The Oakland Department of Transportation’s Paint The Town program allows community members to paint temporary street murals on Oakland’s roads. 

Our Work

You may have seen some of these murals popping up around the Town. Murals are designed and painted by Oakland community members, reflecting our communities’ cultures and values, while also bringing some vibrancy and delight to our standard asphalt.  Mural installation started in Spring 2018, with eight murals completed to date including the Fruitvale, Frick, Redwood Heights and Arroyo Viejo districts.  WOBO works with the Paint The Town program to facilitate application for special event permits, facilitate community outreach, recruit volunteers, and manage traffic control during painting events. 

OakDOT is proud of our pioneering programs to innovate on public space and empower residents of every Oakland neighborhood,” OakDOT Director Ryan Russo says. “Every transportation department should give the community it serves the pens for its plans and the paintbrushes for its places.

Paint the Town! Advancing Equity

To advance OakDOT’s equity goals, the department wanted to ensure this program was accessible to underserved communities. The program set a goal to approve projects on a 2:1 ratio, facilitating two projects in neighborhoods of medium and high disadvantaged communities for every project approved in a low-disadvantage community neighborhood (as defined by the Metropolitan Transit Commission  communities of concern index).

For more information please see OAKDOT’s Paint The Town! page.

 

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