City of Austin transportation crews paved over the \u201cBLACK ARTISTS MATTER\u201d mural on East 11th Street and the giant \u201cTEXAS\u201d letters on Guadalupe Street in West Campus on Thursday, the city confirmed.<\/p>\n
Last year, after Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to withhold road funding from cities if they did not remove \u201cpolitical ideologies\u201d to keep roadways \u201cfree from distraction,\u201d TxDOT gave cities until November 2025 to remove \u201cdecorative crosswalks, murals, or markings conveying artwork or other messages.\u201d<\/p>\n
Austin requested an exemption to keep 15 pieces of street art, but TxDOT rejected the appeal, instead requiring the city to submit a plan of action in late June to address many of the markings.<\/p>\n
In addition to applying a seal coat to the two stretches of road Thursday, the city will cover rainbow crosswalks at Fourth and Colorado streets with black thermoplastic by the end of July, according to the city\u2019s plan. Crews also will spray a fog seal over decorated traffic circles at East 22nd and Salina streets and East 52nd Street and Avenue H.<\/p>\n
TxDOT permitted the city to install curbs and other improvements around three other painted locations, but according to the submitted plan, funding was not available for the work. Instead, crews will remove street art along Joe Sayers Avenue, Arroyo Seco and Lamar Square.<\/p>\n
A crosswalk painted like a river on Lake Austin Boulevard is also slated to be removed, the document notes, but the crosswalk is part of the city\u2019s public art collection and must follow a formal deaccession process before it can be painted over. The Austin City Council is expected to vote on the matter in late August.<\/p>\n
In response to TxDOT\u2019s order, the City Council-appointed Public Spaces Task Force sought alternate ways \u201cto\u00a0celebrate all of the diversity, pride and love that makes Austin such a great place to call home,\u201d Mayor Kirk Watson wrote in a recent newsletter.<\/p>\n
On June 19 and 20, the task force held community events to celebrate the art. The group also planned new installations, including a Pride mural between Colorado and Lavaca streets. Watson said the city will unveil an LGBTQ historical marker at Fourth and Colorado in August.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe choices made by the state were meant to be mean, create chaos, and cause sadness,\u201d Watson wrote. \u201cThe choices we\u2019re making to celebrate our diverse communities again shows that Austin can and will rise above negative efforts and always look for opportunities to create joy and belonging.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"City of Austin transportation crews paved over the \u201cBLACK ARTISTS MATTER\u201d mural on East 11th Street and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-359139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359139","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=359139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}