Ceremonial street sign toppers are being installed throughout the valley to honor influential members of the Phoenix community, and one sign is already up in downtown Phoenix.
The city’s program honors “people of historical or national significance” with blue street signs according to the ceremonial sign procedure documents provided by the City of Phoenix.
Dr. Louisa Stark was honored with a ceremonial street sign topper on Jan. 20, 2021, at the intersection of 10th Street and Pierce Street.
Stark, who is a nationally recognized advocate for the homeless, is the executive director of The Community Housing Partnership, a non-profit organization that strives to provide affordable housing for low-income families.
She has also served four terms as the governing board vice president of the Phoenix Elementary School District. Much of The Community Housing Partnership’s housing resides within the margins of the district.
Her sign is in downtown, as all sign applicants can request where a sign is placed, said Ashley Patton, the Street Transportation Department’s public information officer.
“If there is a leader that has a specific tie to a specific area, then that location would be requested,” Patton said.
The Dr. Louisa Stark ceremonial street sign topper is located within the community she has spent over 30 years serving, per the applicant’s request. The ceremonial sign procedure also states that potential honorees must have “a minimum of 10 years of community involvement by demonstrating extraordinary and consistent voluntary commitment,” or “made significant and clearly defined contributions to the country, state or City of Phoenix.”
While volunteering in the St. Vincent De Paul dining room for the homeless throughout her early career, Dr. Stark worked to form life-long connections with the homeless.
“I would say hi, how are you?” Stark explained in her 2012 TEDx Talk.
“How do you say to somebody, who has nothing, who has lost their home and is living on the streets, how are you? How do you expect them to answer?” Stark recounts in the TEDx Talk.
In the TEDx talk, Stark explains that years later, she runs into a woman who tells her how much she meant to her son. According to the video, the woman’s son lived for years on the streets, but always went to St. Vincent De Paul on Saturdays because that was the day Stark worked.
Stark “was the only person all week long that talked to him and asked how he was,” the woman said to her according to the TEDx talk.
“Dr. Stark has long been concerned with the negative effect that residential mobility, often resulting from a scarcity of stable affordable housing, has on students in Central Phoenix,” according to her ceremonial street sign report.
Another ceremonial street sign topper honoring Bishop Henry Lee Barnwell was recently installed at the intersection of 19th Avenue and Roeser Road, an intersection at which he worked to get a traffic signal placed.
Bishop Henry Lee Barnwell was known for his civil rights activism and involvement in the religious community.
The two recently installed street sign toppers tell the stories of two impactful members of the Phoenix community, whose service and leadership lives on in Phoenix.
“When people see those signs hopefully they are able to be inspired by their leadership,” Patton said.
Contact the report mgmcbri1@asu.edu.
Correction: A previous edition of this article stated applicants can pick where their street signs can go instead of requesting a location. The document from the city is also a report, not a city ordinance.
