{"id":120879,"date":"2026-01-13T04:29:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T04:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/120879\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T04:29:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T04:29:15","slug":"san-antonio-begins-removal-of-pride-districts-rainbow-crosswalks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/120879\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio begins removal of Pride district\u2019s rainbow crosswalks"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Crews were seen Monday morning beginning the process of removing rainbow crosswalks from San Antonio\u2019s Pride Cultural Heritage District, after months of back-and-forth between city and state leaders. <\/p>\n

While the city will remove the crosswalks, it is already working to add rainbow treatment to the sidewalks along the stretch of North Main Avenue<\/a>, known as the \u201cgay strip.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, crews were seen power washing the sidewalk in preparation for six-foot-wide rainbow striping one block north and one block south of the intersection of North Main Avenue and East Evergreen Street, where the rainbow crosswalks currently sit.<\/p>\n

City of San Antonio schematics for rainbow crosswalk plans on North Main Avenue between Park Avenue and East Laurel Avenue. (City of San Antonio)<\/p>\n

Federal pressure stoked flames last summer around the issue of roadway art. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a \u201cSAFE ROADS\u201d initiative in July<\/a> that included a push to reduce \u201cdistractions,\u201d saying \u201croads are for safety, not political messages or artwork.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the removal is the latest in a months-long spat between Pride groups, the city and state leaders, such as Gov. Greg Abbott. <\/p>\n

Just over three months after Duffy\u2019s letter to all 50 governors, Abbott issued an Oct. 8<\/a> directive for cities and counties to \u201cremove any and all political ideologies\u201d from Texas streets, under the threat of losing state and federal road funding.<\/p>\n

San Antonio made an unsuccessful attempt<\/a> to get an exception for its rainbow crosswalks, but in December, Assistant City Manager John Peterek told the Texas Department of Transportation the city would remove and replace the crosswalks by Jan. 15.<\/p>\n

A city schematic of the sidewalk design shows chevrons at the corners, emulating the Progress Pride flag, which has colors representing the transgender community and people of color.<\/p>\n

The rainbow crosswalk design calls for six-foot-wide rainbows with chevrons emulating the Progress Pride flag at its corners (City of San Antonio)<\/p>\n

The $170,000 project will be funded from existing Public Works operational dollars. Since previously-approved contractors are being used, Peterek said the work didn\u2019t require council approval.<\/p>\n

KSAT asked the city for a breakdown of the project costs, but has not yet received it.<\/p>\n

The two conservatives on the city council, Misty Spears (D9) and Marc Whyte (D10), slammed the use of public dollars in a joint news release Wednesday.<\/p>\n

If private individuals or businesses wish to use their money to make a statement, they have the right to do so. But to use public dollars to paint colored sidewalks instead of allocating that money to core infrastructure needs is not in the best interest of our citizens.<\/p>\n

Councilman Marc Whyte (D10)<\/p>\n

I believe the elimination of the rainbow crosswalks was an important roadway safety decision made by the state of Texas and not intended to target San Antonio or the LGBTQ community. Protected free speech is what makes America the best country in the world.\u00a0 However, tax dollars should not fund individual viewpoints.<\/p>\n

Councilwoman Misty Spears (D9)<\/p>\n

Pride San Antonio raised nearly $20,000 to cover the extra costs of installing the rainbow crosswalks in 2018 \u2014 a project that cost roughly $32,500 in all. <\/p>\n

Peterek said pieces of the crosswalk would be saved for possible future art installations.<\/p>\n

Read also:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Crews were seen Monday morning beginning the process of removing rainbow crosswalks from San Antonio\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3084,24466,1183,13826,24067,6825,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-120879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-city-hall","tag-john-peterek","tag-lgbtq","tag-marc-whyte","tag-misty-spears","tag-pride","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}