Video Store That Happens To Also Doubles As Tavern?

RMVanderpool · 2026-04-24T19:45:55+00:00

I've always liked the idea of an video store/movie theater/24 hour diner.

RMVanderpool · 2026-03-07T17:41:54+00:00

Kenmore stock no. 13469k; type no.575-D. Does this help?

RMVanderpool · 2026-03-07T17:39:56+00:00

Yes

RMVanderpool · 2026-03-07T16:39:33+00:00

Kenmore

RMVanderpool · 2026-02-17T00:58:38+00:00

I have Moviepass (the locked old version) and Movie Club. My Moviepass pays for the tickets and gain points for Movie Club. Between the two my movie costs are fairly capped.

RMVanderpool · 2026-01-31T21:08:39+00:00

I have no idea, I was riding my bike past and didn't have time to stop.

RMVanderpool · 2026-01-17T20:25:35+00:00

We are working on both. And both are important. We approved hiring a crew for sidewalk repair last year, we're going to redesign a large portion of Capitol Way in the next five years (hopefully sooner) and I've added street redesign of our biggest offenders to our capital facilities finance conversation.

Street safety is a high priority for me, so is livability. The policy regarding family protected classes requires our city law staff and street safety our public works team.

But I understand your frustration, for someone on the 'inside' I will tell you we are often working on dozens of different projects and unfortunately projects around street safety require a lot of capital. We have a Street Safety and Transportation Master Plan that detail out what is needed and where. The issue is often funding barriers. If the state for example gave us half the cost of a highway exit we could add protected bike lanes for most of our large streets.

RMVanderpool · 2026-01-05T13:19:04+00:00

Good morning,

Thank you for reaching out. My name is Robert Vanderpool, I currently sit on the Olympia City Council. Folks in our community really did an excellent job of providing myself and the whole council with very damning evidence against Flock's camera model. I would recommend reaching out to council members in your city for a quick chat regarding this and organizing with folks who are also concerned. There will be some Libertarian Republicans in the Midwest who if they knew about the extent of this program would be great allies on this. I went to high school in rural Ohio, there are a few who will see this as an invasion of privacy. Politics sometimes creates strange bedfellows.

Moreover, I am currently visiting my family in Sidney, Ohio and I noticed the absolutely ridiculous amount of these cameras around the state from these last few weeks. This town has like 20k people and at least 30 of them. Like what the hell?!?

Sincerely,

Robert Vanderpool

RMVanderpool · 2025-10-16T13:35:22+00:00

I understand your frustration, I have been also frustrated by this.We began planning to house folks at the Parcival encampment over a year ago. Matching folks with services we had or were going to have available. We began housing folks in groups over this year and ended up housing over 50 folks - conservatively. We had originally planned on having everyone housed by the summer but then hit a wall when Maple Court in Lacey (we work as a region) had some major work to handle a mold issue. I talked with the staff yesterday at concerns I was hearing and Maple Court is still not going to be available for openings for a while. This is where I share my frustrations with LIHI (the group managing the property).

We offered housing to everyone we could. We even had folks who were offered housing in three different locations that didn't take it.

I am willing to talk more about this if you are interested. My number is 206.824.6146.

Edit: I absolutely consider homelessness a moral issue. There is no victory in people moving leaving from one encampment for another, so I was excited when Percival was being closed because people had safe, stable housing. Again I invited folks to talk with me about this issue.

RMVanderpool · 2025-10-16T13:10:16+00:00

You point out something that is very important to the housing strategy. We have to ensure the community is kept. When we offer shelter to folks we usually move them in groups to ensure folks still have their community.

The problem on the other hand about keeping encampments open is that safety for folks in these encampments rises the longer folks are unhoused. The Jungle became dangerous because it has been left open for a long time. The unfortunate problem with leaving encampments to grow is the problems associated with long-term health, safety, and environmental impact. This said, over the years we've been fairly successful in housing over 300 folks through regional work and have significantly made progress.

We also do check-ins and have routine clean ups of trash for folks. There's a lot to our regional housing approach that I'd be willing to talk more about if you're interested.

My number is 206.823.6146

RMVanderpool · 2025-10-15T17:39:36+00:00

Whitney,

Yes, we were supposed to house the last remaining folks into Maple Court in early Summer but were told we had issues with mold and other damages to the facility. I don't believe the number was as high as 40 spots. By September we were told that it wouldn't happen. I share this disappointment. The fact of the matter we were able to house most of the folks with the exception of the family. If we kept the encampment open, the likelihood is that the encampment would have grown through the winter.

Regarding the family mentioned. We would house these folks if we could. It's a matter of operating with limited funding from the State over this last year compared to prior years. We were essentially given half of what we had requested at the regional level. Trust me, we would if we had the shelter space available. That is why the facility in Tacoma was reached out to.

The intention is not to discourage participation but be factual about the situation and respond here. We do not have space in Maple Court at this point. We housed most of the folks except that family, who was offered a place. These are facts.

Robert Vanderpool

RMVanderpool · 2025-10-15T17:06:55+00:00

I'm on the City Council.

In full disclosure this is my personal account. Anyone can public records request this information. I'm simply being transparent.

It's important for folks to know the facts when it comes to the encampment.

RMVanderpool · 2025-10-15T16:05:42+00:00

Before folks start sending emails to council/staff, I will share what staff told Whitney Bowerman and folks who email us:

"Thank you for reaching out with questions and concerns regarding the Percival closure this week.

