New grey apartment building in Brooklyn prompts ‘river of color’

Published 12:00 am Sunday, September 29, 2024

As reported in the August issue of THE BEE, a new five-story apartment building on Milwaukie Avenue in Brooklyn, two blocks south of Powell, is painted grey. That prompted eleven-year-old Nani Alsafieva – inspired by Sellwood’s “Share-It Square”, and other Southeast painted intersections – to suggest to her neighbors the idea of adding a bit of color to the street nearby.

Nani organized the neighbors to gather and paint a “river of color”, which now extends from a neighbor’s below-grade garage to a spiral at the center of the intersection of S.E. 11th Avenue and Mall Street in Brooklyn. The bright painting also includes, scattered nearby, a crocodile, a dinosaur, and a spotted mushroom.

Nani said that it was mostly kids who did the painting, but with some help from a nearby resident who is a teacher who substitutes at Hosford Middle School. After the initial “river of color” was completed, participants were allowed to add special touches around and near it, which include a mushroom, a crocodile, and an orange dinosaur.

The painting was done at a block party on August 10th, for which a city permit was secured; while the street was officially closed for the party, the painting was done on it – not a coordinated design, like other painted intersections, but simply adding a splash of color to a spot near the imposing new grey apartment building in Brooklyn.