With Rainbow Crosswalks Gone, Dallas Considers New Symbols of Pride

After a state order demanded that Texas cities remove decorated crosswalks, the city of Dallas is looking for a new way to display neighborhood pride. 

Decorative crosswalks are being removed across Dallas to comply with the order, including dozens of rainbow-colored walkways in the Oak Lawn neighborhood and several Black Lives Matter-themed crosswalks in South Dallas. Dallas’ Office of Arts and Culture and the Department of Transportation are partnering to identify new installations that express appreciation for the affected neighborhoods. 

During community meetings last week, city leaders heard recommendations for new installations, collected feedback on the themes residents want to see in the new projects, and launched neighborhood identity surveys to gather ideas. City leaders suggested that new murals, strategic landscaping, decorated benches and banners may be among the solutions to replace the art that was erased. 

“We stand with you,” Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Jesse Moreno told community members last week. “We’re going to find other ways to show appreciation and love for our communities.” 

There is no set timeline for when the city’s contributions will be completed. Martinne Philippe, director of the Office of Arts and Culture, said that once concrete ideas have been pulled from the feedback received during the community outreach period, it will be up to the Department of Transportation to determine what is “feasible.” The next step will be to consider the budget implications, something Philippe said may require some “creative solutions.” 

Avery James, a resident of the Oak Lawn neighborhood that has historically been a landing place for members of the LGBTQ+ community, is still grappling with the removal of the rainbow crosswalks. She worries that the mandate was “a small step” towards a larger effort to silence the community that she loves. 

She’s been reassured, though, by the grassroots art installations that have already been installed across Cedar Springs Road in an effort to push back on the governor’s mandate. Within days of Gov. Greg Abbott’s order, the Oak Lawn United Methodist Church painted its steps to display the rainbow pride flag. The installation will be allowed to remain for at least three years. 

The Cedar Springs Merchant Association, which initially funded the rainbow crosswalks, has also vowed to invest in “legacy projects” such as “art installations, enhanced lighting and permanent rainbow structures” that will “ensure that rainbows fly eternally over this street, in forms that cannot be so easily stripped away.”

“People have the right to celebrate,” said James. “I never really saw myself staying in Texas because I never thought that there was a place for me. And then I saw the gayborhood, and I was like, oh, wait a second. There are spaces for me here.” 

In his memorandum, Abbott claimed that the crosswalk crackdown was an attempt to ensure that tax dollars aren’t being used to promote political ideologies. During the Friday community meeting in Oak Lawn, Tony Vedda, president of the North Texas LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce, argued that the rainbow installations represented identity, not ideology. They signaled that drivers had crossed into a neighborhood where “everyone is welcome,” he said. 

But he urged community members not to focus only on the rainbow crosswalks.

“I think as much as we’re unhappy about our rainbows going away, we should be equally unhappy about [the Black Lives Matter crosswalks] going away. I think it provides all of us an opportunity to reach out and work across communities on things that really benefit all of us,” Vedda said. “It is sad that they got twisted into something political. … [The crosswalks] are gone now, but we’re not.”