Over the weekend, we celebrated a new street mural in Lake City as part of the Little Brook Stay Healthy Street!

We partnered with Lake City Collective to welcome the community to enjoy the new street mural in the Little Brook neighborhood of Lake City.  

The street mural was designed by Seattle artist, Romel Belleza (Ilocano, Tlingit & Dishchii Bikoh N’Dee) and was installed in partnership between the Seattle Department of Transportation and Lake City Collective to honor Native culture and welcome people to the Little Brook neighborhood. 

“This is my way of giving back to other communities who respect our struggle for our Tribal Sovereignty and that we are the children of the land and the oceans we fish from and the true owners of this territory where people don’t acknowledge this.”

– Romel Belleza, mural artist 

“For us, this mural has a lot of meaning, it’s our way of putting Land Acknowledgment into action, also it’s an educational and beautiful sight for the passers-by, especially the many kids and parents who wait for the school bus in this now safe intersection. But most importantly, it’s a lasting reminder to everyone that indigenous people were here, are here, will forever be present in our community”

– Lake City Collective

SDOT Director Sam Zimbabwe presented Lake City Collective with a customized street sign in honor of their tremendous work in the neighborhood. Lake City Collective is a non-profit organization that supports families and individuals to “remain in the community they choose to live, work, or do business where they feel heard, respected, safe, successful, and surrounded by a clean and healthy environment.”  

Earlier this year, SDOT and Lake City Collective were awarded a $50,000 grant to support the Little Brook Stay Healthy Street and this mural project. 

Lake City Collective and neighbors have advocated for traffic calming and safer crossing improvements in the neighborhood for a long time. During the pandemic, they asked us, after hearing feedback from community members in a pilot project, to have a Stay Healthy Street in their own neighborhood.  

We worked closely with Lake City Collective to apply for the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) Streets for Pandemic Response and Recovery Grant Program, which provides funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies to transportation agencies that are partnering with community-based organizations to reimagine streets, implement ideas, and support ongoing community efforts that meet the needs of populations disproportionately harmed by COVID-19. 

Seattle was one of ten cities selected for the grant earlier this year. Since then, Lake City Collective has brought joy, recreation, and community connection to the space in a time when that is much needed. They have hosted movie nights, wellness classes, gardening, and cultural events, such as a mariachi concert. 

You can also check out this short 1-minute video on YouTube to see a bird’s eye view of the new community mural. The video was produced by Stuart Danford.

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