$800,000 Grant, and a David Byrne Visit, for Corona Plaza

Yesterday, local pols, the Department of Transportation and David Byrne (!) celebrated an $800,000 grant from J.P. Morgan Chase for Corona Plaza. DNAinfo and Streetsblog attended the event and said the grant will be used to maintain the pedestrian space and its new features for the coming years. Corona Plaza costs around $50,000 to $75,000 every year to maintain. Over the summer, the Department of Transportation started working on making the temporary plaza permanent. The goal is to finish the project, which includes a stage, better lighting, more green space and seating, in 2015.

So what brought the Talking Heads frontman all the way out to Corona Plaza? According to DNAinfo he told the crowd, “I’m not personally involved in this plaza, but I’m a musician and I live and work and am very supportive of these things going up everywhere. I’m just here to be supportive, and hope that this kind of initiative continues in the city.” We’ll take it!

David Byrne in Corona to Celebrate $800K Grant for Pedestrian Plazas [DNAinfo]
Ped Plazas in Low-Income Neighborhoods Get $800,000 Boost From Chase [Streetsblog]
Corona Plaza On Track to Be Upgraded from Temporary to Permanent [Q’Stoner]

Photo via Twitter