As cities throughout Florida face a state-imposed deadline subsequent week to take away rainbow-colored crosswalks and different avenue artwork, no less than three say they are going to attraction, arguing partially that the directive robs their neighborhoods of inventive expressions representing their cities’ dedication to range and inclusivity of LGBTQ+ communities.
Others, in the meantime, have yielded or indicated they are going to agree to the state’s calls for for removals of avenue artwork – not simply LGTBQ-themed designs, however artwork practically throughout the board – citing the state’s risk to lower transportation funding in the event that they don’t.
Fort Lauderdale, whose leaders need to hold its rainbow-colored road art, on Wednesday night time turned the latest to point out it should problem the state’s order, with the town fee voting unanimously in a special meeting to pursue an administrative attraction to the Florida Department of Transportation.
The metropolis joins no less than two different communities trying to hold rainbow crosswalks – Key West and Delray Beach – in requesting a FDOT listening to forward of the removal deadlines of September 3 or 4, relying on the town.
“Tonight, we must stand our ground. We cannot allow us to be bullied into submission and to allow others to dictate what we should do in our own communities,” Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis stated at Wednesday’s metropolis fee assembly.
The crosswalk battle comes after FDOT issued a June 30 memo saying its coverage prohibits “pavement or surface art” – or any markings circuitously supporting visitors management or public security – on crosswalks and journey lanes, together with “pavement surface art that is associated with social, political, or ideological messages or images.”
FDOT then despatched letters to metropolis leaders throughout the state this month, figuring out street markings it stated wanted removal, and threatening “withholding of state funds” if the cities didn’t comply by deadlines of early September.
The coverage gained nationwide consideration final week when the state removed, in a single day, a rainbow crosswalk from a state street in Orlando exterior Pulse, the homosexual nightclub the place 49 people were killed in 2016. That removal was decried by Orlando’s mayor as a “cruel political act.”
The state says the initiative to take away “pavement art” is about security, readability and compliance with a new law, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in June.
“We have a new law and we have a new standard, and we’re simply implementing that standard, and it’s across the board,” FDOT Secretary Jared Perdue stated this week at a news conference. “Pavement art is not allowed, and we’re removing everything that’s not compliant.”
But DeSantis himself indicated the transfer partially targets removal of what he calls political expression. Responding to a state senator’s criticism of the removal of Orlando’s rainbow crosswalk, he posted to X: “We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes.”
Advocacy group Equality Florida stated it has recognized 12 Florida cities that had been requested to eliminated rainbow crosswalks, usually related to LGBTQ rights and satisfaction.
“Ron DeSantis is extorting Florida cities by threatening to withhold millions in taxpayer-funded relief unless they bow to his demands,” Equality Florida’s government director, Nadine Smith, stated in a press release to NCS. “This isn’t about safety. It’s a cowardly abuse of power and the latest in his campaign to ban books, whitewash history, and attack LGBTQ people.”
For Fort Lauderdale, FDOT demanded the town treatment 4 areas of coloured pavement by September 4 – one within the design of a Progress Pride flag, and three that aren’t rainbow themed.
On Monday, about 50 folks gathered alongside Fort Lauderdale’s Sebastian Street, location of the Pride road art, to protest the demand, NCS affiliate WPLG reported.
The Pride-themed street artwork represents “a gateway for all of the tourists who visit our community who want to find the LGBTQ+ community,” protester Patrik Gallineaux instructed WPLG. “When they see this rainbow, they know they are home.”
In a crowded metropolis corridor in Fort Lauderdale Wednesday night, the 5 members of the town fee, together with the mayor and vice mayor, met to focus on the FDOT letter.
Public remark overwhelmingly opposed capitulation to the state’s mandate.
“I’m a taxpayer, and I want my money to be used on the right things, not to infringe on people’s rights,” one man stated.
“I look forward to how this crisis gives us an opportunity to say once again, we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it,” one other stated.
“It’s un-American and unpatriotic,” a girl stated.
The fee voted unanimously to pursue an administrative attraction to FDOT. In a second vote, all however one individual voted to appoint legislation agency Weiss Serota Helfman Cole + Bierman to symbolize the town ought to it develop into essential.
“I’m sure that the state will find every way they can to associate their actions and to make it look like they’re trying to enforce traffic control mechanisms,” the mayor stated. “But as it’s been said time and again, it’s simply a camouflage for their true intent, which is to erase and eliminate all or as many LGBTQ references in the state as possible.”
The legislation agency is representing Fort Lauderdale, Key West and Delray Beach, the agency instructed NCS with out extra remark.
