More than two dozen heat-braving souls just wrapped up the first of two meetings led by an earnest Alki couple, Libby and Paul Carr, who are trying to salvage the stalled Alki Statue of Liberty plaza project. Ultimately, the final say on the future of this West Seattle icon rests elsewhere …… specifically, with the city Parks Department, represented at tonight’s meeting by Pamela Kliment. (She wants to hear from anyone and everyone with an opinion about the statue’s future; click here to e-mail her.)
A few more facts about the situation, and what could happen next, were revealed tonight. We’ll try to bullet-point them, since it’s too hot to sit still much longer at the computer, and if you read this within a few hours of when we write it, you’ll probably agree:
*Architects Matt Hutchins and Chris Ezzell have put 500 “pro bono” hours into designing the potential plaza, centering on the newly recast statue (which is done and paid for) atop a new pedestal that would incorporate the plaque from the current one. The architects were there tonight to show their renderings; you can see them here. They also offered a rough estimate of about $135,000 for the plaza project.
*The Carrs explained their role by saying they originally had volunteered to help unveil the new statue and wound up (apparently because of past organizing experience) taking a leadership role in the project because of some reported changes at Northwest Program for the Arts, which had been spearheading it previously.
*What NPA has done with the money paid by people who ordered engraved bricks to be part of a potential plaza, no one seems to know. (A show of hands at tonight’s meeting suggested that most in attendance had bought at least one of those bricks. The city says the bricks could still be incorporated into an installation of the new statue on the oldd base.)
*The Carrs have already drawn up plans for a new fundraising campaign, showing off an org chart tonight and introducing more than half a dozen people who have volunteered to lead various facets of the process, including a computer expert whom they say is helping them launch a new project website. (They say it will be at sealady.org within a week — for Seattle’s Lady Liberty; they also offered some backstory on the history of this statue and many others installed nationwide by the Boy Scouts more than a half-century ago.)
*They say the new pedestal incorporated into the plaza project would be more vandalism-resistant. However, attendee questions drew out the fact that the recast statue (currently in waiting in Tacoma) is much sturdier than the old one, and would be tougher to harm with tactics such as the frequent torch-arm-removal that has happened over the years.
*The new statue’s extra sturdiness and weight (now 1,500 pounds) would not be a problem for the old pedestal to hold, according to Parks Department rep Kliment.
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Given the percentage of attendees who either are already involved in the campaign or said they had purchased bricks in the last fundraising round, it wasn’t surprising to see a straw vote tonight come out about 10 to 1 in favor of the new plaza. Kliment noted quite firmly that she couldn’t take much stock in that and wants to hear from more members of the community. (Here’s that e-mail link again.)
One man noted that the next anniversary of 9/11 is just two months from today, and reminded everyone that the original 9/11 drew mourners to the Alki Statue of Liberty from all over the area. He voiced regrets that there’s just an empty base holding its place, and wondered if perhaps a flag could be placed in time for the next anniversary.
As for an overall time frame, the Carrs seemed optimistic that the new plaza could be in place within a year. The Parks Department says the new statue could return to its old base a lot sooner. This is why the situation reminds us something of the Tunnel Vs. Viaduct debate we all went through earlier this year (no Third Option in this one that we know of, however) — it’s a choice between a thing of unquestionable beauty requiring more money and more time, and something functional that could be accomplished more cheaply and in less time.
Take a look at the plaza renderings again.
Do you think the area west of the Alki Bathhouse needs the plaza to grace the re-created statue, or would you be happy just to see it back on its old base, a tree stump, whatever? We’ll say it one more time — take a minute now to tell the city what you think. If you want to hear more about the plaza, the Carrs plan a rerun of tonight’s informational meeting next Monday night — when we can only hope the near-100 heat will be in our rear-view mirror! (And if you’re ready right now to jump into the project, the Carrs were circulating a sign-up sheet tonight and say they’ll welcome more help … we expect there’ll be a link once the website is up.)
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