{"id":389521,"date":"2026-09-03T19:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T19:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/389521\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T19:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T19:14:09","slug":"rainbow-crosswalks-are-gone-but-five-points-mural-keeps-diversity-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/389521\/","title":{"rendered":"Rainbow crosswalks are gone, but Five Points mural keeps diversity alive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twenty-one faces glow like golden orbs in a new mural at the Lomax Street corner of the Five Points neighborhood in Jacksonville. The human figures are framed in Christmas-like pinpoints of lights among a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes.<\/p>\n

The signature of local artist Shaun Thurston<\/a> hangs in a corner.<\/p>\n

The mural, called \u201cConstellations of Us,\u201d depicts glowing couples of all genders, drawn from people Thurston met while painting the mural to commemorate Five Points\u2019 past, celebrate its diversity and affirm its LGBTQ+ community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel great. I see a lot of smiles and laughs coming from everybody, so it\u2019s all positive and that is a continuation of what it\u2019s been like on the street painting the thing,\u201d Thurston said Thursday after the 1,700-square-foot mural was dedicated.<\/p>\n

The mural is partly a reaction to an order from the Florida Department of Transportation a year ago to remove rainbow-painted crosswalks<\/a> \u2014 or any messages or images on crosswalks or pavement \u2014 to make \u201croads safer and easier to navigate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city of Jacksonville had to paint over the crosswalks<\/a>, as well as an intersection mural in San Marco, the jaguar paw prints down East Bay Street and others. But critics here and across the state interpreted the mandate as an attack on the LGBTQ+ community. <\/p>\n

\"\"A closeup of the new \u201cConstellations of Us\u201d mural in Five Points. | Dan Scanlan, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n

Now the mural can help heal the community, said Cheryl Croft, president of the Five Points Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have always been known as a very welcoming space. We really value the diversity, creativity and individualism of people, and that has been reflected in the cultural environment here,\u201d Croft said. \u201cWith the erasure of our crosswalks, we mourned and we needed something to heal us from that, and I think we have a marvelous mural now to help heal that hole in our hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lomax Street mural stretches east along one building\u2019s wall, part of it punctured by six windows and two doorways, the latter painted as part of the project. The western part of the mural also sits between two crosswalks once painted with rainbow colors until FDOT ordered them removed.<\/p>\n

\"\"A Google Maps image still shows one of three Five Points crosswalks painted with a rainbow theme before the state ordered it covered up. | Google<\/p>\n

The Jax LGBT Chamber<\/a>\u2018s members began seeking painters and artists as it planned to counter removal of the rainbow crosswalks. That resulted in a community task force working on a campaign to beautify Five Points, called \u201cWe Will Not Be Erased.\u201d<\/p>\n

Its first project is this mural, funded by the JAX LGBT Chamber of Commerce<\/a>, Riverside Avondale Preservation, Equality Florida, JASMYN, AIDS Memorial Project of Northeast Florida, Jax River City Pride, the Robert Ragland Foundation, and Preston Haskell, among others.<\/p>\n

A \u2018transformational\u2019 mural<\/p>\n

At the unveiling, City Council member Jimmy Peluso said he never thought there would any issue with the rainbow crosswalks, which were in his district. He said they were done to recognize \u201cthe lives that have been lost, and who fought for equality and for a normal quality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen our governor decided that he was offended \u2014 offended by color, it seems, claims that painting our crosswalks was a danger to pedestrians despite every expert in transportation saying otherwise,\u201d he said. \u201cWe luckily have Shaun, who was more than willing to take down another amazing piece of art and put up this transformational piece that I believe speaks to everyone in the city of Jacksonville.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"City Council member Jimmy Peluso speaks as the new Five Points mural is dedicated Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026. | Dan Scanlan, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n

This mural is \u201csignificant,\u201d added Equality Florida Development Leader Mason Manion, who called it a perfect example of what makes the LGBTQ+ community special.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt always finds a way to creatively, stunningly, and also with a touch of humor, clap back at the people who want to erase us,\u201d Manion said. \u201cYou don\u2019t like the crosswalks over there? Well guess what? \u2026 Our community is still here; we still come together; we are still resilient. And as the name of this campaign said, we will not be erased.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thurston began his work July 25, after local paint company Paint Maven cleaned and primed the exterior wall. He worked on the mural for 20 days, often gathering an audience and \u201cpulling people from the actual fabric of the neighborhood\u201d to base some of his artwork on.<\/p>\n

\"\"Artist Shaun Thurston\u2019s signature in one part of the \u201cConstellations of Us\u201d mural he did on a Lomax Street building in Five Points. | Dan Scanlan, Jacksonville Today<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew the response to the crosswalk rainbows being covered was the beginning. If you are going to cover up the rainbows that make people feel seen, I will just do bigger rainbows ,\u201d Thurston said. \u201cWe did a year of planning and I still kept the sketches loose. I wanted to react to the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thurston is a Jacksonville native who has painted murals throughout the city, including EverBank Stadium, Cummer Museum of Arts & Gardens and the Museum of Contemporary Art.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty-one faces glow like golden orbs in a new mural at the Lomax Street corner of the Five…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2813,115846,43323,5617,88005,116,118,117,28983,1432,115,99],"class_list":["post-389521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-arts","tag-culture-events","tag-distribute","tag-five-points","tag-government-politics","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jaxtdy2","tag-lgbtq","tag-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389521","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=389521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}