A statewide crackdown on pavement art such as rainbow-colored crosswalks will force the removal of decorative colors from four Jacksonville streets.
The state’s order will eliminate rainbow Pride colors celebrating the LGBTQ+ community from three crosswalks in a one-block section of Lomax Street in the Riverside neighborhood.
Supporters of the Pride display are already looking for other places such as wall murals and sidewalks to replace the loss of colors from the crosswalks.
“We’ll be working with business owners thoughout the entire city,” said Jax LGBT Chamber CEO David Vandygriff. “This is a way that we can still show our visibility and the support for our community with a statement that we will not be erased.”
The state Department of Transportation’s removal order also applies to a large mural painted across the intersection of San Marco Boulevard at Children’s Way in 2023.
The mural on San Marco Boulevard and pavement art on two other streets — a Milner Street crosswalk next to R.L. Brown Elementary School and a set of crosswalks at a North Pearl Street intersection in Springfield — use multiple colors but not the rainbow scheme.
The letter from the state Department of Transportation to the city of Jacksonville does not cite the yellow paw prints painted on Bay Street as non-compliant art targeted for removal. The state did not immediately say whether those paw prints, which are on a state-maintained road, will go as well.
The state gave the city a Sept. 4 deadline to remove the pavement art or risk losing millions of dollars in state transportation funding.
The city called it a “perplexing reversal” from the state’s previous stance on multicolored crosswalks being useful for traffic calming, but the city will comply with the order.
The city will have to spend an estimated $21,796 to paint over the roadway art, an amount that doesn’t include any cost for security at those locations.
Gov. DeSantis and Trump administraton: roads shouldn’t be “political”
The state has cited traffic safety as the justification for removing art painted on streets. Gov. Ron DeSantis also has said roads shouldn’t have political messages on them.
“We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes,” he said this week in a post on X.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has called on all states to remove any pavement markings whose purpose isn’t traffic control.
“Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks,” Duffy wrote in a post on X about the July 1 letter he sent to every governor. “Political banners have no place on public roads.”
He said in his post that any recipient of federal transportation funding can only put markings on streets “advancing safety, and nothing else. It’s that simple.”
City: pavement art makes roads safer for walkers and drivers
The pavement mural on San Marco Avenue is the only art financed by taxpayers. The Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville commissioned the mural designed by Neptune Beach artist Ansley Randall.
Blue Zones Project paid for the painted crosswalk near Brown Elementary School that’s designed with pedestrian safety in mind for children walking to school.
Springfield Preservation and Revitalization paid for painting four crosswalks at the intersection of North Pearl Street and Ninth Street as a way to bring art to the neighborhood and make motorists more aware of pedestrians.
Riverside Avondale Preservation paid for painting the Lomax Street crosswalks.
In a statement about the state’s order, the city said a Bloomberg study in 2022 found decorating crosswalks resulted in a 50% drop in accidents involving pedestrians along with an overall drop in accidents.
The city’s statement said the state at one time encouraged such traffic-calming measures.
“While the perplexing reversal will be costly to our taxpayers, we will be complying with the state’s request to remove these paintings and working with local artists to recreate them on a different canvas that is on private property and not on a roadway,” the city’s statement said. “In Jacksonville, we welcome everyone and believe that public art beautifies the city while driving economic development.”
City Council member Jimmy Peluso, whose district contains Riverside where the rainbow crosswalks are on Lomax Street, said it’s “a shame and it’s weak” that top elected state and federal leaders are focused on pavement art.
“But hey, if beautification on our streets and pride in our communities are something the government is so interested in fighting, I guess that means they’ve abandoned fixing property insurance and keeping people in their homes,” he said in a statement. “Talk about not having your priorities in order.”
(This story was updated to add new information and to add a photo.)
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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville will comply with state order to wipe out painting at intersections
Reporting by David Bauerlein, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
