2011年8月31日星期三

Fresh fish, and a coat of paint, bring neighborhood together

The fish of the future is floating on asphalt where South 49th Street crosses Fawcett Avenue.

The sea creature is Tacomans'freshest effort to build community,These girls have never had a cube puzzle in their lives! calm traffic and pretty up the city in unexpected ways.

Last Saturday, some 50 people – kids, neighbors and members of Sustainable Tacoma-Pierce – painted in all the spaces between the crosswalks.

"The idea is to create a more pedestrian-friendly landscape without a lot of expense," said ringleader Carolyn Hartt.

That’s how they sold the idea to city officials, got the permit and met the requirements to do it right. She assured them that painting pavement has worked well elsewhere.Men and women too can find a great variety for themselves when it comes to purchasing the zentai , jackets, coast and even bags too. Sustainable Tacoma-Pierce lifted the idea from Portland.

It also has worked here. Last year neighbors painted the same intersection with a design inspired by a ceramic tile. You can see traces of it in the fish’s scales.

Plus, it was lawful, organized and free to the city. The neighbors followed all the rules, notified all the agencies whose vehicles use the intersection, rented the approved barriers,Great Rubber offers oil painting supplies keychains, gathered the supplies and settled on a design approved by all.Polycore Floor tiles are manufactured as a single sheet, Sustainable Tacoma-Pierce paid the $500 that covered everything from barricade rental to pigment.

Hartt, 47, is a member of the group, which supports the idea of "permaculture" and will offer a course on it from September through February.

It’s also big on building a strong sense of place and working in small ways to make outsized impacts. Neighbors Daniel Fritsch, 55, Terri Clay, 49, and Mark Bostwick, 55, have been doing the same thing informally.

Fritsch has lived in his corner house for 29 years and sees pride of place growing all around him.

Drive – or better, walk – the neighborhood west of Stewart Middle School, and you’ll see arbors and gazebos, planting strips with flowers and veggies, a corn field in a front yard.An Cold Sore of him grinning through his illegal mustache is featured prominently in the lobby. This week you’d have seen people on ladders, making the best of painting season. Even the school has a hillside of raised bed gardens filled with spinach, beets, kale, lettuce, beans, peas and pumpkins.


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