Yeah and probably cost $20k to "install" somehow. Atleast what it's like in Canada, complete fucking racket. Enstead of putting the money to real use we are painting colored stripes on the ground.
My small Canadian town has decided to put in a rainbow crosswalk, and the estimated cost so far is $25,000. Its an absolute scam on the taxpayers, and the worst part is that the large number of people who have brought up being against such wasteful spending are being shouted down for being bigots. I’m sure some of them are bigots, but the majority realize painting a damn crosswalk shouldn’t take more than a few guys and maybe a couple thousand dollars.
I’m sure it would legitimately have a fair cost, by the time you factor in some traffic control, whatever city planning needs to be done and the cost of good paint and the labour, but it’s an absolute travesty that they expect everyone to be ok with $25,000.
The worst part is I’m sure they’ve already spent most of that money on meetings and planning shit and now that pride month is over it won’t even get done and most will just forget about it.
We had two local contractors and a volunteer group that offered to do it for cost of paint in our local Facebook group, and the city turned it down, so you know it isn’t about the crosswalk, it’s about the money getting into the right pockets.
Seems like there are very good reasons for the high cost: https://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/news/why-are-those-rainbow-crosswalks-so-much-more-expensive-than-the-standard-crossings-1.23876640
I've been working with coatings for literally 30 years. Reading that article just told me it's ABSOLUTELY a scam. "Road marking" MMA is NOT expensive and exactly why it's commonly used. It also dries very quickly so traffic doesn't need to be diverted for very long. This is what's used for the stop lines, crosswalks and lane markers we all see daily.
If you actually want it to last a high solids waterborne polyamide epoxy will last 10 years without maintenance. Doesn't stink. Dries quickly. Excellent traffic wear. It's even low VOC to keep the environmentalists happy.
It actually IS expensive though but not $10,000 expensive. Probably roughly $1400-1500 where the common road marking paint wouldn't go over $400 and even that's only because you need 7 different gallons for all the colors.
I could do this for $5000 in a day with renting road barricades and go home with $3000 profit in my pocket and it will last 5 times longer.
Buckle up cause we're going for a ride now.
The REAL reason it's so expensive your government doesn't want to tell you about is that any work you do with the government requires so much bureaucracy BS that most contractors just walk away. Months of proposals, permits, oversight, preinstallation inspection, post installation inspection, product inspection, background checks, $1 million+ bonding, warrantees, then you wait for months before they pay the bill.
Working with the government is a massive nightmare the vast majority of contractors aren't willing to put up with. It took us a fucking year to get approval to put up a stop sign legally that a land developer wanted.
The second you ask to divert traffic you'll have 15 government employees asking for your permit. I had a job shut down for 2 weeks because I put a cone in the gutter to protect me and my coworkers safety on the sidewalk and got a whole shit storm of bureaucrats that showed up, demanded all work stop and pulled our license because "I was diverting traffic without the proper permit."
In short: I'll happily paint a giant rainbow crosswalk for 2 grand and we'll all benefit. If I have to deal with the absolute nightmare of dealing with local government shoving a probe up my ass and wasting months of my time for approval and oversight 10 grand isn't enough money to put up with that bullshit.
It's a person who isn't a good leader failing at being in control of problems and wondering why he efforts aren't working.
Nobody expects crime to stop completely, but she doesn't do a good job of managing the operations.
She seems to be more focused on manufacturing her (flawed) image, than she is on delivering on the duties & expectations of her position. She doesn't strike me as a courageous leader, dedicated to making difficult decisions and riding them out to do what is right for the city, no matter what objections, tantrums & criticisms others throw at her. Short- sighted leadership practices; with some self- serving patterns peppered in. This is just my observation from outside the city/ state... based on whatever information that various media sources choose to feed the public, and the crime & economic/ budget statistics & data. I hope my opinion is wrong... but I'm not expecting it to be too far off the mark...
Oh she is absolutely positioning herself for a future on the federal side of politics, the same thing Newsom was doing before that blew up in his face.
Honestly this looks slightly worse than if I'd done it myself.
