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!

Sign up for updates

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

Current status

Organizing outreach

Planned Timeline

  • November 2022: Apply for Community Small Grant
  • February/March: 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.
  • late June / July: 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 Voting

Street Mural on Center Street

Street Painting Selection

Click the button below to vote for the top 3 intersections most in need of a street mural

Vote

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.

Mural design considerations

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

FAQ

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

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.

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.

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”.

Thanks Yous

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