Margaret Hagan knew Broadway Avenue in passing as a regular rider on the T. But when she went door-to-door in Beechview as a volunteer for City Councilman Patrick Dowd's mayoral campaign in 2009, the neighborhood fleshed out, full of attitude and passion.

An idea came to mind, and her target was Broadway Avenue.

>"The Beechview Project" -- a colorful series of faces and comments reflecting the future that residents hope for -- now occupies the front windows of an empty store at 1619 Broadway Ave.

"This was going to be an oral history when I started, but people wanted to talk about now," she said Tuesday as she hung circular photos of her drawings, backed in foam board and ribboned together vertically. "I talked to a lot of people and got a lot of opinions," notably how fed up people are with the continuing vacancy of the commercial corridor.

She began depicting Beechview on her website.

"I love Beechview houses, so I drew them and posted them."

City Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak saw the drawings and posted a Twitter message about them.

"I asked her if she knew of any opportunities" for an art project, Ms. Hagan said. "She said, 'What do you want to do? Let's do it.' "

Ms. Hagan, 28, decided to pair the comments with random and anonymous faces framed by architecture.

"I took my notebook and drew faces at the Three Rivers Arts Festival," she said. "I though it would be better to keep the people who commented anonymous."

The Urban Redevelopment Authority, which owns numerous buildings in Beechview, granted her use of the space.

In the window, the question, "What do you think about Beechview?" hangs surrounded by responses ranging from the desire for a coffee shop, more acceptance of Mexican immigrants and a return to looking out for one another.

"Like everybody else, I would love to see businesses on Broadway and for people to use what we already have here," wrote one resident.

"We have so many assets," wrote another: "good public transit, an elementary, middle and high school, a public library, a new spray park, active community organizations, sports teams and churches of many denominations."

Ms. Hagan has more comments than she has room to display. She said she hopes they can be changed out regularly to give people new things to read. (To contribute thoughts, send them to beechviewproject@gmail.com. For more information and a list of questions, visit www.razblint.com.)

"This is my last gasp at public art," she said. "I start law school in three weeks" at Stanford University.

A graduate of the University of Chicago, she has a master's degree in Balkan studies from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, and a Ph.D. from Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in international politics.

Ms. Rudiak said that because the panels are in a URA-owned property, they contribute "positivity to entice folks on the T line and developers to see that this is a community eager for investment."

Beechview resident Ron Baraff, who is active in neighborhood organizations, said Ms. Hagan's art "beautifies an eyesore building on Broadway and more importantly, it will get people thinking and talking about their community. These acts then will hopefully lead to actions."

The once-vibrant Broadway Avenue is eerily quiet as the T rumbles through in the late morning. A T line without neighborhood investment "is a mystery," said Ms. Hagan. "When I came back" after years away, she said, "it was kind of a shock. This project wasn't supposed to be a plea to 'please come,' but maybe that's what it is."

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