Daytona International Speedway’s checkered-flag crosswalks outside the famed motorsports track must be removed, the latest casualty in a crackdown by Gov. Ron DeSantis that already ignited a controversy outside the Pulse nightclub memorial in Orlando.
Speedway officials confirmed on Tuesday, Aug. 26, that the track has been notified by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) of its intent to repaint the crosswalks as part of a “statewide standardization of those designs.”
Susan Cerbone, spokeswoman for the City of Daytona Beach, said that she also had heard about the art’s removal.
“As far as I know, the city hasn’t received any official notification from FDOT,” Cerbone said by email on Tuesday, “although, I’ve heard the speedway was notified directly about DOT‘s plans to repaint the checkerboard crosswalks.”
Multiple emails and phone messages to Cindi Lane, public information director for FDOT’s District 5 office in DeLand, weren’t returned.
The checkered-flag crosswalk art is displayed at an intersection used by hundreds of thousands of NASCAR fans at the annual Daytona 500 in February and the Coke Zero Sugar 400 in August, not to mention the Rolex 24 endurance race in January.
Removal of Daytona checkered flag crosswalks follows Pulse controversy
News about the impending removal of the Daytona Beach crosswalk art comes in the wake of the controversial overnight removal of a rainbow-hued crosswalk outside the Pulse nightclub memorial in Orlando.
That action, which led to several unsuccessful grassroots efforts by local residents to repaint the colors, has generated national media coverage.
At a news conference in Tampa on Tuesday, Aug. 26, DeSantis said the state was fully embracing a new policy of wiping asphalt art from streets across the state, regardless of messaging, themes or potential safety benefits.
“The Florida legislature passed a law that was very clear … we’re not doing the commandeering of the roads to put up messaging,” he said at the press conference. “We’ve made the policy decision in Florida that we’re not going to use the roads for that purpose.”
Volusia Pride leader: Crosswalk policy ‘a ridiculous way’ to see the world
Although the checkered flags on the road outside the Speedway don’t represent the emotional issues tied to the Pulse massacre, in which 49 people were killed in a 2016 mass shooting at the popular gay nightclub, removing them still doesn’t make sense to Nick Ducharme, advocacy director for Volusia Pride, a DeLand-based nonprofit with a mission to foster equality.
“This is very personal to us at Volusia Pride, as our organization sprung up from needs that emerged after the Pulse tragedy,” DuCharme said. “We wouldn’t exist if that event had happened.”
Whether it’s rainbow colors or checked flags, Ducharme described the new state policy as “a ridiculous way to look at the world.”
“There’s an authoritarian transformation happening before our eyes, right here, right now,” he said. “Whether it’s a checkered flag or rainbow colors, those thigs are harmless. If anything, they make crosswalks more visible and safer.
If the idea is to remove the checkered flags to excuse removing rainbows from the Pulse memorial, I can’t think of a time when, as a class of people, NASCAR fans have had their rights to exist and be married threatened. LGBTQ+ people live with that every day.”
Volusia County officials: No notice of other crosswalk art to be removed
The Speedway crosswalks are on a state-maintained stretch of International Speedway Boulevard/U.S. Highway 92, so not maintained by Volusia County, said Clayton Jackson, county spokesman.
The county hasn’t received a letter from FDOT identifying any non-compliant crosswalks on roads that it maintains, Jackson said.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: After Pulse, state tells Daytona Speedway checkered-flag crosswalks will be repainted
Reporting by Jim Abbott, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
