The city of Dallas faces a fast-approaching deadline to abide by an Oct. 8 directive from Gov. Greg Abbott in which he called for Texas counties and cities to remove “political ideologies” from public roadways.
City attorney Tammy Palomino is scheduled to brief Dallas City Council members on compliance with the order during a closed executive session on Wednesday, two days before the expected deadline.
The Dallas Morning News has reached out to city spokesman Rick Ericson to ask when the public can expect an update regarding next steps.
Abbott’s order named symbols, flags and markings that conveyed “social, political, or ideological messages” as examples that ran afoul of federal and state roadway safety guidelines.
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Street art, particularly rainbow-painted crosswalks that signify solidarity with the LGBTQ community, have become a lightning rod in recent culture wars.
Abbott appeared to take heed of Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy, who in July instructed governors nationwide to participate in a Safe Arterials for Everyone through Reliable Operations and Distraction-Reducing Strategies (“Safe Roads”) initiative.
“Roads are for safety, not political messages or artwork,” Duffy wrote then in a public letter. He also singled out rainbow crosswalks on social media.
In the weeks following Abbott’s mandate, uncertainty has loomed over the future of rainbow crosswalks in the historically LGBT neighborhood of Oak Lawn in Dallas as well as crosswalks in South Dallas painted with the words “All Black Lives Matter.”
Cities that refuse to comply with the governor’s directive may be at risk of losing federal and state transportation funding. In the 2024 fiscal year, Dallas received roughly $142 million in federal transportation grants and $2 million from the Texas Department of Transportation, per audit reports from March 2025.
Rainbow crosswalks have already been removed in Houston’s LGBTQ neighborhood of Montrose and in Galveston. In Austin, the city has announced plans to seek an exemption from the directive.
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