Pueblo Gardens Block Party, A Welcome Return to Community
Photo by LSA staff
This month, after a years long wait, unfortunately necessitated by the COVID pandemic, we returned to the streets of the Pueblo Gardens neighborhood with plants, paint, brushes, and a community-based vision of positive change - seven years after the very first “asphalt art” project that we implemented in Tucson came to life at Pueblo Gardens Elementary School.
On Saturday, September 30th, 2023, we gathered with Pueblo Gardens residents, the School’s Principal, teachers, staff and students, to transform a school-area intersection with a beautiful asphalt mural, to complement the freshly-installed curb-extensions, the new crosswalk and curb ramps as was envisioned in the Pueblo Gardens Safe Routes to School Travel Plan. (Take a look at this blog post for more information on the history of the project and our continuing work with the school.)
Photo by Marta Popat
We put on some tunes, got the Sherwin Williams paints out, hosted a Mobile Bike Repair, ate burritos from Barista del Barrio, had Exo coffee, and assisted the local community in making this much improved school crossing more beautiful - with painted rocks, colorful planters, native plants, and motion filled pavement murals designed by local artist Porter McDonald and making real local student’s vision to portray Earth, Water, and Air.
The Block Painting Party brought a lot of joy to us and our community partners and it felt great to bring it home with so much help from local people, young and old, from all backgrounds and walks of life. We are also excited to be continuing our SRTS programming at Pueblo Gardens and make this project happen with generous support from a Safe Routes to Parks grant, through the Safe Routes Partnership, a national nonprofit working to advance safe walking and rolling to and from schools and in everyday life, along with our partners at the City of Tucson Department of Transportation and Mobility, and PSOMAS engineering.
Photo by Mamta Popat
We also want to show our tremendous appreciation for Lucas Boring and team at Speedy Striping who went above and beyond to make sure that the project was completed on time with utmost care, Tanks Green Stuff who donated and delivered our soil, Marlene Avelino, Shannon Jenkins and everyone else at Ward III Council office (who generously stored our planters), our handy bike mechanics - Every and Hunter, Pueblo Gardens teachers and Principal Micheal Konrad, LSA Board Member Neto Portillo and his wife Linda, and reporters from KVOA, KGUN, and KOLD for covering this event. Most of all, thank you to everyone from Pueblo Gardens and beyond who took time out of their weekend and busy lives to make our streets safer, more beautiful, and more accessible for youth - our community's most precious resource.
Enjoy these captures of the event by local Tucson photographer Mamta Popat (@mamtapopat)
And more by LSA staff…
The team at Speedy Striping went above and beyond to prepare the site in record time.
Artist Porter McDonald sets up his painting station in Pueblo Gardens - a neighborhood where he and his wife Lee raised their kids.
“As pedestrians and cyclists travel to and from school, they will see stripes of bright color swooshing and curving. In and around the stripes, they will see flashes of wildlife on the move as well. Wings flutter, a rodent scurries, a fish splashes, and shells roll in the sea foam.”
Porter McDonald
Photo & Artwork by Porter McDonald
Photo & Artwork by Porter McDonald
Photo by Mamta Popat
