Steve Bloom/The Olympian
Bill and Judy Brian (right) take his brother George and his wife, June, out to experience breakfast at the Shipwreck Cafe.

Window to past, future

Diners at cafe talk about area's changes

Orginally published August 15, 2001

The Shipwreck Cafe harkens back to an earlier time in Hawks Prairie, before houses, stores and other facets of the modern world began gobbling up this pastoral area.

At 10 a.m., several regulars nibble breakfast at the diner and discuss how this northeast edge of Thurston County has changed over the years. Most are retirees.

Carl Simmons, 55, peers out the cafe window at the cars zipping by on Martin Way, which stretches north two more miles before merging with Interstate 5 at the Pierce County border.

A retired army helicopter mechanic, Simmons first set eyes on northeast Lacey in the early 1970s when he was stationed at Fort Lewis.

"Things were vastly different," he says, gesturing to the outdoor scenery. "It was just forest."

Hawks Prairie's abundance of land zoned for commercial and industrial use has made it one of the fastest growing areas in the county.

The area has attracted retailers such as Wal-Mart, which recently announced plans to open two stores in Lacey, one of them in Hawks Prairie. Target Corp. plans to build a 1.5-million-square-foot distribution center in the area, and Home Depot is expected to follow with its own 760,000-square-foot distribution hub.

Bill Brian, 69, observes that when it comes to growth, people have a comfort zone. Go beyond that, and they start cringing, he says. For him, Lacey still has plenty of parks and wooded tracts that allow him to escape the bustle of suburban life, he says.

His wife, Judy, 55, likes that Lacey is a fairly close drive to her job at Capitol Campus. In fact, Lacey is a bedroom community for a lot of people who work in Tumwater and Olympia.

And yet, those two cities think they are better than Lacey, she says. "Lacey is the other side of the tracks, and I don't care," she says.

Growth has created more cacophonous traffic, though Lacey is still far easier to drive in than many cities, Simmons says.

But Lacey planners could do more to ease traffic snarls, he says. "They're so focused on roundabouts, I don't think they're looking at other things," he says.

They should study where traffic originates then build new routes, including an arterial or two, he says.

Ray Stephens, 60, has watched Lacey grow tremendously in the 14 years he's lived there. "I really don't think it's a good thing -- it's getting too congested," Stephen says.

He marvels at the swarms of people driving around Lacey. "Where in the devil do they work?" he says. "They can't all work for the state."

The city would be better off getting small manufacturers with well-paying jobs than luring big retailers like Wal-Mart that pay low-end wages, Stephens says.

Jerry Lydon, 66, a retired state employee and 21-year Lacey resident, says subdivisions are eating up some of the area's scenic beauty. However, as long as people continue moving in, homes must be built somewhere, he says.

"You don't want all the new people living in cardboard boxes," he says.

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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