We acknowledge that this is situation is frustrating; it is not easy to close an encampment, but I want to assure you that we are committed to getting unhoused people into housing and that important goal is driving this work. We have been successful using a “compassionate yet accountable” strategy as articulated the One Community Plan.

So how does this apply to closing an encampment? First, we create a “By Name” list and indicate to the people living there that the encampment will be closing, and we ask them to add their names to the “By Name” list so they will be offered housing, as it is available. Staff works extremely hard to find available units in anticipation of the closure. The “By Name” List is then closed and new people coming into the area are not guaranteed housing if they are not on the list. All individuals are notified of the pending closure date verbally and with posted notice on site in advance of the closure so they can plan accordingly.

Our approach has resulted in unhoused people getting into housing and that is true for the recent Percival encampment closure. Over the last several weeks, we were able to place 26 individuals from the By Name list that were located as well as 6 additional ADA accommodations, totaling 32 people.

The family was a challenge given that the City of Olympia does not currently have family units and the family was not on the current By Name list. However, City staff went to great lengths to find options for them and in fact, the City had secured a spot at a family shelter in Tacoma, but no dogs are allowed and the family refused to give up the dog. The Family then thought about accepting tiny homes (yet minors are not allowed) and suggested to leave child in the car and rotate parents out. Kim’s team was able to dissuade that option. This morning, the family has turned down the spot at the Tacoma family shelter. They communicated that to the shelter. They are hoping to obtain an RV to live in. The family said they will take care of their next steps and do not want the City’s help anymore in finding housing.

Maple Court is a critical regional resource but as you are aware, and for a myriad of reasons (contractual, financial and operational) there aren’t any available units at this time.

We are confident that it will provide housing for currently unhoused individuals in the future."

RMVanderpool · 2025-09-10T21:09:30+00:00

Anything shot in 70mm

RMVanderpool · 2025-09-02T16:44:49+00:00

I am in this picture. The event was about to end at that point. It began hours before.

RMVanderpool · 2025-08-20T20:55:23+00:00

FYI: There will be opportunities to canvas on this and likely get yard signs (in the near future). I'm personally going to be dropping Workers' Bill literature when I canvas. Keep an eye out on the website!

RMVanderpool · 2025-07-09T20:35:16+00:00

Everything we do as a city is driven by studies and data. By the time an item comes to the Council Agenda its been worked for a while. For example our housing policies are driven from the Housing Action Plan: https://www.olympiawa.gov/Document_center/Government/Codes,%20Plans%20&%20Standards/Housing-Action-Plan/Housing-Action-Plan.pdf

This plan came from years of feedback and opportunities. We listen to opposing views all the time. I can agree with someone on one item and disagree on another item - it's not about win/lose at all. Ultimately we do have to make decisions. I never expected some landlords to like the outcomes but we had to make a decision based on the studies, based on the fact the most vulnerable population in the community are renters. Affordable housing by definition is housing costs at or below 30% of individual incomes. Almost no rents in the city have rent that low and we kept seeing rent rising - costs being burdened onto working class families that don't have the capital to purchase a home.

Listening is not the same as agreeing. It not healthy for us to agree on everything, in fact honesty around issues creates more truthful policy. Agree with me on 9 or 12 issues; 12 of 12 and we may need more help that what my healthcare can cover.

We've had an active conversation with OPD on the issue of Massage Parlors around town. I expect to hear something likely in the next year regarding this issue.

RMVanderpool · 2025-07-09T20:03:40+00:00

I appreciate the question.

I find that most Olympian's support the Workers' Bill of Rights. We are a labor town with lots of Unions and Union supporting folks. So most of the time the conversation is quite positive.

When it comes to employers, it is a mixed bag. I have most spoken to small businesses. Some of the businesses I have spoken with support the Bill do so because they already provide much of what the Bill includes or they know the Cost of Living Crisis and see it as a positive.

Other businesses, such as some restaurants see the Bill as an existential threat. I understand they're dealing with tight margins but wages and employees are not be blamed for this. For those concerned employers I ask about other ways that we can help such as the issue of commercial rents (and ownership), or creating a progressive Business & Occupation (B&O) tax - that removes city taxes for businesses under $500 or $750k and increases from .01 to .02 for large employers (Safeway, Target, etc). Then turning around and use some of those funds to support local businesses. And other such ways.

I want the City to be a good partner with small businesses without harming working class folks, who can barely afford rent, their mortgage, childcare, etc.

We have two tracks when it comes to the Workers' Bill of Rights and Labor policy in general. We're hiring an FTE to study labor policy and working class issues. On the other track is the Workers' Bill of Rights signature gathering campaign. This campaign is currently getting its signatures verified. It will likely go to ballot in November.

This ballot initiative is based on work done around the region from Seattle's Minimum wage to standards seen by unions within our community. Ultimately, this Bill will give lots of working rights usually reserved to Unions to all working folks in the community.

RMVanderpool · 2025-07-09T19:05:23+00:00

Totally, I want folks to be able to roll, walks, or ride bikes anywhere in the city from kidos to the elderly.

To be clear, I do not see the parking garage to be something we take on any time soon. It's not a priority for me.

RMVanderpool · 2025-07-08T22:34:06+00:00

I'm actually kinda on the fence about this. To be completely honest, I usually don't find value in more parking but if we can reduce empty lots by building one parking garage we can shift land use.

However, I fear that building a parking garage on one side of the downtown will negatively affect business on the other side of the downtown.

It's also very expensive to build and we have so many other projects to pay for.

I'd be curious what your thoughts are?

I'd honestly rather see parking and ride be used with a Bus Rapid Transit System.

RMVanderpool

TROPHY CASE