DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — The intersection at Northeast Second Avenue and First Street in Delray Beach’s Pineapple Grove Arts District was closed on Wednesday morning, as crews focused on a second attempt at a transformation from colorful to dark gray.
The Florida Department of Transportation crew’s first attempt failed on Tuesday. The dark gray didn’t adhere, so as drivers and pedestrians used the intersection, it started to fade into a mess that showed some of the bright colors again.
The Delray Beach City Commission held an emergency meeting. Vice Mayor Rob Long said the FDOT crews did not have a city permit and should have used hydro-blasting, which involves high-pressure water jets to remove paint.
Long made a motion for Delray Beach to join Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach in seeking legal action against the FDOT’s removal order and the threats of state funding cuts. Commissioners voted 3-1 in support of the motion.
Delray Beach Mayor Tom Carney, who said he was concerned about losing state funding and wanted to set up another tribute, was the dissenting vote. Deputy Vice Mayor Angela Burns and Commissioners Tom Market and Juli Casale voted in support of Long’s motion.
Known as “The Pride Streetscape” art installation, Delray Beach officials unveiled the rainbows as a tribute in 2021 to mark the fifth anniversary of the 2016 massacre at the former Pulse Nightclub in Orlando.
The FDOT removals of art installations on crosswalks also included the original rainbow-painted crosswalk tribute in Orlando, near where a 29-year-old man armed with a rifle killed 49 on June 12, 2016. It was the club’s Latin LGBTQ+ night.
THE REMOVAL ORDERS
The FDOT’s removal orders started after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed SB 1662 into state law, and Will Watts, the FDOT chief operating officer, wrote a memo in June announcing efforts against “non-standard surface markings.”
Watts wrote on X that the directive was part of “Florida’s proactive efforts to ensure we keep our transportation facilities free & clear of political ideologies.” The FDOT sent letters to cities and threatened to withhold funds for roadway projects.
The FDOT’s 2023 Manual of Uniform Minimum Standards for Design, Construction, and Maintenance for Streets and Highways already recommended not applying “pavement or surface art on travel lanes, paved shoulders, bridges, intersections, crosswalks, or sidewalks” adding that “pavement or surface art is defined as surface markings that are not in direct support of traffic control or public safety.”
NATIONAL DEBATE
In July, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued a memo on “distraction-reducing” strategies.
“Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks. Political banners have no place on public roads. I’m reminding recipients of USDOT roadway funding that it’s limited to features advancing safety, and nothing else,” Duffy wrote. “It’s that simple.”
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration’s latest Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, the “acceptability of aesthetic surface treatments on street or highway right-of-way” is to be “determined by local or state authorities” who have jurisdiction over the roadway.
Automated driving systems, or self-driving cars that rely on sensing technology and benefit from uniformity, are part of the national debate over the fate of artistic street markings. It’s the subject of ongoing research on the evolving tech.
Related stories
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- FDOT extends deadline to remove Key West rainbow crosswalk amid dispute
- Delray Beach rainbow crosswalk deadline extended as state disputes legality
- Pastors arrested during effort to protect ‘Black History Matters’ mural from Florida Department of Transportation
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