Oak Parker Zach Borders started an online campaign to put in a street mural on Augusta Boulevard near Whittier Elementary School, 715 N. Harvey Ave. The mural is intended to alleviate high-speed traffic outside the school, making it safer for students. Borders, an urban planner and designer, has a daughter in first grade at Whittier.
“Myself and other parents have witnessed some scary near misses,” said Borders of Augusta Boulevard’s speedy drivers. “It takes your breath away and after a while, you want to do something about it.”
Borders posted the campaign on Municipal, a web app that allows citizens to campaign for changes they’d like to see in their communities. Municipal is a subset of Civic ArtWorks, a company that Borders owns and co-founded.
Since its posting in early October, the mural campaign has received more than 500 views and 58 citizens have offered their support. It also caught the attention of village trustees Dan Moroney and Simone Boutet, who both voiced their approval for the idea at the village board’s Oct. 14 finance committee meeting.
A small financial investment, according to Borders, the mural is an opportunity to enhance the street’s charm.
“I think it’s important to incorporate character that ties itself to the surrounding civic institutions,” said Borders, who mentioned he’d like the mural to have Whittier school colors.
Borders also thinks designing and painting the mural would be a great opportunity for student and civic engagement.
“It would be wonderful if we talk to the larger artist community in Oak Park,” he said. “Maybe we could turn this into a competition and each of the artists goes and talks to the students.”
Students, faculty and the chosen artist could then team up and paint the mural together.
“I think that would work really well and is certainly within the perimeters set by public works,” he said.
The village has not yet approved the project, but Borders hopes that, if approved, the mural will be painted in spring of 2020.
