Handmade sign unites a diverse community
A simple handmade directional sign and a public garden have kindled the spirit of a diverse community in the Kensington/talmadge area.
First, about 10 years ago, Ed and Julie Lucero planted succulents and cactuses on a patch of public land along the Aldine Drive exit from Fairmount Avenue.
“This was the entry to our neighborhood,” said Ed. “I pulled up to that stop sign every day . ... It didn’t feel good to see weeds and trash.”
So the Luceros started planting succulents given to them by neighbors or purchased on Craigslist. They enlisted community support to occasionally water the tiny garden and, until COVID-19 hit, organized an annual Earth Day weeding event.
Everyone in the community seemed to love seeing the not-so-secret garden, said Wyatt Buttrose, who moved into the neighborhood about five years ago. “I wanted to add my own touch that further bonded the residents in the area.”
So Buttrose quietly created what he refers to as “The Sign.” He handpainted the words “Talmadge” and “Kensington,” with arrows pointing in opposite directions, on slats of an old fence and secured them to a post.
A few people glimpsed him erecting the sign, but Buttrose never claimed the artwork as his even as speculation, smiley faces and thank yous blossomed on the neighborhood Nextdoor website.
The sign “really belonged to the community. It’s everyone’s sign, not my sign,” Buttrose explained.
A local artist even created a mural of the setting and incorporated the painting on handbags she sold at a nearby store in Kensington. Before long, someone anonymously added a third directional arm to the sign that pointed to nearby City Heights. Buttrose called the addition “awesome.”
When COVID-19 erupted and the public mood darkened, Buttrose remembered how much joy his sign had generated. So he decided to erect a second sign that read: “I have a feeling it will all be okay.”
Again, the community reaction was immediate and positive. One neighbor even sent a picture to family friends in Colorado. When their young children saw the “Okay” sign, they displayed a similar one in their neighborhood.
Suddenly, in late April or early May, both signs disappeared.
Buttrose spied the “Okay” sign posted in a new location closer to Fairmount Avenue and later in a third spot alongside Fairmount Avenue.
Then it disappeared from public view altogether.
“I’m thinking it’s in someone’s back yard as a memento of this remarkable time, and it makes that person happy when they see it,” he theorizes.
As for the original directional sign, a neighbor reported seeing some transients come out of the bushes and rip it apart.
“So, what was I to do? Let that be a memory?” Buttrose exclaimed. “Nope. It was time for ‘The New Sign.’ ”
He salvaged a few broken pieces of the directional sign from the garden and constructed a sturdier replacement. He also reached out to Councilmember Georgette Gómez’s office to ask for a permanent solution.
As for the “Okay” sign, however, Buttrose believes it is time to move on. “I think there will be more signs in the works, but times are changing. I want to do something new.”
Just as the signs have gone through an evolution, so has the neighborhood. Buttrose and his wife, Cristina, have noticed people coming out in their front yards more and talking to each other. “We’ve seen neighbors we’ve never seen before,” he said.
He describes his Talmadge neighborhood as unique, housing a diverse group of people with widely varied backgrounds. It’s neighborly — a place where people say “hi” and stop to chat — or not, and that is OK, too.
“We didn’t know what to expect when we moved to Taldmadge,” said Buttrose, who works in commercial real estate investment. He is from Rhode Island, grew up in Florida and lived in a handful of locations around San Diego before settling in Talmadge.
“It’s a very tolerant, welcoming place. You just don’t find these types of communities,” he said. “It’s become a place we see ourselves staying in for a long time” — sign or no sign.
diane.bell@sduniontribune.com