The Texas Department of Transportation has denied the City of San Antonio’s request to keep the pride district’s rainbow crosswalks after Gov. Greg Abbott’s order to remove “any and all political ideologies” from Texas streets.
In an Oct. 8 news release from Abbott’s office, the governor called on TxDOT to enforce the removal of non-standard surface markings, signage and signals that “do not directly support traffic control or safety.”
The crosswalks, located at the intersection of North Main Avenue and East Evergreen Street within the Pride Cultural Heritage District, have been a point of contention since the order.
Assistant City Manager John Peterek filed the city’s exemption request on Nov. 5.
KSAT obtained a Nov. 25 letter from Director of TxDOT’s Traffic Safety Division George Villarreal to Peterek. In the letter, Villarreal said TxDOT “does not consider this exemption request acceptable.”
Villarreal requested the city either submit an updated exemption request addressing compliance or submit a plan of action before Dec. 10 for removing the crosswalks.
“Failure to comply with this directive may result in the withholding or denial of state or federal funds and/or the suspension of agreements between TxDOT and the city,” Villarreal said.
In a response letter on Dec. 10 obtained by KSAT, Peterek said the city “continues to believe that the crosswalks in question are safer than before the installation of the rainbow-colored paint, that the intersection is safer than comparable intersections, and that it demonstrated the importance of the crosswalks to the Pride Cultural Heritage District.”
“Nevertheless, the City will respect TxDOT’s decision,” the letter states.
See here for the previous update. As I said, this is no surprise. No one could have realistically expected Greg Abbott’s TxDOT to do anything but rubber stamp the removal order. It wasn’t about winning – we all knew the game was rigged – it was about not rolling over. This also gave some extra time for any potential plaintiffs to file a lawsuit while the crosswalks were still there and could be protected by a restraining order, if it all came to that. Which it may not – if there’s no reasonable hope of getting a restraining order, or if winning a TRO and then getting hammered on appeals was a possible outcome, then it may well be that this will pass by with no further resistance. The point is that this appeal provided some time. That’s not much to ask for, and it’s why the immediate painting over of the crosswalk on Westheimer was on the list of grievances against Mayor Whitmire.
That earlier post notes that Dallas had made an appeal as well. I didn’t see anything new about that in a Google news search, but I would assume that it’s just a matter of time before it is denied as well. Austin had a more complicated situation; I’m not sure where that stands. Let’s just say at this point that when this current moment passes, we should work to restore all of these rainbow crosswalks as well as the many others that were targeted by this ridiculous mandate. We may be down but we’re not out. The Current and the San Antonio Report have more.