Eastsider’s crosswalk paintings bloom and multiply

Lansing’s east side is known for urban farms, walkability and, unfortunately, unsafe traffic in its neighborhoods. Just two weeks ago, a car flipped over at the intersection of Vine Street and Hayford Avenue.

“You can’t be driving the speed limit and have your car flip over,” eastside resident Martha Bishop said.

Bishop helps paint crosswalks throughout the east side, a project started by Jill Dombrowski, who has painted 13 crosswalks over the last four years.

After the crosswalk near Bishop’s house was painted, she said people began to slow down more.

“They see this thing and think, ‘Oh, there’s something here! It’s not just this big gray strip that I’m blasting down,’” she said. Still, she noted that driving safely on the east side isn’t intuitive.

“Every other street has a stop sign, so it’s easy to screw up. Especially if you’re not from around here, it’s easy to run a stop sign,” she said.

A group of eastside children paints a crosswalk at the intersection of Fairview Avenue and Vine Street while adults assist and watch for traffic.

Dombrowski agreed. “That’s one of the biggest problems in our eastside neighborhood. The streets are really wide, and it’s easy to go fast,” she said.

While some spent their pandemic lockdowns starting sourdough or becoming addicted to TikTok trends, Dombrowski picked up a book from her mother-in-law called “Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness.”

“It’s about how we need more color in the world or something,” she said, and I could hear her rolling her eyes on the other end of the phone. “I didn’t read it for a long time, but after I did, I thought, ‘You know what? This is actually really nice.’”

The book, along with her interest in biking, gave her the idea to start painting crosswalks. Through her husband’s volunteer position on a city citizen advisory board, she met Lansing Public Service Director Andy Kilpatrick, who gave her the green light to paint the first one in 2021. The experience was harrowing.

“Some guy in a truck plowed through a whole bunch of our paint cans on the corner, then jumped out and started yelling at us,” she said, noting that “people have no patience for any change in their driving routine.” 

Since that first experience, Dombrowski has developed a system to divert traffic down to one lane, keep children and volunteers safe and be proactive about surprised or angry neighbors. Beyond making the neighborhood aware of the crosswalk projects a few weeks in advance, she tries to incorporate something unique into each design, like ferns at a crosswalk on Fernwood Avenue and blooming magnolia flowers on Magnolia Avenue.

“It’s something I can do to make the neighborhood a little more joyful and add this safety component,” Dombrowski said.

She’s also become a resource for other community members who want to slow traffic through their neighborhoods. She’s hoping to offer a training session so people can safely paint crosswalks without her participation.

“One of my major funding sources is the city’s neighborhood grant program,” she said. “This year, all my funding is coming from them, and they’ve got money to give away for projects like this. I would be more than happy to help people do this if they’re willing to take some advice.”

Claire Christiansen, a frequent volunteer at the painting events, lives near the painted crosswalk at the intersection of Hayford and Fernwood avenues.

“I really feel like it’s part of the scenery of my house,” she said.

She was babysitting Dombrowski’s daughter in 2018 when three people, including an 11-year-old girl, were killed after their car crashed into Pattengill Biotechnical Magnet School.

“That felt like a wake-up call,” Christiansen said. “I’ve got kids in tow in this neighborhood. It made me realize that things aren’t as safe as they might seem.”

Eastside resident Margaret Tassaro and her son, Jay, help paint the crosswalk at Fairview and Vine.

Crashes on the east side have continued. A quick internet search reveals instances of flipped cars, cars on fire and crashes involving multiple vehicles at intersections in or near the east side this year.

Christiansen continued, “People are supposed to be driving slow and keeping an eye out for kids. They don’t realize it’s life and death, but it really is. I’m thankful for these projects because this is a place where people live. Children are walking in the street — it isn’t just a thoroughfare for cars.” 

Bishop described her most recent experience at a crosswalk painting event as “very organized.”

“I just showed up, and it very quickly became clear how to be helpful,” she said. “Everyone just started chipping in. You’re painting, moving the stencils or directing traffic.”

Bishop has lived on the east side for about two-and-a-half years and has attended five or six crosswalk paintings. She likes to see the community come out and work on a project together.

“I’ve met different neighbors every single time,” she said.

Dombrowski is appreciative of the community’s support.

“It really makes me love Lansing when people come to help out,” she said.

However, she noted that “there’s a lot more that could be done to improve the safety of our neighborhood roads.”

“It would be nice if the city could be more proactive. We’ve been pushing for easy changes,” she said. “You can allow parking on both sides of the streets to make them narrower. You can disallow parking in the first few spots near an intersection to increase visibility. These are minor changes that could be made to improve traffic safety, and it would be nice to see city support for those types of initiatives.”

Lansing locals can view photos of the finished crosswalks, including professional drone footage shot by Ryan Frederick, on the Lansing Bike and Seek website under the “crosswalks” tab. Or, you can just take a walk around the neighborhood.