EDITOR’S NOTE — To vote, go to http://tinyurl.com/pdn-best. Online voting now underway between Port Angeles and Bar Harbor runs until 8:59 p.m. Thursday, May 28
UPDATE — It’s game time, Port Angeles!
Port Angeles (the West division champion) is now facing Bar Harbor, Maine (the East champion) in the Final Four semifinals of Outside magazine’s “Best Town Ever” of 2015 competition.
It’s a Cinderella story for Port Angeles — after being selected as a wild card, it has now advanced through four rounds of voting and bettered Flagstaff, Ariz., Glenwood Springs, Colo., our sibling city of Bainbridge Island and Santa Barbara, Calif., the West’s No. 1 seed.
The online voting in the March Madness-style tournament has inspired social media campaigns and in-town “Vote PA!” signs and camaraderie as residents across the North Olympic Peninsula push for PA to go all the way and win the title championship on June 4.
OUR PREVIOUS STORY:
PORT ANGELES — After beating Flagstaff, Ariz., by 1,336 votes, Port Angeles wears the West division crown and is in the Final Four in Outside magazine’s hotly competitive “Best Town Ever” contest.
When five days of online voting closed at 8:59 p.m. Saturday, the final count was 36,139 for Port Angeles, or 50.94 percent, to 34,803, or 49.06 percent, for Flagstaff.
Port Angeles now faces the contest’s East division champ, Bar Harbor, Maine, which polished off Middlebury, Vt.
The vote was 22,600 (52.82 percent) for Bar Harbor to Middlebury’s 20,183 votes (47.18 percent).
If Port Angeles, the gateway to Olympic National Park, beats Bar Harbor, gateway to Acadia National Park, it would face either the Midwest division champ, Eau Claire, Wis., or the South’s victor, Chattanooga, Tenn., for the title championship.
Chattanooga was named “Best Town” by the magazine in 2011. At more than 173,000 population, it is the largest town left in the competition.
As of Sunday, both Port Angeles and Chattanooga had healthy leads over their opponents.
The magazine’s contest is set up with brackets modeled on the NCAA “March Madness” basketball tournament.
It began May 4. The final two towns go head to head beginning May 28, and the winner will be announced after 9 p.m. June 4.
Port Angeles was a last-minute wild-card entrant that won its way into the contest based on Instagram votes.
Now it is is the West division champion, and among the four cities left from an original field of 64 that has been pared down in four voting rounds.
‘THE MACHINE’
Port Angeles is being promoted heavily by members of Revitalize Port Angeles, a Facebook group with more than 1,100 enthusiastic members that uses online posters, photos and a constant flow of cheerleading messages to get out the vote not just locally but nationwide.
Flagstaff supporters labeled Revitalize Port Angeles as “The Machine.”
“The real victory tonight is seeing Port Angeles come together to shout from the rooftops about how special we are,” said Leslie Kidwell Robertson, the founder of Revitalize Port Angeles, in an email Saturday night to the Peninsula Daily News.
Her Facebook group, about a year old, has been behind attitude-changing revitalization efforts for Port Angeles, from putting together volunteers to paint an old wooden hill-climb stairway downtown and leading the charge for sprucing up buildings and parking lots to promoting successful sales by merchants.
“We live in one of the most beautiful places on earth, and regardless of how this contest ends, how can that be a loss?” Robertson wrote in her email.
“I am truly overwhelmed by the community spirit we have.
“People came out of the woodwork to show their love for Port Angeles, and even when the contest is over, there is no reason to stop.
“I can’t wait to see how this positive energy helps with new projects that will help Revitalize Port Angeles. Now I hope everyone gets some rest, because we have some work to do!”
BRAGGING RIGHTS
Online voting now underway between Port Angeles and Bar Harbor runs until 8:59 p.m. Thursday, May 28.
To vote, go to http://tinyurl.com/pdn-best.
Port Angeles previously dispatched Santa Barbara, Calif., the No. 1 seed in the West, by a 28-vote margin in the first round; the Kitsap County city of Bainbridge Island in the second round (by 296 votes); and the Colorado resort town of Glenwood Springs (by 488 votes) in the third round.
There are no prizes in any of the brackets for the winning towns — but plenty of bragging rights. Plus a splashy, tourist-drawing profile for the winner in September’s edition of Outside, a nationally recognized outdoor and adventure magazine.
