During all this Capitol Hill Pride chaos, has anyone one wondered where the traditional Pride banners are that used to line Broadway?
The tradition was started in the mid-1980's by Bill Swigart and was taken over by the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce. I went directly to Executive Director, Sierra Hansen for a response.
Hansen explained that the company that used to put up the banners had retired. The city also requires a permit to turn off the Metro Trolley lines (which costs about a $1,000) in order to put up the 26 banners, and another $1,000 permit to take the banners down. In addition it costs $6,000 to print the banners raising the price tag to $8,000.
When I asked Hansen if there were any steps to reach out to notify the community of the extra cost, she replied that they had conducted a survey in early 2017, and the banners were not a priority that the Chamber wanted to spend money on. Other steps to notify the community never happened.
Hansen was enthusiastic about if anyone in the community wanted to take this project on to ensure this tradition continues.
Seattle Gay News publisher, George Bakan said he would get involved as a sponsor and would welcome the community to come together and support the project for next year.
