Partners in Preservation: Vote for the Spanish Steps!
Do you want to help the Spanish Steps return to their former glory?
From the Tacoma Culture website:
The National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express just unveiled the 25 finalists for grant funding under the Partners in Preservation: Seattle Puget Sound Initiative.
The Spanish Steps at 565 Broadway is one of the 25 finalists selected for funding under the program.
At stake is as much as $125,000 in private grant funding for the Steps, which will be used to restore and rehabilitate the landscaping around the Steps, using cutting edge sustainable practices while ensuring historic compatibility.
This is a component of a larger project currently underway to restore the Spanish Steps to their former glory, as the adjacent Elks Temple is renovated.
Vote Early, Vote Often!
The winner will be determined by online voting, so we need your help!
From April 15 – May 12, 2010, you have the opportunity to cast one vote each day online for the historic places that you care about. At the end of the voting period, the site with the most votes is guaranteed funding from a total of $1 million that American Express will give away to support the preservation of historic places in the Seattle-Puget Sound area.
One vote is allowed per day, per email address.
Visit www.partnersinpreservation.org.
Other very local sites on the list include the Titlow Park Lodge, Anderson Island Historical Society-Johnson Farm, and the Skansie Brothers Net Shed in Gig Harbor. You only get one vote (per day????) … so where will it go?
More information at TacomaCulture.org
Photo source: Artifacts Consulting
Filed under: History, Downtown-Elks
23 comments
E Erik B. April 15, 2010
Bloggers to the rescue of Tacoma!!
A Andrew B April 15, 2010
The Spanish Steps are getting destroyed by the Seattle Town Hall.
R Reuben McKnight April 15, 2010
There are a number of projects from the greater Seattle area that involve well known, high profile buildings.
It is therefore critical that everyone votes so that projects in Pierce County, including the Spanish Steps, get a fair showing.
I suggest making it a daily task on your Outlook calendar for the duration of the competition, and pass the information on to your friends, coworkers, distribution lists!
N Nick April 15, 2010
Yeah, not gonna happen. With a population that’s 3x that of Tacoma, Seattle will win by default. If 10% of Tacoma votes for the steps, that’s 20,000 people. If 10% of Seattle votes for Town Hall, that’s 60,000 people.
If we assume most will vote out of civic pride for their respective metropolitan centers, Tacomans would have to vote 3x for every 1 vote coming out of Seattle just to stay even.
Y You're Welcome April 16, 2010
We can complain about Seattle all day long or we can vote. We tackled the Evening Magazine “best of” list and managed to get Tacoma businesses to win over Seattle a bunch of times.
Vote, vote, vote! We’re only at 1% right now, so vote.
T Tacoma1 April 16, 2010
Well, I voted (to be perfectly clear – for the Spanish Steps). Now, although Seattle has 3 times our population, they also have 11 different sites to vote for. Conceivably, we should have a chance as long as pass along the word to everyone, and vote from work, home, and via smart phone. That will make three votes from me.
J Jesse April 16, 2010
Shall we have the ribbon cutting ceremony right now?
T Tacoma1 April 16, 2010
Maybe a caution tape or a police crime scene ribbon.
J Jesse April 16, 2010
Isn’t there a ribbon cutting ceremony (like at the MM Bridge) after completion of every 2% of a city project? Are we at 2% yet? Let’s go!
Snarkiness aside, I’ll go vote now.
T TheGulag April 16, 2010
Well, darn! As much as I would like to vote for the Spanish Steps and as much as I care about historic preservation in Tacoma, I care more about King Street Station. Maybe I’ll vote for each every other day.
E Erik B. April 16, 2010
With a population that’s 3x that of Tacoma, Seattle will win by default.
That just means we will have to amass 3.1x the blogging mojo.
G geargirl April 16, 2010
Just voted—-go spanish steps!!
A Altered Chords April 16, 2010
They have 3X the population and .00002 times the spirit.
Go Tacoma!
Go Spanish Steps!
T Tacoma1 April 16, 2010
FYI to all,
If you want your vote to count – you have to open up the email that you receive from the Historical Trust Society and confirm your vote. Otherwise your vote won’t get counted.
A Altered Chords April 16, 2010
I voted last night. Just tried to vote again. It said I already voted today.
This is rigged!
Damn Seattle!
C Colin April 17, 2010
Hey everyone, let’s not start talking about this contest as if the Steps have already lost.
More importantly, a critical fact not clearly explained by the contest is that ALL 25 SITES will be given some amount of money. So even if the Steps are in last place, we will still get 5,000 dollars. Be happy! That money alone will do the Spanish Steps a whole lot of good.
C Colin April 18, 2010
I was reading more about the winners of the previous preservation grants. It turns out that the money allocated to a particular site is determined by need, not by how high you rank in the vote. The top 12 sites win large chunks of money, up to $100,000, the remaining 13 each get $5,000. Looking at the winners for the Boston contest, the site in 12th place still received $90,800.
The point is the Spanish Steps will win a lot of money just by placing in the top 12!
C crenshaw sepulveda April 18, 2010
$100k will hardly pay for the fancy preservation consultants the city will hire if it actually does some work on the steps. So if we do win something not a dollar of that will likely go into replacing one rung of the spanish steps or fixing any broken bits. The preservation consultants can count on a juicy pay day, though.
A Altered Chords April 19, 2010
the steps just need to be cleaned.
I’ll do it for 100,000.
C crenshaw sepulveda April 19, 2010
Reuben, sounds from what you wrote there will be plenty of fresh consultants with their snout in the trough with that fancy landscaping and historically appropriate sewage system. I’d like to see those fancy consultants doing some scuba diving in those sewers.
Y You're Welcome April 19, 2010
Schooner adventures is pulling ahead. At least they’re Tacoma too!
Y You're Welcome April 24, 2010
Keep voting! Once you register, open up the email or your vote won’t count. And then, vote every day.
VOTE!
C Colin April 27, 2010
We’ve fallen back to 18th place. This is free money people! All you need to do is vote, and if we get past 12th place the Spanish Steps will be in position to get up to $100,000!