Closer Look: New Boeddeker Park Mural Resonates With Neighbors

Closer Look: New Boeddeker Park Mural Resonates With NeighborsPhotos: Sonner Kehrt
Hoodline
Published on September 10, 2016

The following story comes from reporter Sonner Kehrt, a student at UC Berkeley's School of Journalism.


Homelessness advocates, neighborhood organizations, and members of the Tenderloin community gathered on Wednesday in Boedekker Park to celebrate the completion of a six-story mural on the side of the Windsor Hotel.

The mural, entitled “Everyone Deserves a Home,” is the result of a nearly three-year effort led by Delivering Innovation in Supportive Housing (DISH), a local anti-homelessness organization that manages the Windsor Hotel. The single room occupancy hotel houses formerly homeless people struggling with health issues.

“We wanted to increase the literal vibrancy of the community, because the Tenderloin community itself is very vibrant,” said Doug Gary, a co-director of DISH.

The mural is a colorful depiction of a massive tree with houses nestled among its branches. A sign hanging from the tree says, “Everyone Deserves a Home.” It rises high along the east end of the park, a small oasis of green in a dense neighborhood full of residential hotels and small corner stores.

The mural is the result of a grant from San Francisco’s Community Challenge Grant Program, which provides money for community-led initiatives to improve public spaces in the city. Additional funding came from the Saint Francis Foundation and Twitter as well as donations from members of the community.

The initial project grant for $40,000 was for 18 months, which stretched to almost three years as DISH, 1AM, the organization that painted the mural, and Friends of Boedekker Park worked with the local community to overcome disagreements over the design of the mural as well as challenges imposed by the mural’s location and massive size.

Jason Pellegrini, DISH’s Facilities Director, explained that structural concerns about the roof of the Windsor Hotel, as well as the concrete in Boedekker Park at the mural’s base, forced the group to find alternative approaches to staging the equipment the artists required to access the side of the hotel.

Community debate over the content of the mural itself also lengthened the process. Many people felt the initial image was too childish and wanted a design that reflected the park’s role as a space for everyone in the community.

The size of the mural spurred discussion as well.

“This mural is on such a large wall overlooking the main part of the park. What if you get something that’s inappropriate or no good?” asked Betty Traynor of Friends of Boedekker Park, which worked with DISH to host community meetings to gather input.

“What I thought was remarkable was that the artists took the community input. They really listened,” she said. Looking at the finished design she added, “I couldn’t want anything better.”

The celebration in Boedekker Park featured a live demonstration of the spray paint techniques the artists, Antoine Marnata and Robert Gonzalez, used on the wall.

Residents of the Windsor Hotel also spoke. Clifford Ricks, a former addict and a two-year resident of the hotel, pointed to the spiral staircase wrapping around the mural’s tree, and said that it reminded him of a path to peace, serenity, and a place of his own.

The mural was designed to complement the $9.3 million renovation of Boedekker Park, which aimed to introduce a revitalized outdoor area into a crowded neighborhood with few public green spaces.

“Seeing the incredible investment in the park, we wanted to see how we could continue it and make our own investment,” said DISH Co-Director Lauren Hall.

Jim Vlahos, whose family owns the Windsor Hotel, felt the mural more than exceeded that goal. “It just livens up the whole street.”