Home » A Fremont History Lesson On Grassroots Activism, For The SPL

A Fremont History Lesson On Grassroots Activism, For The SPL

an editorial by Kirby Lindsay Laney, posted 2 October 2015

 

Last month, The Seattle Public Library (SPL) system issued a press release about its re-branding campaign – and drew a lot of quizzical and contemptuous comments.  Right now, the SPL has a public, on-line survey (find the link here) for those willing to comment on the name change (to ‘Seattle Public Libraries’, really,) three possible new logos, and the proposed ‘brand statement’.  The survey will be open for input until 5p on October 11th.  On October 28th, the SPL Board of Trustees is scheduled to review our feedback and determine the next step, including spending a proposed $365,000 on the rebranding.

I’ve got suggestions:

  • consider grassroots, Fremont-style rebranding,
  • save the money,
  • and spend a fraction of that third-of-a-million on more staff, and materials, for the Fremont Branch Library.

No Comparison?

It is a bit naive to compare rebranding the SPL to rebranding the community of Fremont.  The SPL has the ginormous Central Library in addition to 26 neighborhood branches (plus mobile services,) a collection of 2.4 million items and a budget of 50 million dollars.

In the 1970s, the Fremont retail district was about 3 blocks by 4 blocks, and had lain in a worsening coma since the 1940s.  We’d become known as the area for down-and-outers, particularly those abusing drugs and drink.  Our image was of a drunk stumbling blindly down a dim alley (for a while, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer actually used a stock photo of a drunk laying in a Fremont alley with any story about our neighborhood.)

We did have a successful industrial area, and other legitimate businesses, operating here – mostly behind boarded-up or barred windows.  Residential homes sold well here, due to our proximity to Downtown Seattle, as long as agents listed the homes as being in Ballard, Wallingford, North Queen Anne or South Greenwood.  Artists had started filling some of the cheap, run-down once-commercial buildings – as long as they didn’t mind settling among the desperate, the junkies and the freeloaders.

The artists, and the fed-up business owners, did wake Fremont, about then, using grassroots, and now legendary, methods.  These were people like Armen Stepanian, Fremont’s Elected Mayor, and Richard Beyer, a local artist, along with business owners, residents, church leaders and, frankly, more than a few visionaries.  They found opportunities to draw positive attention to our community – our brand – with volunteers, grants, donations and government programs.

In 1972, the Fremont Fair began, using sweat equity rather than cash, and drawing in so many people that it could became a fundraiser for social services through the Fremont Public Association.  County funds, through Forward Thrust, inspired public art work – the People Waiting For The Interurban – and an identity.  The City of Seattle came to finishing painting our bridge, and Stepanian (and others) turned this civic project into a rallying cry and a source of community pride, by forcing an un-heard of orange-and-blue paint job.

A Fremont-Style Re-Brand

By the 1980s, the neighborhood was awakening, and grassroots efforts turned more proactive rather than reactive.  The Fremont Chamber of Commerce began (in 1982) and got more organized, but still spent almost nothing.

Local architect George Heideman is credited with the brain storm that became ‘The Center of The Universe’ campaign, and gave Fremont a hook – for no money.  Local artist, Maque daVis, installed a piece of guerrilla art – The Fremont Guidepost – from his own workshop and on his own time.  Grant money from the City and County, and a whole heck of a lotta Fremont Arts Council volunteers, built a ferro-concrete troll beneath the Aurora Bridge, and converted an area of chronic litter and drug dealings into the second most visited site in Seattle.  A 1994 Proclamation (made by the King County Council, and on their dime) declared Fremont an ‘Independent ImagiNation’ and rallied the ‘Artist’s Republic Of Fremont’ together.

Money was spent – a local graphic designer earned a few dollars for an official Fremont Chamber logo (still used over 30 years later.)  Public relations expert Jeanne Muir got a small (a few hundred dollars) monthly stipend for getting publicity for Fremont in the 1990s (she wrote the Proclamation.)  Many, many producers made money organizing events here – including the fundraising Fremont Oktoberfest – funded by their events, sweat equity and donations.

The FAC Solstice Parade, the Outdoor Cinema, the Walking Guide To Fremont, the Fremont Sunday Market, the Miracle On 34th Street: A Celebration Of Life Through Miniature Golf, the Fremont Briefcase Relay, painting ‘troll prints’ on the sidewalk, salvaging a Koren-war era Rocket, staging a protest when a local business gave us bad press (and turning it into good press,) welcoming the statue of a controversial dead dictator, wrapping said dictator in lights and using him to celebrate Christmas, salvaging two dinosaur topiaries and parading them, and on and on the list goes demonstrating ways that volunteer time, and some donated funds, re-branded Fremont from loser-ville into ‘the Center of the Universe.’

And please, remember that this was back before social media, and before flash mobs.  Public calls, passion and an ‘I-gotta-‘cause-no-one-else-will’ attitude may be beyond the abilities of huge non-profit civic organizations, but they shouldn’t be.

Money Vs Grassroots

The mission of the Seattle Public Library is:  “to bring people, information and ideas together to enrich lives and build community.”  Sounds exactly like grassroots activism.  So far, the SPL reports spending no public funds on the re-brand initiative, and the survey.  They have spent Seattle Public Library Foundation money – donations – on it, and I hope their donors don’t mind (especially because, if the SPL becomes ‘Seattle Public Libraries’, will the Foundation have to change its name too?)

Businesses, and non-profits, must reassess and rebrand some times.  Yet, at whose expense?  The SPL started this re-brand in 2014, and they now have a proposed brand statement and three logo designs still, “not yet approved or final.”  How much time does this need to take?

The SPL has avid patrons, a large and skilled staff, and many passionate volunteers.  A lot could be done, if a coherent and coalescing call to follow went out.

And the $365,000?  A terrific overview of the SPL rebranding, by Paul Constant of the Seattle Review of Books, points out the most precious treasure in our libraries – a staff that either know everything, or know where to find it.  They maintain a trove of materials that contain all knowledge… along with many hours delightful entertainment!

Give our Fremont Branch more staff, more materials and a remote control so that no one must walk the whole beautiful building with a step-ladder – to open windows in the morning and close them in the afternoon.  Currently the Fremont Branch can’t have volunteers help out, with shelving and sorting, simply because we don’t have the staff for oversight.

Please, fill out the latest SPL survey, to let them know which logo you prefer and answer their question on what will “help us move forward as an essential part of the Seattle community?”  If you have any questions, contact stephen.halsey@spl.org (who was not consulted for this editorial.)

And if you, or your business or organization need to rebrand or reboot or simply get going, look to the lessons of Fremont – hard work and a lack of shame do amazing things!

 

 

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©2015 Kirby Lindsay.  This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws.  Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.

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