Northside restaurant owner's legacy lives on 10 years after her death
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A mural inside Tickle Pickle in honor of Sarah Cole. Photos: Kristen Swilley/Axios
A decade after Sarah Cole's death, her friends still talk about how she made people feel — seen, valued and loved.
Why it matters: The Tickle Pickle founder's death at 35 also shook Northside and helped galvanize a fight for safer streets that continues today.
Flashback: Cole was hit by a driver on Hamilton Avenue on Sept. 8, 2016, while getting coffee for her employees. She died the following day.
- Cole had opened Tickle Pickle's walk-up window less than a year earlier and expanded it into a full restaurant in early 2016.
- The restaurant stayed open after her death, with employees saying they wanted to keep Cole's vision alive.
What they're saying: "She was truly a one-of-a-kind human being," Lea Dickman, who now owns Tickle Pickle, tells Axios.
- Dickman remembers Cole for her humor and positivity.
- "She helped me through some of the hardest times in my life and changed the way I looked at life and approached the everyday hurdles that came my way," Dickman says.
The big picture: Cole's death became a rallying point for pedestrian safety in Northside.
- Residents organized a walkabout weeks later calling on drivers to slow down and yield to pedestrians. The city later added safety measures along Hamilton Avenue, including in-street yield signs and pedestrian-activated flashing lights, efforts born from years of calls for such precautions.
- But concerns about speeding and pedestrian safety along the busy corridor have persisted in the years since.
Yes, but: Dickman says infrastructure can only go so far if drivers aren't paying attention.
- She credits the city with adding signs and flashing lights to make crossings safer, but says motorists still speed along Hamilton Avenue or fail to notice people trying to cross.
- "A majority of the issue is drivers not being aware of their surroundings and the pedestrian crosswalks," she says.
The bottom line: A decade later, Dickman says Cole's influence extends well beyond the restaurant she created.
"I will always be grateful that I had the privilege of knowing Sarah and calling her my friend," she says. "Her memory will forever hold a special place in my heart."