{"id":24464,"date":"2025-10-28T23:53:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T23:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/24464\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T23:53:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T23:53:10","slug":"how-and-when-will-st-pete-replace-erased-murals-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/24464\/","title":{"rendered":"How and when will St. Pete replace erased murals?"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Petersburg officials continue exploring ways to express the city\u2019s diversity and inclusivity without drawing the ire of state leadership. Many stakeholders are ready for action.<\/p>\n

During an Oct. 23 Committee of the Whole meeting, Council member Gina Driscoll told her colleagues that if they moved high-visibility concepts forward with unity rather than disagreement, they would \u201carrive at a really great place\u201d by the end of the discussion. She apologized to the community an hour later for a \u201cBermuda Triangle of bureaucracy\u201d impeding those efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was expecting that today, two months after we started this saga, something would be coming; something was imminent,\u201d Driscoll said. \u201cI cannot stress enough the urgency that has been communicated about responding to this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) removed five street murals throughout St. Petersburg over Labor Day Weekend. Mayor Ken Welch pledged to\u00a0create new<\/a>\u00a0\u201cpowerful expressions of who we are\u201d a week prior.<\/p>\n

A city attorney subsequently warned that the State of Florida could\u00a0abolish St. Petersburg<\/a> at any time, as it lacks free speech protections. In an early September memo, Welch wrote that staff would distribute posters of the erased artwork and hundreds of Pride and Black History Matters flags to organizations and businesses.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re hearing from people is that they don\u2019t want to see more memos. They don\u2019t want to see more focus groups,\u201d Driscoll said Thursday. \u201cThe goal, really, is to have something that\u2019s bold; have something that is immediate.\u201d<\/p>\n

A survey regarding those efforts received over 200 submissions from Sept. 9 through Oct. 8. Respondents said the street murals made residents and visitors feel welcomed, seen and safe.<\/p>\n

Requested actions include adorning city-owned facilities with artwork, collaborating with the SHINE Mural Festival, distributing Pride and Black History Matters flags to the community, commissioning a piece of public art, painting bicycle racks and displaying a message of unity on I-275 billboards.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Gina Driscoll asked the city\u2019s marketing department to print hundreds of additional Pride (left) and Black History Matters flags for distribution. Image via City of St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n

City Council members seemed to reach a consensus on the bicycle racks. However, FDOT can regulate any item<\/a>\u00a0in a right-of-way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we would have no problem finding a private donor to take care of the paint,\u201d Driscoll said. \u201cKey West made it look so easy. Maybe it\u2019s not the boldest thing in the world, but it\u2019s a \u2018now\u2019 thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Driscoll proposed creating two\u00a0alternative city flags<\/a>\u00a0to show solidarity with marginalized communities earlier this month. She offered to put that \u201cto the side\u201d if her colleagues disagreed with the idea.<\/p>\n

Council member Mike Harting said he supports many of the survey suggestions. However, he believes the city flag is \u201cgeneric for a reason,\u201d as it represents roughly 280,000 residents from all walks of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we talk about changing the flag, I\u2019ve heard the word \u2018inclusive\u2019 enough that I want to retire it,\u201d Harting added. \u201cIt\u2019s not inclusive. We, very specifically, have been talking about two parts of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adorning city-owned facilities with murals is also a popular concept among officials. Assistant City Attorney Ben James said he \u201cwould think that we would have more rights associated with our parking garages and those sorts of things\u201d than surface lots and other property along a right-of-way.<\/p>\n

James also noted that the city must complete a \u201ccomplicated analysis\u201d before allowing any murals on public buildings. Assistant City Attorney Brett Pettigrew said those installations would lack free speech protections and are subject to state preemption.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state could come along and say, \u2018You must say certain things,\u2019\u201d he explained. \u201cThe state could come along and say, \u2018You must never say certain things.\u2019 There\u2019s a lot of freedom, unless and until the state takes it away, when we are speaking through our own property.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> A mural by local artist Alyssa Marie adorns the city-owned Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg. Image via Mark Parker.<\/p>\n

City Attorney Jackie Kovilaritch said her department would carefully review proposals after the meeting. She will let the Council and administration know if those have no or significant legal issues, or if something is \u201cin between.\u201d Officials must then discern their risk tolerance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really would hate to paint all of our city buildings and then be told they have to be made grey all of a sudden,\u201d Driscoll said.<\/p>\n

City Administrator\u00a0Rob Gerdes said commissioning a SHINE mural or a \u201csignificant piece\u201d of public artwork in one of the city\u2019s parks is a possibility.\u00a0While it would depend on guidance from the legal team, the mayoral administration is also comfortable with installations on municipal buildings.<\/p>\n

Council member Richie Floyd said he \u201cwouldn\u2019t be here right now\u201d if potential state preemptions dictated his role. He believes painting murals similar to those erased on city-owned facilities is the \u201ceasiest thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Floyd also agreed with Driscoll\u2019s suggestion that bike racks could reflect the identity of various neighborhoods, and that using artistic lighting could provide an alternative to murals. Council member Brandi Gabbard said she is leading efforts to rename streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was planning on moving forward with something,\u201d Gabbard added. \u201cIt is not ready yet, by any stretch of the imagination, but those wheels are in motion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Arts Advisory Committee meets Oct. 31. Celeste Davis, director of arts, culture and tourism, said she would share \u201cwhere we are in the process of actually coming up with some concrete suggestions.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Mark Parker<\/a> reports via St. Pete Catalyst<\/a>; republished with permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg officials continue exploring ways to express the city\u2019s diversity and inclusivity without drawing the ire of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[18672,3300,18673,18674,11113,3067,18675,7357,8124,18676,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-24464","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-ben-james","9":"tag-brandi-gabbard","10":"tag-brett-pettigrew","11":"tag-diversity","12":"tag-free-speech","13":"tag-gina-driscoll","14":"tag-inclusivity","15":"tag-richie-floyd","16":"tag-rob-gerdes","17":"tag-shine-mural","18":"tag-st-pete","19":"tag-st-pete-headlines","20":"tag-st-pete-news","21":"tag-st-petersburg","22":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","23":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}