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Now soaring above Adams Avenue: The Red Tailed Hawk (and 135 other species)

It’s 10 p.m. on a Tuesday, and much of Adams Avenue is already tucked in for the night.

But above the tree-lined street that traverses San Diego’s historic business district, the Red-Tailed Hawk is beginning to take flight. So, too, is the Mourning Dove and the California Marble, just as the Golden Yarrow comes into bloom.

This week, the Adams Avenue Business Association hung 136 new banners on the streetlights that dot the two-mile stretch, each unique and depicting local wildlife.

Crews hang new banners on the street lights above Adams Avenue on Tuesday, January 28, 2025. (Sam Hodgson / Uptown 11 Studios)

Artist Jennifer Young, who designed the pieces, said she hopes the colorful new banners will cause residents and visitors alike to pause, appreciate San Diego’s biodiversity, and take measures to protect the rich ecosystems where we live.

“I think this helps celebrate the things that are sharing the space and what makes it so beautiful,” she said.

Many of the plants, insects and birds on the banners are native, though not all — reflecting the realities of life in developed, built space.

A car trunk is full of banners. (Sam Hodgson / Uptown 11 Studios)

On Tuesday, the AABA team and contractors navigated the street with a bucket lift and a car full of banners.

The work was done late into the night to prevent obstructing roadways during peak traffic hours.

Scott Kessler, the executive director of the AABA, oversees the contracted crew that toils into the wee hours, clanking hammers against the banners’ clamps and adjusting shims to get the images taught and straight.

Crews hang the banner depicting the Mourning Dove. (Sam Hodgson / Uptown 11 Studios)

The first banner takes the longest to get right as the crew gets into their groove. Once it’s up, the work starts to flow seamlessly.

“One down,” Kessler said. “135 to go.”

The images alternate between birds, plants and butterflies. The lift creeps up the Avenue all night long.

Bird, plant, butterfly.

Bird, plant, butterfly.

The old banners are handed off to a group that repurposes the vinyl by sewing tote bags that are then sold at the Adams Avenue Street Fair.

One of the old banners after being removed from the street light. (Sam Hodgson / Uptown 11 Studios)

The following day, the Avenue is awake. Like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, the street is transformed seemingly overnight.

The transformation wasn’t as simple or nearly as rapid as it seemed to the residents who passed by, glancing up at the fruits of the AABA’s labor.

The banners are part of Adams Avenue’s ongoing revitalization. Each time they’re hung anew, they reflect the work of artists, planners, and community representatives, as well as the workers who climb into bucket lifts late at night to hang banners.

Street light art can be easy to miss as residents carry about their lives and traverse our built spaces. But these banners invite residents to stop, notice, and reflect on our region’s rich biodiversity and the creatures and plants with which we share this habitat.

New banners hang above Adams Avenue on Wednesday, January 29, 2025. (Sam Hodgson / Uptown 11 Studios)
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