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The City of San Antonio has started preparing the sidewalks on N. Main Avenue to be painted in rainbow colors.
The decision comes after the city was forced to remove a rainbow crosswalk at Evergreen and Main by the Texas Department of Transportation. The directive came from Gov. Greg Abbott's plan to eliminate what he calls symbols of "political ideologies."
Contractors began blocking off two blocks of sidewalk in front of some of the city’s LGBTQ+ bars along Main between Laurel St. and Park Avenue this week. The project is expected to last into February and cost around $170,000 for the installation. Removal of the Rainbow Crosswalk will start around Monday, Jan. 12.
In a memo to the San Antonio City Council, City Manager Erik Walsh said the project was being funded by existing money within the city’s public works department. Since the city is using a contractor previously approved by the council, a further council vote is not needed.
“The intersection will first be resurfaced, which includes the removal of the existing crosswalk, followed by the installation of a standard black-and-white crosswalk in accordance with City of San Antonio specifications which conform to TxDOT Pavement Marking Standards," the memo said. "Prior to the resurfacing, pieces of the rainbow-colored crosswalks will be saved for possible future art installations.”
The rainbow crosswalk was installed in 2018 with about $19,0000 of donated funds collected by Pride San Antonio, the organizer of the city’s pride parade. Pride San Antonio had also raised the funding for regular cleanings. The crosswalk has been replaced at least once after a portion was damaged during an underground pipe repair by the San Antonio Water System last year.
The crosswalk has served as a defining marker for what is now recognized as the Pride Cultural Heritage District by the city as of last June. It’s been the site of many of San Antonio’s LGBTQIA establishments.
District 1 Councilwoman Sukh Kaur said she was "sad" to see the removal of the crosswalk but is "encouraged" that the city worked with the council to ensure pride is still shown.
"I love that the design created with input from the LGBTQ+ Advisory Board features the modern Pride flag, helping ensure that the Pride Cultural Heritage District remains a vital and inclusive space in our city," she said.
Ben Harrell, the District 1 appointee on the city’s LGBTQIA Advisory Commission told TPR on Wednesday that although the LGBT community is losing the crosswalk, the addition of the sidewalks is a win.
“The state handed us an impossible situation here, and I think what the city is doing now with the rainbow sidewalks is the best of a bad situation, and in some ways it's even better, because we're going from having a single crosswalk to four city blocks of rainbow sidewalks,” he said. “It's more gay and obnoxious than ever.”
Last Summer, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent a directive to states saying, “Roads are for safety, not political messages or artwork” and should be kept free of distractions.
In October, TxDOT sent letters to cities saying street markings that were deemed political or ideological would need to be removed or the state would stop funding road projects in cities that did not comply.
San Antonio filed a request for an exemption saying the crosswalk had improved safety.
Later that month, community members held a rally in hopes of drumming up support to fight the directive; however, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said at the time she was not optimistic about it.
TxDOT ultimately denied that request in November. Around that same time, other Texas cities, including Austin, Houston, and Dallas, said they would comply with the removal.
During an LGBTQIA Advisory Commission meeting in December, city officials said the sidewalks would be installed instead.
“I think the message that we're sending here is that no matter how you try to erase us, we will always, always find a way to be visible. We refuse to be erased,” Harrel said. “This is not our first rodeo with the state trying to erase us. We persisted in the past. We are persisting now, and we will persist in the future.”
On Wednesday, the two conservative members of the city council — District 9 Councilwoman Misty Spears and District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte — objected to the city using its funds for the sidewalks.
Whyte said in a statement the city is facing significant challenges to street and sidewalk repairs and drainage.
“When taxpayer dollars are involved, our focus should be on addressing these essential infrastructure needs that directly impact public safety and our residents’ day-to-day quality of life," he said in the statement. "As Americans, we have the right to freely express ourselves. If private individuals or businesses wish to use their money to make a statement, they have the right to do so. But to use public dollars to paint colored sidewalks instead of allocating that money to core infrastructure needs is not in the best interest of our citizens.”
Spears echoed those sentiments in a statement of her own.
“I believe the elimination of the rainbow crosswalks was an important roadway safety decision made by the state of Texas and not intended to target San Antonio or the LGBTQ community," she said. "Protected free speech is what makes America the best country in the world. However, tax dollars should not fund individual viewpoints.”
District 2 Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, who is the first openly gay man elected to the council, said the objections about the crosswalk were never about safety.
“Data shows that this intersection was safer after the installation of the crosswalks. This has always been about bigotry and the state choosing time and time again to attack the LGBTQ+ community. They hoped to make the city complicit in it,” he said, adding that sidewalks are following regulations and demonstrate greater and more permanent visible support for the LGBT community.
McKee-Rodriguez said he joined the majority of San Antonians opposed to what the District 9 and 10 council members had to say about sidewalks.
“It is hypocritical to all of a sudden pretend to care about frugality and taxpayer dollars when they didn’t mind the City wasting tens of thousands of dollars replacing an intersection that was perfectly safe as is and being maintained privately. Taxpayers wouldn’t be paying anything if Greg Abbott didn’t force us to rip up and replace a perfectly good intersection. Misty (Spears) and Marc (Whyte) can direct their frustrations to his office, if they’re so concerned,” he said.
