Cities in Texas have until the end of the week to remove \u201cnon-standard\u201d street markings under a new directive from Gov. Greg Abbott. But neighborhoods that use public art and murals to celebrate their area\u2019s roots are concerned they\u2019ll be most affected.<\/p>\n
The biggest targets of the directive in Dallas are the rainbow and \u201cAll Black Lives Matter\u201d crosswalks in the Oak Lawn neighborhood and South Dallas.<\/p>\n
Democrat Texas Sen. Royce West, who represents South Dallas, said the crosswalks, installed in 2022, are a source of pride.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s one continuous drumbeat towards whitewashing history, and also whitewashing (…) cultural issues that are important to different ethnic minority communities,\u201d West said.<\/p>\n
Eric Byrd, who\u2019s lived in the area his whole life and owns a retail building by the intersection of Malcom X and Martin Luther King Junior Boulevards, where four of the BLM crosswalks are, said he doesn\u2019t support removing them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, it’s not an eyesore. It’s causing no problem within the community,\u201d Byrd said. \u201cThe community likes it, so why are you doing it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Byrd said it feels like part of a broader effort to target minorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re going to erase some of Black history,\u201d he said. \u201cThat’s what I feel.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The red, black, and yellow crosswalk bearing the words “All Black Lives Matter,” spans all four corners of the MLK Jr. and Malcolm X Boulevard intersection.<\/p>\n
Abbott\u2019s Oct. 8 directive orders the Texas Department of Transportation \u201cto ensure Texas counties and cities remove any and all political ideologies from our streets.\u201d Federal and state guidelines, the news release said, ban \u201cnon-standard surface markings, signage, and signals that do not directly support traffic control or safety … including the use of symbols, flags, or other markings conveying social, political, or ideological messages.”<\/p>\n
KERA identified at least 11 street crossings or intersections that could be affected by the governor\u2019s order. Four are in southern Dallas and five are in Oak Lawn. They were funded by private donors or non-profits and used no taxpayer dollars.<\/p>\n
The two other designs KERA identified could also fall under the broad language of the directive: a patterned crosswalk on Victory Avenue West, and Southern Methodist University\u2019s mustang logo at the intersection of Hillcrest and Daniel Avenue. <\/p>\n
KERA reached out to SMU and University Park for comment but did not receive a response in time for this article. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Southern Methodist University mustang logo at the intersection of Hillcrest and Daniel Avenue. Some have said the logo could be removed under the broad language of Gov. Greg Abbott’s order targeting “political” street markings. <\/p>\n
At a rally in Oak Lawn protesting the Governor\u2019s order<\/a>, Cece Cox \u2014 CEO of Resource Center, a nonprofit that provides health services for LGBTQ communities \u2014 said none of the displays should be removed.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t think anybody’s gonna argue that those things need to be going away,\u201d Cox said, referring to SMU\u2019s Mustang display. \u201cAnd we don’t believe they should be going away.\u201d<\/p>\n Abbott\u2019s order is identical to a crosswalk ban enforced in Florida earlier this year. Both orders say they follow a July memo from U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who urged governors to remove political messages from streets.<\/p>\n In Florida, the ban was enforced broadly to include removing a \u201cBack the Blue\u201d street mural, painted bike lanes outside an elementary school and a racing-themed crosswalk outside the Daytona International Speedway, according to NBC News<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Texas, some cities, like Houston, complied with Abbott’s order immediately, removing rainbow crosswalks<\/a>, while others like Austin and San Antonio are currently seeking exemptions<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dallas City Council is scheduled to discuss pavement marking standards with the city attorney during a closed session this Wednesday. Multiple requests to the city for additional information about compliance with the order were not answered.<\/p>\n Democratic state Rep. Venton Jones, who represents the Dallas area and is one of the first openly gay Black men to serve in the legislature, said the city should be prepared to take legal action.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re also looking at legal remedies to be able to continue to fight this in the courts if necessary,\u201d he told KERA.<\/p>\n No matter what decision Dallas makes, it\u2019ll have to spend some money, either on legal fees or removals.<\/p>\n South Dallas resident Eric Byrd said he feels the city should fight back against the order.<\/p>\n \u201cBut,\u201d he said, \u201cit might be a fruitless battle.\u201d<\/p>\n Dylan Duke is KERA’s Fall news intern. Got a tip? Email Dylan Duke at dduke@kera.org.<\/p>\n KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cities in Texas have until the end of the week to remove \u201cnon-standard\u201d street markings under a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5586,981,102,104,103,4872,900,3928,1884,9237],"class_list":["post-37879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-black-lives-matter","tag-crosswalk","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-gov-greg-abbott","tag-oak-lawn","tag-rainbow-crosswalks","tag-south-dallas","tag-texas-department-of-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37879","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=37879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}