now, friends of the well must choke down the rubber taste of the water as they draw it from a hose the city has run through the chain link fence to prevent access to it. One local resident, when asked, while filling her 5-gallon container, how she felt about the fence replied, “I hate it!”
Festive or Restive?
Back lit highlight
Blond Sounds the Alarm
Suspicious Glares
Gearing Up
Quite a number of the homeless were sleeping on the lush grass, basking in the sun. Street sense has revealed the police do not harass them there during the day like they do at night when they’ll be forced to find less visible respite since the City of Olympia passed an ordinance criminalizing anyone found sleeping/’camping’ on public property anywhere within its limits. The City tried to prevent a young Native American minister from feeding the hungry in a vacant parking lot twice a week. Ben refused to heed their admonishment, and so far the City’s administrators have not moved to confront him. Ben happens to have the support of virtually all the Pacific Northwest tribes. A few of the town’s naysayers argue those being fed aren’t truly needy, but are simply ‘hanging out’ as a social outlet. Others, including Ben, are convinced not feeding the poor is NOT an option! Ben won’t back down. In an era when food stamps and others safety nets are being cut/eliminated, Ben may have better intuition than the town’s elected officials.
Barefoot in the Park
Sylvester park had considerable trash this day near one bench replete with broken shards of glass from what appeared to be Christmas ornaments embedded in the lawn. The upkeep is expensive when slobs abuse it. Spending over $200,000 annually on its maintenance, the State (current owner) would like to give it to the City of Olympia. So far, the town hasn’t taken the bait. Add to that the cost of arrests for those cited in the park for violations which currently fall to the WSP, and the State’s liability begins to soar.
Trash & Broken Glass detract from Sylvester Park
A large group of young people were gathered in the park, “just chilling” according to one. One older gentlemen who lives on the street claimed 90% of them were homeless, stating he knew many there. Initially, considering they were young enough to be in school, it was early afternoon on a school day and Wednesday found most people with jobs at work, this opinion made sense, But the youths were too clean and had too much shiny gear and other assets to resemble hard core homeless. They weren’t the bored youth who show up downtown on Friday evenings or Saturdays for lack of anything else to do. But, they did resemble the kind of lifestyle (A)narchists and hip hop fans who show up for May Day gatherings. Moreover, they demonstrated the same kind of paranoia about street photography many (A)narchists nurture. Time and again their misapprehensions about photojournalism needed to be addressed.
A Fleeting Spring Moment
Easy Rider
Starbucks Window Display
One somewhat older man (pictured herein) aggressively approached the photographer, explaining he’d done 17 years in prison. He wasn’t asked why. He claimed to ‘know’ it was illegal to photograph in public without the consent/permission of the subject. When disabused of this misinformation, he refused to accept the facts while becoming more aggressive until he was invited to discuss where the legal boundaries lie with ‘experts’ on the matter. After asking who that might be, he was told the police were required to be knowledgeable enough about the law to enforce it. He stated he didn’t want to talk to the police (911) and left in a huff.
Kicking it in Olytown
No cameras were seen in this crowd
Ex-con Glowers at Photographer
2 Hazards of Street Photography
17 Years in Prison made him an expert in photojournalism law
Mainstream media in a crew are seldom, if ever, challenged in this manner. Perhaps independent photojournalists appear to be ‘low hanging fruit’ more easily intimidated. Appearances can be deceiving. Moreover, public parks/spaces are not venues belonging only to the strong or most menacing. It is vital for the public to reclaim them by exercising their rights there rather than relinquishing them by abandonment. Street photography has the virtue of not only exercising 1st Amendment rights, else we risk losing them, but by removing effective anonymity from those who would violate the rights of others in these public spaces. The state has demonstrated it can/will not protect these spaces and the public. Thus, the public MUST take responsibility to preserve them and protect themselves. This is best accomplished by removing such public venues and those who frequent them from the shadows. It is hoped that crowds and masks will not serve to shield those intent on committing crimes on May Day from accountability in Olympia.
