OWEN TAYLOR: MYTHS OF DOWNTOWN OLYMPIA >>>

So I am on the couch in my office, staring out the window at a neon Olympia Beer sign and reminiscing. In front of me sits the sidewalk and four open 90-minute parking spaces. Across the street is the empty Diamond parking lot next to the hollow shell of our old friend, The Reef. (RIP, homey.) Adjacent to that is the boarded-up storefront that was formerly Audio Northwest, recently relocated to the greener pastures of Lacey. Behind that, another parking lot, endowed with both metered and un-metered spots, most unoccupied. Half a block up, across the street from Caffe Vita in the central core of downtown at Fourth and Washington, a pair of construction trucks, both idling with the drivers chuckling at what is surely a manly conversation, occupy the Diamond lot operated at U.S. Bank.

Nobody is parked in front of the darkened windows formerly known as Otto’s Bagels. Vita closed early.

Does Olympia have a parking problem?  Read my full report on the Weekly Volcano Web site.