MONROE, MI — On Thursday evening, June 12, kids gathered at the crosswalk on West Elm Avenue, near St. Mary’s Park to paint in a new crosswalk mural.
Artist Presley Bergmooser painted outlines for lily pads and a lotus at the center, leaving room for the children to fill them with color. The goal of the mural is two-fold: to beautify the area with public art and make the crosswalk more noticeable for pedestrian safety.
“Something that I’m thinking about, even while I do it, is that Monroe doesn’t need to be like anywhere else,” Bergmooser said. “Like, it doesn’t need to be like Detroit, Monroe doesn’t need to be like Royal Oak or Jackson. It needs to be Monroe and there’s no reason that stuff like this, like public art and community events, why our community can’t be the place where kids come and are a part of something like this.”
The crosswalk was originally proposed by Kathy Stringham, who is now a member of the Monroe City Council. When she moved to the neighborhood around St. Mary’s in 2017, there was no crosswalk, so she asked the council if they could add one.
“We’re excited to have a crosswalk and now I’m really excited to see it be painted, so that it’ll be more visible and safer for the neighbors,” she said.
The crosswalk is one of seven around the city that will be painted over the course of the summer. The dates for the others are unknown at this time.
— Contact reporter Connor Veenstra at CVeenstra@gannett.com
发表回复