So many bands and music fans are concerned about the future of the Manium - an all ages venue in downtown Olympia that the city is trying to shut down. If you have ever been involved with an all-ages venue in any city in the US, you know the kind of problems they face. Instead of being appreciated for getting kids off the streets and away from the television, they are viewed as sources of illegal activities and the corruption of society. Maybe there are a few rare cases where this happens, but usually the venue is a boon to society, especially a culture that neglects its youth more and more and fails to provide healthy gathering spaces.

Olympia, WA - Incubator Of Indie Bands

Well, despite being recognized by the rest of the country as an incubator of unique music, Olympia has always been a tough place to operate a music venue. Perhaps that’s why so many “garage bands” come out of there. Olympia is predominantly a college town (Evergreen State College) and the state capital. The capital building and the campus are a short drive up one or another hill from the main strip of downtown. The downtown area has been suffering the same plight as most small towns in the last decade - more big chains have moved in and less small business have stayed. The area gets more and more gentrified and you see less and less of the students and youth culture that once saturated the area. I say all this from experience: I attended Evergreen and lived across town near the capital building. The downtown area used to be nothing but an excellent pizza joint, a newstand with regular gatherings upstairs, an all-day-breakfast joint, and all-ages venues like The Capital Theater and a small place I can’t remember the name of… The last time I played a show in Olympia, it had to be at the Eagle’s Hall - you know like a men’s secret society kind of place! The Manium is a prime target - an independent all-ages venue occupying a building that is desired by Starbucks, Walgreens and other major chains. The city undoubtedly feels it could benefit more from such upstanding money-making businesses than a cultural haven that is focused more on people than on dollar signs.

The City’s Impossible Demands

Therefore, the city has launched a full-scale attack on the venue, created hoops that are impossible to jump through, inventing regulations that cannot be met, insisting that the club needs permits that don’t exist, etc. The Manium and all of its supporters (which include many bands that are reported on HT - many of which have been sending out my$pace bulletins to gather support) - have been circulating information about the situation via the web and info on how anyone can help. Here is the full text, from the Manium people themselves, that has been sent out:

A month ago, code enforcement posted a “notice to Abate Unsafe or Unlawful Conditions (Nuisance)” letter on our front door. This basically means that the entire building can not be used for anything. The letter goes on to threaten a year in Jail and $5000.00 per day until abatement. Since then and despite our NON STOP EFFORTS the city has made very little effort to work with us to re open the venue. They demand we get a permit for something, we go to pay for the permit and the permit doesn’t exist. They demand we send in an electrical engineer to the code office and when the electrician shows up they turn him away (this has happened twice!) They
continue to stall, lose paper work, not show up to appointments and not call us back. They’ve also let their personal biases effect there decisions. During our last meeting with several city officials the Chief fire marshal stated, “We know what goes on down here.”

In 2005 the city shut down the Manium for 3 months and all we had to do was put in another door and an exit sign! Then, as now, there is no reason we cannot remain open while all these piddlely details are worked out. A Repeat of these shenanigans might be the end of this venue.

If underground music is something that’s important to you please write all the people involved with the Manium “case.” Please tell them that this issue needs to be resolved immediately and so we can reopen. Tell them that Shutting down an EXISTING business, causing dozens of shows to be canceled with NO notice in unacceptable and damaging to the spirit of our town. It is in their power to reopen the venue in a matter of days but it just isn’t a priority for them. Without community support I can see this easily taking 6 months to a year or never.

Thank you for your time,
Manium Collective

P.S. Here’s a list of just about every city official that has something to do with this as well as all the city council members. Pease take a few
minute and write them all and, please BE POLITE in your letters.

Mark Foutch, Mayor of Olympia, Washington: mfoutch@ci.olympia.wa.us
Laura Ware, Mayor Pro Tem: lware@ci.olympia.wa.us
T.J. Johnson, Councilman: tjohnson@ci.olympia.wa.us
Karen Messmer, Councilwoman: kmessmer@ci.olympia.wa.us
Jeff Kingsbury, Councilman: jkingsbu@ci.olympia.wa.us
Doug Mah, Councilman: dmah@ci.olympia.wa.us
Joe Hyer, Councilman: jhyer@ci.olympia.wa.us
Steve Hall, City Manager: shall@ci.olympia.wa.us
George Ziesemer, Olympia Fire Marshall and Asst. Chief:
gzieseme@ci.olympia.wa.us
Capt. Rob Bradley, Asst. Fire Marshall: rbradley@ci.olympia.wa.us
Keith Stahley, Director Community Planning/Development:
kstahley@ci.olympia.wa.us
Steven Friddle, Principal Planner: sfriddle@ci.olympia.wa.us
Tom Hill, Permitting and Inspection Services Manager: thill@ci.olympia.wa.us
Ben Barnes, Construction Inspection Supervisor: bbarnes@ci.olympia.wa.us
Ruth Snyder, Code Enforcement Officer: rsnyder@ci.olympia.wa.us

Manium Links

Here is the Manium my$pace page where you can see flyers for Manium events in the comments as well as keep up with their status.

If you are in the Seattle/Olympia area, try to attend a show and see for yourself what goes on there, and support the bands with your $5-7 entry price.

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