Can’t have rainbow crosswalks, so this will have to do.
Photo: Sanford Nowlin
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.”
I like the sound of that. San Antonio lost its appeal of the order to de-rainbow itself, and the sidewalk idea was floated shortly thereafter. As there’s no state or federal funding at risk for sidewalks, that was considered to be the best workaround. I appreciate that the city has refused to take this nonsense lying down. May the rainbow sidewalks be a bridge to the next time we have a sane and functional government again and can get back to where we ought to be. The San Antonio Report and the Current have more.
UPDATE: Hold on there a minute.
Talk about strange bedfellows.
The city’s plan to install rainbow sidewalks in the heart of its queer nightlife district is on hold after Pride San Antonio, organizer of the Pride Bigger Than Texas Parade, and the Texas Conservative Liberty Forum (TCLF), a group known for supporting anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, sued over the project’s funding.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Bexar County District Court, the two groups accuse the city unlawfully allocating $170,000 in taxpayer money to remove the crosswalks and paint the sidewalks in the city’s Pride Cultural Heritage District. Pride San Antonio had raised the funds to install the rainbow crosswalk seven years ago.
The suit asserts that city officials have deprived the plaintiffs and residents to have the plans “deliberated in a public forum, have their elected representatives take a public vote on same, and hold them accountable (or at least know where they stand. Instead, the City has hatched a cockamamie plan to summarily circumvent the entire legislative process and unilaterally expended large sums of taxpayers’ money.”
You can read on for Pride San Antonio’s (weak) justification for winding up in the sack with the TCLF. All I know is there isn’t enough soap in the world to make me feel clean after that experience, but hey, you do you. Hopefully this will be dispensed with quickly.
UPDATE: Never mind.
A Bexar County judge on Friday denied a lawsuit that sought to temporarily block the City of San Antonio from installing rainbow-themed sidewalk art and removing the rainbow crosswalks in the city’s Pride Cultural Heritage District.
After a preliminary hearing, Judge Christine Vasquez-Hortick of the 225th District Court denied a request from plaintiffs — including Pride San Antonio and the Texas Conservative Liberty Forum — for a temporary restraining order that would have paused the city’s plans.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday, argued the city lacked authority to proceed without additional City Council approval, asserting that Public Works funds may not be used for what plaintiffs described as expressive or artistic projects rather than construction, maintenance or repair.
“If you do not approve the temporary restraining order today, the rainbow crosswalk at Main and Evergreen will be destroyed on Monday,” Attorney Justin P. Nichols, representing the plaintiffs, told the judge.
City attorneys countered that Public Works is authorized to proceed through appropriations already approved in the FY 2026 budget and through existing task-order contracts, and that no separate council action was required.
City officials also said they must bring the crosswalks into compliance after the Texas Department of Transportation determined the markings do not meet state standards. Failure to act, they said, could put roughly $80 million in transportation funding tied to about 20 projects at risk.
“Everyone in this room might agree that this is a functional crosswalk,” Bonnie Kirkland an attorney retained by the city said. “The state has said it’s not, and we have to bring it into compliance.”
Vasquez-Hortick said she did not find evidence the city violated a statute, ordinance or funding requirement by proceeding under its existing budget authority.
“Based on what I have in front of me today, I don’t see that there was any additional requirement that the City of San Antonio needed to comply with that they did not,” she said. “So I respectfully deny your request.”
Sponsors help underwrite our nonprofit journalism. Sponsor today.
In denying the request, Vasquez-Hortick said the court’s role was limited to determining whether the plaintiffs identified a specific legal requirement the city failed to weigh in on the political merits of the situation.
“This is a political mess that’s been brought into this city,” she said. “But it is not the job of this court or any other court to involve itself in political issues.”
After the ruling, the plaintiffs’ attorney Nichols said he respected the judge’s decision and that it remained to be seen whether his clients would pursue further legal action.
Nichols said the denial of the temporary restraining order does not necessarily end the case, noting plaintiffs could still request a temporary injunction hearing with additional notice. But he acknowledged the timeline may limit those options as the city moves forward with its plans.
That certainly counts as a quick dispensation. The work will nonetheless be paused for a couple of days because two Council members had also raised questions about the funding source, and there will be a briefing to Council before it begins.