The rainbow crosswalk resides at the intersection of Westheimer Road and Taft Street. (Sierra Rozen/COURIER HTX)
Just over a week after the iconic Montrose rainbow crosswalk was repainted following construction, orders from Gov. Greg Abbott are forcing the city to paint over it again.
Most Houstonians are probably familiar with the colorful road decoration, as it has been part of the city landscape since 2017. It was painted as a memorial for Alex Hill, who was killed as a result of a hit-and-run in 2016 at the intersection.
The governor announced this week that the state would withhold road funding from cities that don’t remove what he called “political ideologies” from city streets.
“It seems to be a target,” Jack Valinski, president of the Neartown Montrose Super Neighborhood, told COURIER HTX over the phone. “[The LGBTQ+ community] has been attacked from so many angles. I have to ask, ‘Why is the governor so worried about this?’”
The order for removal originally came from the Trump administration.
Per a press release from the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, the entity will restripe the intersection of Westheimer Road and Taft Street sometime within the next month. It has not released an official date of when that will occur.
“We recognize the significance this crosswalk has to the community, which is why our project team restored the infrastructure to its pre-construction condition,” the release states. “However, given the recent directive, we will comply with the order to preserve support that is essential to our mission of providing safe, clean, reliable, and accessible transit to all communities that depend on our services.”
Other major Texas cities are also being targeted for similar crosswalks. In San Antonio, a rainbow crosswalk sits at the intersection of North Main Avenue and East Evergreen Street, with the surrounding area being marked as a Pride Cultural Heritage District. The Dallas neighborhood of Oak Lawn and the area of Fourth and Colorado streets in Austin have received similar threats of funding loss from Abbott. The area in Austin is also home to a Black Artists Matter mural project.
Valinski told COURIER HTX that while it seems almost certain that the crosswalk will be restriped, he is working on other alternatives to preserve the spirit of the community, such as asking nearby businesses to paint their parking lots rainbow.
When I visited the crosswalk Friday morning, I noticed a number of signs taped to nearby poles and structures, decrying Abbott’s decision to paint over the rainbow. As some of the signs stated, “LGBT is not an ideology. Hands off!”
Posters surrounding the intersection. (Sierra Rozen/COURIER HTX)
After I asked Valinski about these protest signs, he mentioned that they had not been posted there when he visited on Thursday.
“They move fast,” he said.
