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Clean California - Yellow Brick Road: Clean, Green, and Beautiful
The City of Richmond received two grants totaling $10 million from the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Clean California Local Grant Program. The program provides funds to local and regional public agencies, transit agencies, tribal governments, and nonprofits to clean and beautify public spaces.
The competitive program received 329 applications totaling $758.5 million in requests. 105 proposals were awarded funding from the $296 million available.
Yellow Brick Road: Clean, Green, and Beautiful: $4,999,995
The Clean California grant will support Phase III of The Yellow Brick Road® project in Richmond’s Iron Triangle neighborhood. While Phase 1 constructed pedestrian-friendly street infrastructure and Phase 2 will add plants and trees, Phase 3 will install human-scale street lighting, litter abatement facilities, wayfinding and placemaking signage, and public art elements on 8th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Richmond. Additionally, the grant will support Harbour-8 Park with decorative fencing, public art, and a litter abatement campaign.
The Yellow Brick Road project will clean and beautify city streets and parks, and will provide place-making elements to actualize the community's vision to create a clean, green and safe street for biking and walking in the Iron Triangle neighborhood.
Conceived of by local youth in 2008, the Yellow Brick Road is a safe bike-walk street that connects key community assets, including parks, schools, churches, community centers, and Kaiser Hospital. Its major arteries are 8th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. The route is anchored at each end by two city parks: Elm Playlot (Pogo Park #1) and Harbour-8 Park (Pogo Park #2).
The Yellow Brick Road project began with a grassroots planning effort. Local nonprofit Pogo Park, which works with residents to transform city parks into vibrant play spaces for children, spearheaded the planning and implementation of previous phases. Pogo Park also led the effort to write Richmond’s winning Clean California grant. Since its inception in 2007, Pogo Park has directed $50 million of public and private investment into the Iron Triangle neighborhood.