Key West has an off-the-cuff listening to with FDOT in Orlando on September 3, the identical day as Key West’s deadline to take away its rainbow crosswalk, in accordance to Mayor Danise DeeDee Henriquez.
Delray Beach, whose leaders additionally voted to request a listening to with FDOT, faces a September 3 deadline to adjust to the state’s calls for. FDOT’s letter to the town stated it might have a listening to September 2.
The letters to all three cities say that if they don’t comply, FDOT itself will take away the markings, and the cities will likely be topic to the withholding of funds.
A fourth metropolis, Miami Beach, can also attraction. The metropolis was given a September 4 deadline to take away its rainbow crosswalk, The Associated Press reported. Miami Beach Commissioner Alex Fernandez intends to recommend interesting the order throughout a gathering sooner or later earlier than the deadline, the AP reported.
In June, DeSantis signed a law authorizing the withholding of state transportation funds to cities not in compliance with FDOT’s insurance policies. FDOT then issued its June 30 memo, which stated nonstandard avenue markings “can lead to distraction or misunderstandings, jeopardizing both driver and pedestrian safety.”
A day after the state memo was issued, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy despatched a letter to governors of all 50 states saying intersections and crosswalks ought to be “kept free from distractions” and giving states a late-August deadline to submit an inventory of main points it should repair. The letter didn’t elaborate, however Duffy appeared to accomplish that in a associated X post.
“Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks,” Duffy stated concerning the letter July 1 on X. “Political banners have no place on public roads.”
As far again as 2011, the Federal Highway Administration discouraged communities from portray colourful or in a different way designed crosswalks, citing a risk to security. But they emerged nonetheless, and West Hollywood, California, claims to be the first city to have put in a everlasting rainbow crosswalk, in 2012.
Since Duffy’s July 1 memo, no main strikes towards rainbow-colored crosswalks or avenue paintings exterior Florida have been obvious.
“Some of these crosswalks and markings have been in place for years and years, so claiming this is about public safety just doesn’t hold up,” a spokesperson for LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD instructed NCS about Florida’s strikes. “Florida officials’ complaining about ‘political statements’ proves this is another effort to stomp on people’s rights to free speech and expression, and it spreads the lie that support for LGBTQ people is something other than basic respect and kindness.”
DeSantis this week said Florida’s coverage got here after “certainly in other parts of the country, (pavement art) got way out of control to where really the safety and the use of the roads was almost secondary to people being able to appropriate that for different types of messaging.”
“We don’t want to be in a situation where we’re playing whack-a-mole and (saying), ‘Well, that mural is fine, but that’s not – we think the pedestrians may get confused there.’ … Because then, you get into, like, ‘Oh, is this a content thing’ and all that. No. We’re just not doing it. We’re out of that business in Florida,” DeSantis stated.
Across the state, many alternative kinds of pavement artwork are affected – not simply rainbows, but additionally designs nodding to racial equality, police, and a college.
Even Daytona International Speedway hasn’t been spared, with its checkered flag crosswalk being painted over, in accordance to WPLG.
In St. Petersburg, metropolis leaders final week requested that 5 avenue artwork initiatives be spared, a rainbow-colored intersection, a Black Lives Matter mural and a University of South Florida-themed crosswalk, the AP reported. The request was denied, in accordance to the AP.
In West Palm Beach, metropolis crews used a strain washer to take away rainbow colours from a crosswalk this week, in accordance to the mayor’s workplace. The metropolis stated it had beforehand bought rainbow-colored bricks to replace the crosswalk, however the metropolis now plans to use the bricks to create an LGBTQ+ monument in a neighborhood park.
Crews in Tampa are eradicating avenue artwork this week, metropolis spokesman Joshua Cascio stated. A “Back the Blue” mural on the road exterior police headquarters is included in artwork to be eliminated, in accordance to an inventory of pavement artwork areas offered to NCS by the town.
Also on the chopping block are painted bike lanes exterior an Orlando elementary faculty, in accordance to metropolis commissioner Jim Gray’s workplace. The bike lanes had been designed by two fourth-graders who gained an FDOT art contest to promote bicycle and pedestrian security, in accordance to the varsity.
Four areas of avenue or sidewalk artwork will likely be eliminated in Sarasota, metropolis spokesperson Jan Thornburg instructed NCS. “The city of Sarasota is not in a position to jeopardize state funding,” she stated.
In Gainesville, three rainbow crosswalks had been being eliminated this week from downtown, and the coloured bricks that comprised one in all them can be preserved for “future projects,” the town stated in an electronic mail.