Sylvester Park — Attraction in Olympia

This is probably one of the oldest city parks in the area. It gets a bad rap for the amount of homeless that hang out or sleep here during the day. But c'mon, have you been to any decent sized city and walked thru the main downtown park in the daytime? Kinda how it goes in this day and time. People need rest, especially when you've been trying to just survive all night.

Now, for the practical stuff. Park closes at dusk and honestly I rarely see another there past that time. After all, there really is just a Gazebo, grass, trees and bushes here. This park is best known for being the starting spot for Olympia goings on and events. Also almost always clean due to the Oly Clean Team working so hard.

P. S. We live very close by and before the pandemic hit I used to walk thru here every morning about 6:30 am (often still dark) on the way to my state job and never once felt threatened or afraid.

Stop blaming the homeless for...

Nice, small park in the center of Olympia. It sits in front of The Old Capital building, which has a long history. There's no activities or playgrounds or picnic tables. It is only for walking with a couple benches. There's yes asking one side, but it is surrounded by busy streets. This park is greatly affected by the city of Olympia's policy in dealing with the homelessness, drug and related crime problems, or lack there of. I've seen it shine perfectly, and be infested with tents. Lately, it's been okay. The police do what they can, but are limited by the city council. The gazebo isn't maintained like it could be, and is falling...

There is small sign, "watch your step" but by the time you've read it you'd have already fallen! The very top one is slightly taller and it really catches you off guard hahaha, I tore my pants and had blood on both knees. Also saw another person fall while I was waiting in my car, they spilled their coffee (photo) I wanted to scream out, ME TOO!!! but was too far away and would look like psycho, which isn't too bad since there were already screaming people in the other corner. This park be wild... There is some great stores around there, and a nice vegan restaurant on the west side. 5/10...