They’re found inside Mexican joint Pepe’s & Mitos and on the side of Ed W. Traces of the whimsy in his art can be seen throughout the murals he’s been commissioned to do on nearby businesses and buildings. On a blistering Saturday afternoon, Jim Bilgere sells from stacks of his paintings. As businesses closed and new storefronts opened, some restaurant owners selling donuts, tacos and chicken wings benefited from being across from a sixth- through 12th-grade school, she said, smiling. Over the last decade, she said, the school never saw any issues between their students and the nearby bar operators.

Some saw the school as a way to signal safety, while others worried the kids would disrupt their day-drinking customers. Ahead of the City Council vote to waive a rule about schools not being within some hundred feet of where alcohol was sold, she walked bar to bar, very pregnant, seeing how owners felt about having students as neighbors. Days ahead of graduation, Bhatia remembers the work it took to get the school open in 2012.

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