It's nice in theory, but what will happen is the same as happened in Beaverton, OR when I lived there. People will park their cars on neighboring streets, creating a complete mess. And Beaverton has far more extensive and frequent public transportation options than Olympia does.
If we want to be like European cities where people can mostly get by without vehicles, we'll need equivalent infrastructure with much more frequent transportation options within a short walking distance. 4 times an hour only in a small part of city is not going to cut it. When the option is 15-20 minutes by car vs. 2+ hours by public transit (people do have to travel outside the "frequent" transit corridor) the car is going to be most folks choice.
The "if you don't build it, they will come" is not going to work unless the other infrastructure is provided. So of course the short-sighted Olympia council only does the part that doesn't cost anything - removing parking with no plans to make transit quick and convenient.
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