For the past eight years, the Othello neighborhood banners have been under the care of the Othello Neighborhood Association and Southeast Effective Development (SEED) Arts Director, Jerri Plumridge. They are constructed of sturdy canvas pieces in bold primary colors, each in a different design representing a cultural symbol important to one or more of the many ethnic groups in the neighborhood.
In 1999 the City of Seattle awarded a grant for the banner project to help enhance the neighborhood's identity and give it a sense of place. Plumridge assembled a group of Othello neighbors to judge works of several artists who had applied for the project. The group selected the local artist, Alesandra Panieri to create the designs. Panieri produce more designs than the fabrication funds would cover so the Plumridge helped the neighbors coordinate a voting effort to select their favorites. Ballots were placed in local businesses and handed out at neighborhood events.
From 2001 through 2005 the banners waved in summer breezes over Martin Luther King Way from utility poles as the aged streets and sidewalks below were being gobbled up by bulldozers and traffic jams became the order of the day. Then in 2006, while the banners were in winter storage, the poles on which they had hung came tumbling down as all utilities along the street were placed underground.
That might well have marked the demise of the Othello Neighborhood banners. After all, the grant funds had run out and there was no money left to cover their annual removal and reinstallation. Besides, the average outdoor life expectancy for this type of fabric public art is only about eight summers. Yet the colors were still vibrant, and, except for a few minor wind rips and tears, most of these objects d'arte were still pretty much in tact.
Fortunately for the Othello Neighborhood banners, 2006 was the year that several neighborhood groups joined forces to fight crime on their streets. They decided that giving the place a more cared-for look might at least move the criminal element away to other parts of town. The group decided to apply for a Small and Simple Neighborhood Matching Fund grant to spruce up with flowers, cleaning and public art. It was Plumridge who suggested that the installation of the neighborhood banners on Othello Street be included in the grant proposal.
So in the summers of 2006 and 2007, bright multicultural symbols flew over Othello from 46th Street to the New Holly Community Center. By the time the summer of 2008 arrived, Martin Luther King Way at Othello Street had been transformed. Instead of bull dozers, cranes and broken pavement, there were new streets and sidewalks, a light rail station complete with attractive paving stones, a sculpture plaza, leafy young trees, and even a new bus shelter decorated with ocean waves and lacey metal fans.
The time had come to reinstall the Othello Neighborhood banners for their original intended purpose as standard bearers to demarcate the Othello Station area. The grant money had been expended long since, so the neighbors just took up a collection from their personal funds to have them hung.
It took several weeks for Jerri Plumridge to obtain new street permits from the Department of Transportation. But she got the banners up only a few days before the scheduled arrival to the first test trains. This was the Othello Neighborhood's way of greeting the new arrivals without residents needing to leave their homes, jobs and offices. Because the banners have reached their life expectancy, and because there are no further funds for installation and removal, these established neighborhood institutions will remain in the station area year round for as long as they last.
If funding becomes available when they are gone, new banners could be fabricated from the many Panieri designs that still exist. In fact, Panieri's banners could be made for all of Martin Luther King Way, if the public will emerges.
Currently the Martin Luther King Business Association in conjunction with Sound Transit and other neighborhood groups are planning a large public safety event under the banners in the Othello Station area. The purpose will be to highlight potential hazards and safety rules along the light rail line. Neighbors want to minimize chances of anyone being hurt as the test trains begin to run swiftly and with greater frequency.
Linh Thai, president of the business association is the chief organizer of the safety event on September 27. Martin Luther King Way will be blocked off to cars between Othello and Myrtle Street for the occasion. Thai admits that it may be difficult to get enough people to come. He thinks a large grant will be needed to employ big name entertainers who speak English as well as Vietnamese and other local languages.
"Otherwise it will just be a couple hundred old neighborhood regulars who show up for everything and who already know what's going on," Thai said.
One neighbor likened the situation to the time after a passenger jet has taken off and the captain's voice comes on the public address system to describe the safety features of the aircraft where passengers tune out and go to sleep. But Thai said it would be cost effective in the long run for Sound Transit to provide a larger grant.
"A program to attract several thousand people would cost about $20,000," he said. "One wrongful death law suit would cost 10 times that much."
Thai said he is asking everyone to petition Sound Transit for a grant sufficient enough to hire high visibility, popular entertainers that will bring more people to the safety event.
Mona Lee may be reached via editor@sdistrictjournal.com.[[In-content Ad]]