Painting the Town in Oakland. Again.

The sequel to our Ayala/Hermann mural at Martin & Ayala just might have surpassed the original.

The transformation of Rockridge’s southwest gateway continued this September with another brilliant mural project.

Building on the success of last year’s project at the corner of Hermann St & Ayala Ave, the team behind “The Oaks” mural came together to take on a busier intersection in the neighborhood: the infamous Martin Avenue cut-through between Claremont and Telegraph.

Whereas the Hermann/Ayala mural features oak trees and California poppies, this new mural brought to life Redwoods, butterflies, and streams to both beautify the road and ease traffic.

Led once again by Andy Waggoner, creative/project leads Molly Dickens and her father Harry, and operations guru Erin Lehnert, this scrappy team of Rockridgers made it all happen: working with OAKDOT’s Paint the Town team, raising money on GoFundMe / RCPC, and galvanizing more than 50 residents over the course of two days to transform the concrete slab for speeders into a traffic-easing tapestry.

It’s an incredible community, folks.