As the summer rolls into autumn, and construction on the Myrtle Avenue Plaza continues, we welcome the work of artist Nami Yamamoto that dresses the construction fence near the southwest corner of Myrtle Avenue and Emerson Place. The piece,  entitled Hakoniwa, is a wonderful use of construction landscape. Here is a bit of what Nami has to say about her work:

“The word Hakoniwa translates from Japanese as “miniature garden”, manifested as small, tabletop trays filled with sand and used by people to play out imaginative story lines tapping into inner feelings, thoughts, and unconscious insights. Borrowing from this idea, this piece takes the form of temporary banners used to cover the construction site along Myrtle Avenue and consist of arrangements of many motifs, creating different visual narratives based on the disparate yet orderly groupings of shapes of varying degrees of tangibility. These colorful, oversize silhouettes are drawn from a diversity of objects collected from the neighborhood, such as: a fragment from a plastic toy, leaves from sidewalk trees, crushed tin cups, plastic combs, a bicycle gear, oyster shells from a local business, and unidentifiable detritus. With these magnified collections of shapes, I invite pedestrians to engage in a visual dialogue of free association and reflect upon their relationship with the experience of identifying with a place.”

While you’re here please remember to stop and support the amazing restaurants, bars and shops in this area between Washington & Classon. They are all open for business and welcome you! Help us ensure that the 60 business impacted by construction continue to thrive by continuing to patronize your favorite businesses that have served the neighborhood for years.

Here’s how you can support businesses impacted by construction:

• Choose a favorite business to support consistently until the end of construction.
• Pick a business category (restaurants, salons or delis), and make an effort to visit every one of these in this particular area!
• Order food by phone instead of using online services, when possible. Restaurants sometimes pay a significant portion of their sales (sometimes between 12.5-20%) in fees when customers order their meals via online platforms. Ordering by phone helps keep all of your money in the neighborhood and fully supports our independently owned restaurants.
• Pick up an Eating & Drinking guide to see all of the restaurants and bars that are offering special discounts every Tuesday! Check out Tasty Tuesdays’ promotion.
• If you are a construction worker, check out our Hard Hat Specials.