This Man’s Attire is more consistent with ‘homelessness’
Leaving in a Huff
Oly’s Downtown Bank of America Branch
The ‘chalking’ of Oly’s Bank of America was scheduled to begin at 4:00 pm. After waiting a half hour, hope was fading anyone would show up at all. A walk around the block found no one, but some side streets had their own stories. Traditions Cafe proudly displayed a poster supporting the “People’s House”. Sidewalk cafe diners schmoozed with their families. A long abandoned downtown nursery and greenhouse was returning to nature. There were a lot of empty storefronts and an interesting antique store displaying flowers set on an artistically unvarnished wooden chair left on the sidewalk.
Bank of America’s interior was photographed seconds before exiting to avoid being ejected. There were bulletproof walls and plexiglass shields between the customers and tellers. It had all the charm of an execution chamber. Exterior cameras surveilling the street commanded strategic points on the upper corners of the building. Text emblazoned on its glass entryway warned anyone entering for any reason other than banking was trespassing, cautioning the police had been so advised. But, like so many ill informed street elements who erroneously believe they have more control over public streets/spaces than they are entitled to, the bank demonstrated it too was a bully, but relied on the police to threaten and intimidate where no law had been broken.
In a Family Kind of Way
At Your Service
A Touch of Class
Once These Bones Danced As Quick As Foxes
Art Deco
Two intrepid souls with a box of multi-colored chalk sticks finallyarrived to write the words of the prophets virtually on the bank’s doorstep. “War Profiteers” greeted pedestrians as they entered while “Hi There” on the bank’s glass door tried to put customers at ease. Other sidewalk messages urged citizens to take their money to local credit unions and expressed great antipathy toward the war mongering corporate behemoth.
A few young ladies sauntered by and even wavered when urged to express their opinions on the concrete. The City of Olympia had handed out chalk to children for just such purposes only days earlier during the Procession of the Species. Still, as it turned out, the bank was not amused. Ultimately, however, there were no takers and the two who arrived to express their displeasure with BOA were the only ones with chalked fingers when they left. Before they managed that, an interesting interlude occurred which revealed the relationship, as the bank sees it, between itself, the police, and citizen dissidents.
No Comments
No Takers to Add to the Sidewalk Script
Anti-Chalk Brigade to the Rescue?
The photojournalist on hand noticed a man conservatively dressed talking on a cell phone while sitting on the edge of the bank’s concrete flower box around the corner. Not knowing what his relationship was to the bank, if any, or the police, his picture was snapped along with others as they happened by. He was heard, shortly thereafter, reporting by cell phone, that a photographer had taken his picture and describing him. The adjacent wall made the conversation easy to hear.
About the time the two chalk artists were preparing to leave, one got out his tablet to take a few digital photos. A large employee of the bank came out the door and appeared to inspect the the front and side of the building, perhaps for photographers, before reentering the premises. The gentleman photographed earlier had ducked inside, perhaps to complain. And, although the bank had large surveillance cameras mounted on its walls to monitor people on the street, she confronted the chalking dissident while he held his tablet camera in hand, to threaten him with the police if he’d been or intended to photograph ‘customers’.
First, she had the wrong guy as this photographer had now positioned himself across the street for a better camera angle. Second, the man she accosted had not broken any laws, nor had this photographer by recording faces on the street. Still, her attempt at intimidation spoke volumes as to who the police work for in reality and what their corporate masters expect of them. It was like looking at the privilege of the nobility through a time warp into colonial America. She felt at liberty, once she’d escorted the complaining ‘customer’ to safety after determining the coast was all clear, to bully the chalk bearer.
A moment of levity occurred when a city firetruck tanker drove by the scene. For an instant, speculated was made they had been summoned to pressure hose the chalked text from the sidewalk. It would have made a great photo-op, but it was not to be. Evidently, the firemen had more important business elsewhere.
“The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls, tenement halls…and echo in the sounds of silence.” -B. Dylan-
