Lacey Washington - A Sandwiched Place

One aspect of being middle-aged is being part of a sandwich generation—caught between care of our children and care of our aging parents. It is never easy to live in that sandwich; people who live with that reality can feel squeezed and sometimes isolated as their role in the family changes on both sides of their life. Maybe this idea of sandwiched people can also describe communities—Lacey certainly feels like a sandwiched place to me—squeezed between different places and definitely without a communal center but plenty of big name stores.

Lacey is sandwiched between the Joint Base Lewis McCord (JBLM) and Olympia, our city capital and home to the illustrious Evergreen State College. Lacey is a suburb that grew quite fast—for most of the early 2000’s, Thurston was the fastest growing county in the western part of our state. Lacey is sandwiched between Suburban growth and Rural areas.

Lacey is diverse in its population; hosting people of all ethnicities and color. As for the spread of ages, Lacey boasts several retirement communities—including Panorama, which is the largest retirement community on the west coast. On the other end of the spectrum, Lacey also boasts a big population of younger generations—given our close proximity to the military base as well as a large university in our town (Saint Martin University). Strangely enough, there are less people that are middle-aged in Lacey. The majority are senior citizens and younger generations.

If you were to draw a five mile radius from the city hall and library, you would find a good 7-10 trailer park neighborhoods. Most of these complexes cater to people that are living on the edge financially. Meth use as well as crime within that radius is higher than in other parts of the county. Or at least that was the opinion of a law enforcement officer that I have spoken with.

One thing I can say with certainty is that there is a higher rate of poverty in our part of the county. The satellite food banks in our part of the county are more populous than in other parts of the county. The need for programs that help with school supplies and winter coats is generally greater in North Thurston County where Lacey is located. We know from a recent count in Thurston that over 700 adults are homeless in our county and over 1100 children.

Social services for homeless or at risk families is hidden if at all accessible in Lacey. Olympia is considered the place to be if you are homeless and/or in need of services. Many of the poor in Lacey live either in trailer parks, doubled up in apartments, moving from motel to motel or in their car. They are invisible in this sandwich town or more often, squeezed out entirely—not part of the community.

There are some big political fights going on concerning water in our city and land use in our county. There are concerns about the ways we are using our water and with first nations groups that have much invested in the Salmon and the water, there are different opinions about water conservation as an issue.

There is also a big concern in our county about land use and a concern for over development on flood plains or other ecologically sensitive areas. However, others say that such concerns are secondary to creating revenue streams and allowing people the freedom to build and develop the land as they wish.

I want to go back for a moment and mention the First Nations that are our neighbors. The Nisqually Tribe live minutes down the road. The level of poverty on the reservation is apparent as you drive into the community. There is a jail in Nisqually, a medical clinic and a big casino.

There are options in towns like Lacey—even with the squeeze between different opposing ideas that is present, there are options and economic opportunities. There is a thriving middle class as the median incomes tend to be slightly higher than the national average and of course, significantly lower than other more affluent parts of our state. Once again, another piece of our reality: middle class to poor make up the majority of working people in Lacey.

This is the weather in Lacey; a community that grew faster than it could plan for, a city that is sandwiched between many different opposing ideas and views, a town that has incredible poverty if you scratch the surface and look a bit more carefully. There are diverse populations from Military to immigrants, government workers, and retirees.

The challenge in a place like Lacey is to find a center, a community that can hold those tensions with ease, maybe even delight in them. Speaking the Good News in Lacey and being church means a creation of community that can speak a word to both the middle class and the invisible but present ones that are living on the margins economically, it means creating community that can live with great diversity in ideas, ethnicity and background, and age. 

+George