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The City of San Antonio is preparing to remove the rainbow crosswalk on Main Avenue and Evergreen Street. As part of the process, on Monday, city workers drilled into the street and removed samples of the crosswalk. They used a pavement core drilling machine to create precise holes in the street by pulling out large cylinders of concrete and asphalt.
City officials say the cylinders will be preserved as part of the city’s historic archive — the only physical remnants of the rainbow crosswalk, which has been a prominent symbol in San Antonio’s Pride Cultural Heritage District since it was installed in 2018.
Matilda Miller and Anna Lavallee were taking videos of the removal at the intersection as contractors were seen cutting cylinders on the painted street Monday afternoon.
Miller is co-founder of the 6W Project, an activist group.
“It is taking away our power to self-govern as a city. It is overriding the will of the city council that is elected by the people of San Antonio and concentrating the power of Greg Abbott,” said Miller. “We have an 8-to-2 majority progressive city council and an ostensibly liberal mayor, and they have put up almost no fight on this as far as I can tell."
Under Texas law, cities derive their authority from the state and generally cannot override state rules. That framework is at the center of the dispute over whether San Antonio can legally keep the rainbow crosswalk. A TxDOT directive ordered cities to remove any roadway markings or signage tied to political or identity-based messages.
Miller said there will be a rally on Jan. 13 at 6 p.m. at the intersection of N. Main Avenue and E. Evergreen Street to protest the removal of the rainbow crosswalk.
“These things that come from the state to remove power from the city are inevitably also removing power from the constituents that are voting for these individuals,” said Lavallee. “And then your vote means less, your voice continuously means less until the only one that matters is Greg Abbott."
