2023 Center Street Mural Project

In November 2022, the Foster-Powell Neighborhood Association applied for, and received a grant from SEUplift and City of Portland Office of Community & Civic Life to paint a street mural on an intersection of the Center Street greenway in Foster-Powell. The goal of this project is to bring neighbors together and help make our greenway safer for pedestrians and cyclists.

We will be seeking community input to select a high priority intersection to be painted. We will be soliciting mural designs from the community and holding a vote for a design to be implemented. The intersection will be painted with help from community volunteers of all ages. We hope to hear your ideas and input!

To volunteer and receive updates, e-mail contact@fosterpowell.com.

Current status

The community has selected SE 67th and Center as the top choice for a new street mural. 8 designs were received with the following results:

We are currently working with the winner to update their design to take into account some street markings and will be making a final selection based on the preferences from the neighbors living on the street.

We will also start the planning process for the painting party later in May. E-mail if you’re interested in participating!

Planned Timeline

~~November 2022: Apply for Community Small Grant~~
February-June: Community outreach
~~February 1st – March 12th: Voting for intersection section. Confirm intersection for painting at Foster Powell neighborhood association meeting.~~
~~April 9th: Deadline to submit design for mural. Preview options at Foster-Powell neighborhood association meeting.~~
~~April 14th – May 15th: Voting for mural design~~.
May 15th- June 15th: Select mural based on voting. Iterate as needed based on feedback from the city.
July/August: Painting party. Date selection dependent on weather & permitting.

Intersection Selection Process

We are holding a vote to determine the best intersection for painting. Each person can vote for up to 3 intersections to be considered. After the vote ends on March 12th, we will present the results at the March 13th Foster Powell Neighborhood meeting. During that meeting, we will officially confirm the intersection to be painted.

Intersection Selection Considerations

The selected intersection must be on the neighborhood greenway.
The selected intersection must not have an existing street mural
72nd and Center cannot be selected due to permitting restrictions.

Intersection Voting Results

We have selected 67th & Center next to Kern Park as our intersection. Detailed results follows.

35.5% for 67th and Center. This intersection is next to Kern Park and is a dangerous intersection due to the dogleg.
22.1% for 73rd and Center. Due to PBOT restrictions, we are unable to paint 72nd, so many people selected 73rd instead.
Tie: 21.1%
- 76th & Center. This is next to Essex Park, and near Wild Lilac
- Center & 66th. This is next to Kern Park
19.5% for 62nd & Center. People voting for this intersection cited the amount of dangerous vehicular traffic

With this in mind, the neighborhood association ranked the following intersections in order of priority. If our first choice is unable to be selected, will fall back to our second, and third choices.

67th & Center next to Kern Park
72nd & Center. We believe we can get around the 72nd St restriction by painting a mural that straddles 72nd Ave, though this is is subject to PBOT approval.
79th & Center. We recently learned of neighbor lead effort to paint the intersection at 75th & Center, so have opted for 79th and Center to give that painting some breathing room. 79th Ave leads to Holgate Library and intersects with Essex Park.

Mural Design

The design of the mural will be a community led project. We will be soliciting designs from neighbors and holding a vote to rank the submitted designs. Per PBOT’s permitting process, all neighbors directly adjacent to the mural must approve of the selected design.

Mural Design Considerations

There are no size limitations for the street mural other than what can be painted and completed in one day.

The mural must adhere to the city’s street painting design guidelines. Briefly, these are

No speech. Designs may not contain words, letters, numbers, universally recognized symbols, or logos of any kind.
No copyrighted material may be used in whole or in part.
No mimicking of traffic control devices that might affect driver behavior. Put simply, designs should not look like crosswalks, stop signs, or other three-dimensional objects.
No depiction of activities or products that are not available to all ages.
Buffers must be maintained around the following traffic control devices:
- 5-foot buffer around sharrows and lane striping.
- 10-foot buffer on either side of a marked crosswalk.
- 50-foot buffer on approaches to traffic signals

Design tips

Contrast. Draw your design on a piece of paper (or on a computer) where the background color is the same grey tone of your roadway. This will help pick colors that get the type of contrast you want. Colors must be included to receive your permit.
Shapes. Use large, simple shapes, as opposed to many small ones with tricky detail. You want to make sure that youth, the elderly, and people with all kinds of skill levels can participate in the project. Also, large shapes make installation and maintenance much easier.
Getting Started. Once we select an intersection, we’ll post a template of it for you to draw a design on

Mural Design Submission Process

We are soliciting designs from the community to paint the intersection of 67th & Center. Designs must be in compliance with PBOT’s design criteria and be show how it will be laid out in the intersection. In addition, it may be helpful to submit a second more detailed design of your mural. Consider using our templates to ensure compliance.

PDF
JPEG

Submitted Designs

Voting for Murals

We solicited input from neighbors to help rank and select the final designs. Neighbors were able to score each design from 1-5 (1 being lowest, 5 being highest). The winners were:

How can I help?

Spread the word!

The more that people hear about the project, provide input, and support, the more successful the project will be. Posting on social media, talking to friends and colleagues, distributing fliers all help. If you’d like to print fliers to distribute, the poster can be found here and the smaller flyers can be found here.

Volunteer to paint

We will need volunteers to help paint and provide support to painters

Submit a design

We will be soliciting mural designs from the community after March 13th. Submissions may be made to contact@fosterpowell.com

FAQ

I’m interested in volunteering! How can I help

We are looking for people to help with outreach, design, and paint the mural. If you’re interested, please email us at contact@fosterpowell.com

How do Street Murals help with street safety?

Studies have shown that street murals can improve safety for all. This includes:

50% drop in crashes that involved pedestrians or cyclists
17% reduction in total accidents,
27% increased rate of driver yielding to pedestrians in the right of way and,
25% drop in potentially dangerous conflicts between drivers and pedestrians.

Why Center Street?

Center Street is a neighborhood greenway. Neighborhood greenways are low-traffic and low-speed streets where we give priority to people walking, bicycling, and rolling. Neighborhood greenways form the backbone of the city’s Safe Routes to School network and connect neighborhoods, parks, schools, and business districts.

Why can’t we paint the intersection of Center St & 72nd Ave?

PBOT has several requirements for location of a street mural including that it must be a “local service traffic street”. 72nd is considered a “neighborhood collector street”.

Are there any size limitations on the street mural?

Though there are no limits to the size of the street mural, it must be practical to what can be painted and completed within one day.

Thanks Yous

This project is made possible by a grant from SE Uplift and Portland’s Office of Community & Civic Life.