{"id":27331,"date":"2025-10-31T00:56:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T00:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/27331\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T00:56:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T00:56:07","slug":"st-pete-leaders-brainstorm-ways-to-brighten-up-city-after-street-mural-removals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/27331\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete leaders brainstorm ways to brighten up city after street mural removals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The City of St. Petersburg<\/a> is brainstorming ways to brighten up their city after the state required them to erase several different street murals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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What we know:<\/p>\n

Some of those options included adding murals on city-owned buildings or parking garages, bicycle racks and flags.\u00a0<\/p>\n

RELATED: Gov. DeSantis doubles down on FDOT order to remove street murals<\/a><\/p>\n

During the Committee of the Whole meeting, councilors said they wanted to make a bold statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We want to take some action, so everyone sees, no matter what happens on a state level in St. Petersburg, you’re seen, welcomed and celebrated,” District 6 councilwoman Gina Driscoll said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

Two months ago, the state required cities to paint over street murals. They said it prevented driver distraction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS: FDOT denies St. Pete’s request to keep several street murals on roadways<\/a><\/p>\n

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Now, the city is thinking of ways to keep the city’s branding as “The City of the Arts.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arts, Culture, and Tourism Director Celeste Davis said, “These five murals were part of the fabric that defines St. Pete as a vibrant, welcoming city people have chosen to call home.”<\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

The city came up with several proposals which included adding murals on city-owned buildings or parking garages.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The easiest thing to do would be paint similar things that were on the streets onto publicly owned city buildings,” District 8 councilman Richie Flloyd said. “It reflects the art we lost.”<\/p>\n

MORE: St. Pete city council debates inclusive city flags after state stripped street murals<\/a><\/p>\n

That also includes adding a splash of color to the wastewater plants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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District 1 councilman Copley Gerdes added, “You have this opportunity to paint this lense next to something like that. Driving over the interstate, over the Skyway, you have the southwest plant.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, there were questions about whether it would go against the Florida Department of Transportation’s rule and feasibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Assistant City Attorney Ben James explained, “FDOT stressed they were talking about pavement murals and markings.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Driscoll added, “As far as recreating the murals on buildings nearby, it may not be feasible, it may be hard to do.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS: ‘Black History Matters’ mural returns briefly before state crews remove it for second time<\/a><\/p>\n

Other Proposals:<\/p>\n

Another option would be to add some color to bike racks across the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“You’re not going to be using something like this to replicate what was there before,” District 2 councilwoman Brandi Gabbard explained. “But even looking at the USF-St. Pete campus, there are ways bike racks can be painted in the same colors, which gives that ohmage to what those street murals were”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One proposal that got them talking included adding more city flags. One would be PRIDE related and the other focuses on Black History.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Courtesy: <\/p>\n

Courtesy: City of St. Petersburg <\/p>\n

Driscoll said, “We need to make it accessible to everyone who wants one.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, councilman Mike Harting had a different side.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The flag defines who we are, this council, this administration, we represent the 280-thousand people who live here, regardless of what they bring to the table,” he said. “That flag is generic for a reason; that flag represents the City of St. Pete.”<\/p>\n

READ: Community members use chalk art to protest FDOT removing St. Pete street murals<\/a><\/p>\n

But what they do agree on, something has to be done.\u00a0<\/p>\n

District 7 councilman Corey Givens, Jr. added, “it’s important to recognize we have to stand up to big brother when they’re trying to tell little brother what to do.”<\/p>\n

The Source: FOX 13 gathered the information for this story from a City of St. Petersburg Committee of the Whole meeting.<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg<\/a>Transportation<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The City of St. Petersburg is brainstorming ways to brighten up their city after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[47,115,1157,202,204,203,199,201,200,1798,628],"class_list":["post-27331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-fl","tag-news","tag-pinellas","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-transportation","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27331","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=27331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}