The other 15 finalists in the contest will be featured on the magazine’s website. One voter will win a trip to the No. 1 town.
Previous winners say the “Best Town” title has resulted in more tourism for them — and calls from businesses that want to relocate to their towns.
This is the magazine’s fifth annual “Best Town” contest. For 2015, Outside’s editors first chose 60 communities, including Flagstaff.
Among the factors used to select them: restaurants, neighborhoods, good bike shops, access to trails and public lands and — “of course,” as the magazine noted — the local beer scene.
Then, via Instagram, Outside readers were asked to nominate their favorite towns, which resulted in Port Angeles — plus New York City, Roanoke, Va., and Saugatuck, Mich. — being added as wild-card entries.
New York and the other two cities were destroyed by their opponents in the first round of voting.
HOW THE CITIES ARE DESCRIBED
Outside has this description at its contest website for Bar Harbor:
Population: 5,313
House Price: $309,000
Walk northeast and you’ll hit the gorgeous Maine coast. Stroll the waterfront’s quaint shops and restaurants, or hop on a boat and go deep-sea fishing.
Walk southwest and, in less than 25 minutes, you’ll be in Acadia National Park with access to world-class sea kayaking, camping, fishing, and plenty of rock climbing.
The magazine describes Port Angeles like this:
Population: 19,190
House Price: $201,900
On one side of town, you’ve got Olympic National Park — nearly 1,500 square miles of wilderness for hiking, rafting, and camping.
On the other side is the Strait of Juan de Fuca, where you can hop into a sea kayak to paddle the Whale Trail.
And right in town? Easy access to the Olympic Discovery Trail for more than 60 miles of running or cycling.
ONLINE COMMENTS
Social media erupted Saturday night with scores of postings after Port Angeles retired Flagstaff.
From Kriska1952::
“Port Angeles won because we are a beautiful town, with great hiking, beautiful lakes, amazing wineries and delicious fresh seafood. We may be small — but we be fierce!”
From another PA partisan, debbie_nibbles:
“We in Port Angeles are a close town, we have signs on most of the business throughout the whole town, and lighting up Facebook from friends and relatives, even being on Seattle news stations. Washington is working hard!”
From SandraStevens1:
“Congrats to Port Angeles, WA. Maybe I’ll get to visit someday and see for myself how you squeezed beautiful Flagstaff out. I did enjoy the pics that were posted. Good luck in the next round to you and all the other winners.”
From TylerJones1:
“Wow. I’m tired. Seeing the flood of pictures today was a lot of fun. Port Angeles, bring it home. Looking forward to visiting one day. So long from Boone [N.C., which lost by 1,594 votes to Chattanooga].”
Beernchips wrote:
“Honestly, I’m shocked. I’m from California and don’t have a town in this contest anymore, but I’ve been to Flagstaff to ski and rock climb and always enjoyed it there.”
VOTING TACTICS
People supposedly can vote only once per round per matchup in the contest — but many voters use Internet tricks that allow them to vote at least several times. This and other voting strategies prompted some messages, too.
From YouDidntVistDidYou:
“Those who have visited both Flagstaff and Port Angeles know who the true winner is . . . and Chattanooga, all 4 voters in Boone will be voting over and over again for Bar Harbor in the next round . . . LOL.”
And from Alittlehope:
“I don’t know anything about cheating, but what I do know is that the Port Angeles win didn’t happen without a whole lot of work and community involvement.
“My middle schooler brought home a pamphlet that students at their school put together encouraging families to vote. I’ve spent the last two days at the the Juan de Fuca [music] Festival, which is attended by about 15,000 people from all around the Pacific Northwest.
“Before every show, they announced the contest and asked people to take a second to vote before they silenced their phones. I have received more FB posts than I can count asking people to vote and to post to their walls. I’ve received tweets and retweets.
“I’ve seen posters about the competition in stores, gas stations and restrooms. I’ve heard about it on the radio and on the news. I’ve even had total strangers approach me to ask if I knew about the competition. This truly has been a group effort and I’m proud of our community for pulling together. I appreciate the support from the Boone [N.C.] clan and those who had never heard of Port Angeles who took the time to look at pictures and cast their vote our way.”
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PDN Publisher-Editor John Brewer can be reached at 360-417-3500 or jbrewer@peninsuladailynews.com.
