East Rock neighbors came together — to invite more of their neighbors to come together. With a new poster celebrating East Rock.
The poster went up Tuesday morning on a former New Haven bike share ad kiosk outside the former East Rock Pharmacy at 767 Orange St. at the corner of Linden Street. Neighborhood Alder Caroline Smith met the poster’s designers and city Deputy Economic Development Administrator Carlos Eyzaguirre there to do the work.
Smith came up with the idea in February. The kiosk is one of about two dozen citywide that used to display (controversial) ads for the short-lived bike share program. Since then the city has put up public-service messages inside of them addressing issues like climate change and suicide prevention.
Paul Bass Photo
One of the climate posters went up in the Orange Street kiosk last year (pictured above). Smith shopped around the idea of putting a new poster there to inform neighbors about how to get involved in their management team, contact their alder, report concerns to SeeClickFix. People told her they liked the idea.
The State Street architectural firm Atelier Cho Thompson agreed to design the poster. The firm’s Celia Poirier said she sought to highlight East Rock’s “outdoor culture” — “people hiking on East Rock, bird watching, biking … We have bakeries, an ice cream shop. I was trying to capture that feeling.” Smith enlisted Wilbur Cross High School’s print shop to print and cut editions of the poster. Smith donated the $144 cost of producing them.
Paul Bass Photo
On Tuesday morning Eyzaguirre showed up with summer intern Ryan Wang. He unlocked the kiosk’s two panels.
Along with Smith and members of the Atelier Cho Thompson crew, they removed the climate posters, rolled them up …
… removed random 8‑by-11 posters from the glass …
… and put in the new posters.
While they worked, Holgar Garzon and his own crew were putting stucco on 763 Orange itself, which is undergoing renovations for a long-planned first-floor coffee shop.
Garzon noticed the poster crew discussing how to remove melted black plastic from the edges of the display case. He lent them a scraper to finish the job.
“It looks amazing!” Smith proclaimed, viewing the installed posters, which include a QR code to scan for details about neighborhood resources. After sweeping up the scraped plastic from the sidewalk (above), she said she hopes other neighborhoods follow suit with their own posters. Meanwhile, the city is in the process of bringing a version of bike share back (without the McDonald’s ads) as well as rental scooters.