{"id":7773,"date":"2025-10-17T04:44:56","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T04:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/7773\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T04:44:56","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T04:44:56","slug":"protesters-cover-st-pete-streets-in-chalk-as-florida-removes-street-murals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/7773\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters cover St. Pete streets in chalk as Florida removes street murals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Demonstrators chalked two blocks on Central Avenue in St. Pete to protest mural removals.<\/p>\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Communities across Tampa Bay are pushing back against Florida’s order to erase street art.<\/a><\/p>\n

On Monday in St. Petersburg, demonstrators turned two blocks of Central Avenue into a chalk-covered protest, stretching from 25th Street down to 23rd. They gathered after four of the city\u2019s five street murals had already been removed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime there is oppression, anytime there is movements against a culture, it brings people together,\u201d protester Tamara Leigh said.<\/p>\n

The group rallied near the Pride mural, St. Pete\u2019s last remaining piece of street art.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m advocating for free speech, and I\u2019m absolutely mortified and really seriously angered that the state of Florida would take away our right to have colorful intersections under the premise that they cause distraction,\u201d Susan Holl said.<\/p>\n

In recent days, crews have painted over murals, including the Black History Matters mural outside the Woodson Museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing that banner covered up was heartbreaking for me. Seeing this banner and all these drawings make me hopeful again,\u201d said Rev. Ben Atherton-Zeman, who was one of two pastors arrested for resisting the removals<\/a>. \u201cI absolutely stand by what I did. It\u2019s ridiculous.”<\/p>\n

RELATED: ‘I had to be praying’: St. Pete church leader speaks out after arrest, crews paint over street mural<\/a><\/p>\n

The Florida Department of Transportation says the removals are about safety. Governor Ron DeSantis defended the order, saying it\u2019s about ending the use of roads for messaging.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had to remove a ‘Back the Blue’ and some other stuff, so it spans different things, but we\u2019ve made the policy decision in Florida that we\u2019re not going to use the roads for that purpose,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n

The Pride mural is expected to be erased next, but for now, chalk-covered sidewalks are keeping the protest alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes me feel like there are more with us than against us. It makes me feel like this is just one step,\u201d Rep. Michele Raynor said.<\/p>\n

Organizers say they are planning more demonstrations in the coming days while working to find new places to display public art.<\/p>\n

The state deadline to remove all murals is Sept. 4. As of Friday, the city of Tampa had only erased one of its 47 murals. A city spokesman said they may ask the state for an extension.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Demonstrators chalked two blocks on Central Avenue in St. Pete to protest mural removals. ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-7773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7773","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=7773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}