How about painting the wall to carrying on the surrounding landscape? Illusion that the under pass is not there?

How about matching terrific graphic artists with neighborhood people to create faux movie posters to line to underpass, each one "starring" a different neighbor and highlighting something about his/her life?

The underpass at State near Bradley never recovered from your last project. In fact, it is a mess. Are you done there? Think about that before you move on to another one.

skeptical, what kind of mess is there? Are you saying that the "artists" left a mess and never returned to clean it up?

How about reaching out to area "taggers" to create portraits and/or caricatures of neighborhood residents where the pictures used to be? You could paint the underpasses a neutral color to create a "canvass" for them to work on. This would kill two birds with one stone: a cool way to liven up the underpasses and an outlet for area taggers to display their talents. I also would support Paul Bass's idea or maybe a melding of the two?

I like Paul Bass's idea, but it shouldn't be confined to current residents. It would be great to also highlight historical figures and showcase New Haven's remarkable history, maybe tie into the NHV 375 celebration(s). What Chapel West has done with these banners may also be worth emulating: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/familiar_faces_return_to_chapel_west/

skeptical.me, the plan is to clean the remaining posters when it gets warm again as well as the mold.

I thought it might be neat to use three surfaces. A child on each wall reaching out into the street playing cards or something of that nature.

How about a wall garden? in simplest form, a bunch of hanging plants placed along the walls of the underpass. More elaborate, a whole wall of flowers/plants. They probably need to be mostly shade plants but could still be very nice.
http://www.sunset.com/garden/landscaping-design/how-to-plant-vertical-garden-wall-00400000064854/
http://pinterest.com/yolandavanveen/wall-gardens/

I like the idea of getting the community involved in some of the artwork-perhaps some tagging with inspirational quotes? There are many talented "taggers" in NH, and perhaps if we got their active involvment in the project, there wold be less sabotage or defacing of the project...

Wow, I wish I had time to discuss art projects, but instead, in my neighborhood, I am battling street gangs and all that they bring to New Haven, including broad daylight drug deals, human trafficking/child sex trafficking, used drug paraphernalia and used condoms on our streets, and gun violence.

BJG, have you ever considered that the two are related? 1) Social cohesion is one of the main predictors of violence and disorder. 2) Public art & community projects have been shown to improve the economy and reduce local unemployment levels, which are also a factor in the issues you raise. We need people to work on all of these things together, not think of them as separate issues.

Here are a few ideas from the world-renowned Underpass Park project. http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2012/07/29/torontos_underpass_park_turns_an_urban_blight_into_a_delightful_playground.html

BJG: Those are definitely some important issues and I imagine they're a shared priority for almost everyone here. That said, art projects and other social and community focused projects can be a collective effort at healing. They have value in their ability to bring people together which can have an impact on some of the issues you highlighted.

what if we allowed different artists a bit of space on each? we could pick a theme and showcase their work. This would allow us to change and update more frequently. We could update the themes, the artists or both. The amount of dirt that comes down from the highway above makes me skeptical of anything being truly permanent, and I think it'd be fun to see it changing semi-regularly.

BJG - Clearly you do have the time. . ,you've already posted on this thread twice

Giant scanimation images like in the children's book "Gallop."

Thanks for clearing that up for me Ben.

If I had to maintain these underpasses, I'd paint a Tom Sawyer white-washed fence with knot holes, gaps, graffitti. When things get out of control you can charge people a small fee for the privilege to repaint/whitewash over objectionable additions. I would over-size it a bit—maybe 8 feet high and the boards would be a foot wide. I' have grass and flowers below here and there with trees behind up to the beams overhead. The hope here is the inhuman scale of concrete goes away and things grow where it never rains.

Love that idea Skeptical Me and appreciate the irony.

Well, I think that since all of you have time to discuss art, and since you're encouraging me to engage, I will also request that you do double duty as well. Why don't you do something to thwart a street gang? It is SO EASY to discuss art, so exciting, so NO SOLUTION TO ANYTHING, so NOTHING, but no one has the stones to challenge drug dealers and street gangs in their communities. I love the poster with all of his studies, still stuck in his academia, while I am living in the REAL NEW HAVEN, making a difference. Keep on with your SAFE little art projects, goo goo ga ga.

PS - You're all fake about beautification. If that really concerned you, you'd all be out guerilla gardening, encouraging actual GROWTH in New Haven. But none of you wants to get your hands dirty, (or do real manual labor), except for the use of washable acrylics and glues.

I love Skeptical Me's Tom Sawyer fence idea!

I was not totally supportive of how the first project turned out and yet I love both art and community so I want to see this happen again and again all over the city in any shape or form. I also find it ironic that someone would take their time to tell everyone that they don't have the time to discuss art projects. There must be some relation between community building activities like this and the rate of crime, no? I would imagine that neighbors who work together are more likely to look out for each other. Plus, it looks a lot better than a gray, cement wall!

"I like the idea of getting the community involved in some of the artwork-perhaps some tagging with inspirational quotes?"

I love this idea too!

closed. they did a great job!