A new fence around Pulse nightclub is now up, and it has been decorated with local art.

  • City hopes new fence will improve foot, vehicle traffic
  • Local artists created new screen wrap
  • #ORLANDOUNITED: Complete coverage

The new fence is expected to help improve safety conditions in the area and provide those who continue to visit the site more space to mourn.

Cement barriers were also installed on the sidewalk along Orange Avenue, adjacent to Pulse, to keep people from stepping too close to the busy roadway. The city hopes it will improve foot and vehicle traffic in that area.

As Orange County Regional History Center workers collected more mementos for safe storage Monday, families of those who lost their lives continued to leave their own tributes behind to memorialize the victims.

"People are going to keep coming here, they are going to keep coming here for 100 years if this is a place for people to come and remember," visitor Donald Leclair said.

Leclair and his husband, Ron Lewis, said they came to pay their respects to the victims. They saw the old fence come down and watched as the new one went up.  

"This needs to stay as a tribute because everyone needs to remember," said Barbara Poma, the owner of Pulse.

Poma hopes the new fence and its decorative artwork sends a message.

"We want people to know the memorial is remaining open, and we encourage people to come here and grieve and find peace," Poma said.

While it's unclear what will happen to Pulse in the future, Poma said she hopes people who lost someone, and those who remember Pulse as their nightclub, will have a place to visit.

"I feel like it just needs to be a place where families of the victims and people can come to have that moment of peace, to have a moment of remembrance," Poma said. "To have a place to grieve and heal." 

Poma said she is in talks with the city on what to do with the Pulse property.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer has previously said he wants to leave it as it is this year, allowing people to pay their respects. Poma also said she doesn't see this as the end for Pulse, and that somehow the nightclub it once was will be reborn at another location.

Local artists created the new screen wrap that went on the fence. They call it a visual memorial for the 49 people killed and 53 others injured inside the gay nightclub during a terror and hate attack by Omar Mateen on June 12.