In a summer filled with protests for racial injustice and a global pandemic that left many stuck inside their homes, one thing hasn’t changed: local artists covering the city with murals and other colorful artwork.

You might see some of these murals while walking in Downtown San Jose. In early June, many of San Jose’s local muralists and artists came together to create murals of hope for the community to see and remind themselves to be hopeful in these trying times.

Just south of Highway 680, passing Highway 101, you’ll find this space for artists to practice murals and spray painting openly, without the fear of getting arrested.

The Sunset Bridge Project is a public art and community space located underneath each side of a pedestrian bridge connecting the two sides of Sunset Avenue in east San Jose. 

Originally starting on the LaVonne Avenue and Sunset Avenue side over a year ago, 4 by 8 feet wooden board panels were painted and hung on fences by local artists and community members who were invited to take over the space.

But with the recent civil unrest following George Floyd’s death and many weeks of protesting, organizers of the space said this community project would help unify artists to create stylistic murals of the word “hope” on the Lyons Avenue side. This was made possible with the help of the city to allow for artists to legally paint over brick walls on that side of the bridge.

“It’s very hard to misconstrue what the word hope means,” said Jose Mancillas, one of the artists and developers of the space. “As long as us as creatives, as a community, as human beings decide to make sure that [hope] never dies out.”

These walls were created for what’s known as “Style Wars,” an artist showdown of various painting styles. A central theme or word is chosen for the “wars” and each competing artist interprets it in their own style.

The evenly divided brick walls are covered with everything from intricately colorful woven textures of the word, to caricatures in classic graffiti style next to the word. 

The competition took place on June 6-7 originally as a public event. But Mancillas said because of the shelter-in-place order the event was almost canceled, eventually settling on being limited to artists only.

Mancillas said the word hope has no political affiliation and was the perfect theme for the event because hope is never going to die out.

“When people come down the bridge, they read hope so many times in so many different ways, that I say by the time they get to the bottom of the bridge, they have no option but to cultivate hope,” Mancillas said.

But if you rewind more than a year ago, this space wasn’t quite the art and culture sanctuary it is now. 

Raymond Hewett, a six-year resident on the Sunset and Lyons Drive side living on the other side of the painted walls, said about 99% of the crime he used to see there is gone.

“When I first came a couple of years ago, it was really really bad . . . once or twice, they started trying to set fire there,” Hewett said referring to homeless people in the area.

However, that changed when Mancillas connected with Justin Triano, director of Community Express, a local nonprofit wishing to connect communities through art and culture.

Triano has previously worked with the nonprofit’s bicycle advocacy group to organize the San Jose Bike Party where everyone in the city is invited on a unified bike ride.

He said city officials in San Jose reached out to them wanting to make the Sunset bridge a designated bike route. Eventually they decided on another route, leaving Sunset as a pedestrian bridge. 

Triano used this opportunity to create new spaces for art and culture once he connected with Mancillas, who wanted to expand the Sunset Bridge Project to the Lyons Drive side.

When Mancillas and Renee Sandoval, co-developer of the space, crossed the other side of the bridge and saw the line of brick walls near Lyons Drive, Mancillas said they knew it was perfect.

But they had to address the crime and homelessness issues first.

“You would walk in here and you would see people in the corners shooting up and smoking crack,” Mancillas said. “That was the biggest challenge.”

Eventually Triano began working with the City Council and the community to host bridge cleanups and worked with neighbors to ensure the bridge stayed clean and was being taken care of.

Raymond Hewett said he enjoys the artists’ work and that he and other neighbors support the art space.

“As far as I know, everybody sort of liked it . . . they were all very happy, because they didn’t see any bad people jumping over the fence and bring bad things there,” he said.

But Hewett said he still believes there needs to be more efforts from the city to do something about the homeless issue in San Jose. Him along with Triano said there needs to be more aid from the local government to help maintain the space, but Triano said that when working with bureaucratic affairs, it usually takes a long time to get anything done.

But that wasn’t the end of the battle to maintain this space.

Triano said it has been difficult on the legislative side of things in developing the space while working with city and state organizations.

He said that between organizations and the city, there have been ups and downs mainly because the space’s concept is relatively new.

“The city doesn’t necessarily have pathways for people like us that want to be like a steward of a troubled area,” he said. “So it’s been a difficult process in telling the city . . . there’s a lack of attention on their ends and a lack of resources.”

He said even though the community wants to provide the resources and time to watch over the space, the lack of guiding regulations cause homeless people to return.

Triano added that the struggle is in maintaining the space, seeing that the area has been used for homeless shelter.

He said some steal the artists’ large plywoods for shelter against the rain which happened to one of Sandoval’s murals. But Triano said sometimes it can’t be helped.

“Sometimes, you know, we kind of just let it happen because, like, it was during the rainy season so . . . they probably needed more than us at this point,” he said.

But Triano and Mancillas are optimistic, and with more control of the space and pioneering a pathway for legal walls, they want to start giving it back to the community and looking for other spots.

They aim to expand Sunset and hold more workshops, from graffiti to gardening, and create an educational space. Mancillas said they even had people use the space to share de-escalation tactics and ways to help medically at protests.

Ideally they would have a more hands off approach later with the neighborhood taking over and having the space consistently open.

Triano and Mancillas both said they want to see it become a travel route stop for people to see the art, check out native plants at the community garden and for other San Jose artists to practice their skills like the original hope muralists.

Mancillas added that although graffiti is a sport centered around the ego, he wishes that with the messages of hope, artists will push the boundaries of their artistic direction telling a story regarding their culture, their community or overall growth.

“This isn’t just for you to come here and write your name . . . I want you to think a little bit deeper, think about what it is that you’re saying, who is it that you’re saying it to and what is the outcome that you want,” Mancillas said.

He said the beauty of having this space is it becomes a place for people who might not fall within the “fine art” category or Downtown San Jose gallery art scene to not give up on honing their talents.

“To me, this shit has a lot more soul,” Mancillas said. “No offense to the gallery artists . . . but I think when you got a nice A/C’ed spot . . . that’s a little different from you being out here in the sun, being out here in the dirt, being out here with the elements.”