People Worked Together Here

There’s a street I walk along that gets a lot of north-south traffic. At first glance, especially if you drive by, it looks pretty typical for the area, with a lot of attached houses dating back to the late 1800s.

It’s what’s often referred to as either “up and coming” by realtors, or “in transition” by more sober mind folk. Many homes have been renovated, but some have probably been untouched for decades.

But if you walk instead of driving by, you’ll notice something striking. Every single lamp post has been painted in wild ways.

For a couple of years, you would see different people at work painting them. It was clearly a community project, and I’m sure it was done to bring everyone on the block together. No doubt at least one person worked hard to get all of the needed permissions from the city government and electric company.

The way things work around here, the city usually won’t give permission unless there’s overwhelming support from the neighbors, so somebody did the legwork to get people to sign off on the project. I’m sure it involved knocking on a lot of doors and repeatedly trying to find a few elusive people.

Take a minute to imagine the planning and work involved, and the sales job to get all of these homes on board. And then all of the work it took to paint the poles eight to ten feet up. For no other reason than to help build a community.

Based on the number of poles which have people’s names on them, I guessing neighbors sponsored some of the project.

But so much of the fun of walking up and down the block is just seeing how many unique designs there are.

I have no idea who was behind this, but it’s inspiring to know that there are people who care about their communities this way. And while I’m sure not everyone was a leader, a lot of people must have chipped in at least a little bit, and taken a leap of faith in their neighbors and believed that everyone’s life could be at least a little bit better and little more fun.

Today is going to be a tough day, and the days that follow may be tougher. Even if we’re lucky, there will be more fights ahead. But it’s worth remembering that good people can come together and accomplish things for the greater good, in ways little and big.