University Park banners put a name to a neighborhood
Jun. 21—GRAND FORKS — Residents driving or walking along University Avenue in the last month may have noticed the thoroughfare's new accoutrements.
City crews last month completed installation of streetlight banners stretching from Washington Street to Columbia Road, proclaiming the stretch of leafy boulevard as the origin point of University Park Neighborhoods.
"There's an interest in making the neighborhood more attractive, of making more people aware of the fact there is a lively neighborhood here," said Jenny Tarlin, a neighborhood resident and member of the eponymous neighborhood association responsible for the banners. "They've made the neighborhood shine."
University Park Neighborhoods can also claim credit for the almost-new streetlights on which the banners sit, which were installed last summer.
The lighting project dates back to a 2021 study commissioned by the Community Foundation of Greater Grand Forks, East Grand Forks and Region and the Knight Foundation.
That study called for several safety enhancements to what it called the University Avenue Corridor.
In particular, the study found residents held significant concerns about the amount of light provided by existing street lights on University Avenue, particularly when it came to crossing the boulevard at night.
"You had a lot of hot and cold areas and not a lot of consistent lighting," said assistant city engineer Dave Kuharenko.
In Grand Forks and throughout North Dakota, residents pay a portion or all of the cost of improvements to sidewalks, sewers and other public infrastructure if they fall within the special assessment area.
That posed a challenge for residents living along University Avenue, many of whom live on fixed incomes or have lower incomes overall.
Since University Avenue is considered a significant traffic corridor, the city covered 80% of the project cost; the remaining 20% of project costs was covered by grant funding from the Knight Foundation.
Kuharenko said the new streetlights cost $187,378.
That study also called for a focus on celebrating neighborhood identity, which helped lead to the establishment of the Knight Foundation-supported University Park Neighborhoods association.
Shilo Previti, who was hired as a coordinator for the neighborhood association in 2021, said the organization merged its efforts with several existing resident-led neighborhood groups.
They said the addition of the banners are a way for neighborhood residents to claim the area as their own. (The Near North Neighborhood Association to the east has a similar set of banners along Third Street and Fifth Street.)
"The project started with an outside organization coming in and offering money, but calling it something residents didn't feel resonated with them," Previti said, referring to the "University Avenue Corridor" moniker.
"And now we've got this logo, which was designed by the neighbors, we've got this name, which was chosen by the neighbors ... it's about them being empowered to design what their neighborhood's going to look like."