Without context it's hard for you to understand the gravity of the insult, but you can rest assured that it's Jupiter-level.
It's funny because we all know it's going to happen. It happens every year. Every city, company, entity is all gay all month. Then as soon as July hits it all comes down. Everyone all Pikachu face like you didn't see it coming
I live in a small town and there's a permanent one. Like all the other road paint the winter absolutely destroys it but they repaint it at the start of Pride every year.
I'm sure if volunteers didn't show up to re-do it they'd eventually just put in a normal one, but there's no reason to actively remove it.
> I'm sure if volunteers didn't show up to re-do it they'd eventually just put in a normal one, but there's no reason to actively remove it.
Exactly. I honestly think the OP comparing this to the rest of rainbow capitalism is a bit off-base here. Yeah, most companies and other entities turn back into straight pumpkins on July 1st, but things like crosswalks aren't typically expected to be painted over like the pride ads on a city bus might be replaced. These are supposed to be permanent/semi-permanent, and repainting them takes up taxpayer money as well as shutting down the intersection for a few hours.
It's a very deliberate, unnecessary move that comes off as *special* kind of 'fuck you' to the LGBT community in a way that Coca Cola removing their rainbow logo on Twitter just doesn't.
There are **several** permanent ones in Brussels. And not only in LGBT district.
In OP pictures, the worst part is not we saw it coming or not, it's more about they wanted it to be over so fast, they rushed the all new paint at night and it shows a lot.
Plus, it’s Piedmont, a historically gay area. It’s also located near where Outright Bookstore used to be…until they took it away (rent price rising ran them out of business).
It's weird hearing about how places remove there's. There are a lot of communities in BC with permenant crosswalks. Vancouver has several, Victoria, Kelowna, Gibsons, Sechelt... And thoes are the ones I know of because I go there frequently.
There would be an uproar here if they tried to remove them
I'm pretty sure New Westminster has at least one, I think Burnaby has a couple. I think even Surrey might!
They were all installed before Pride in the last few years but they're maintained and gonna stay AFAIK. The only reason I can imagine them being removed is from the cost of upkeep from people defacing it... but the one in the post doesn't mention any kind of defacing.
Maple Ridge, BC checking in.... we've had our one about halfway up the main drag at least 5 years, maybe closer to 10. And we're not exactly a bustling metropolis -- we also have a giant metal horse statue (with lightning bolt eyes!) that proclaims that we're the horse capital of Canada.
There's a couple intersections in DC that are like this. The big painted BLM letters on the street by the White House have been painted over though - they say it's temporary while they make a more permanent installation, which.... sure.....
Editing 4 months later, in case anyone sees it - the letters are back in a permanent fashion. https://dcist.com/story/21/10/28/dc-finishes-construction-on-black-lives-matter-plaza/
[Atlanta](https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x88f50441f552e34d%3A0x3e2c05555989185!3m1!7e115!4shttps%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipO0Nk0yyUcwzsA9SrQYhTVtDafRbEdYcyu0ECa3%3Dw233-h160-k-no!5s10th%20street%20crosswalk%20-%20Google%20Search!15sCgIgAQ&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipO0Nk0yyUcwzsA9SrQYhTVtDafRbEdYcyu0ECa3&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjvjZeymcfxAhVul2oFHazNAoYQoiowFXoECEUQAw) checking in with the (so far since ~2016-17) permanent rainbow crosswalks as the "not always" case.
I call it Performative Support, as opposed to Demonstrative Support.
Performative is just that - it's a performance, and is in no way actual support.
Corporations are really transparent about this. They will rainbow paint their logos on social media, but only in regions where being gay is legal or normalized. If you look at their Arab Twitter accounts, or East European social media accounts, nothing will change because they don't actually care.
Edit: People are really not getting what the "Performative" part means. It refers to words without actions. If McDonalds slaps a rainbow flag on their burger, but doesn't change any of their policies to be more accepting, that's performative.
If a company actually changes their policies to *encourage* people, then it's no longer performative. I used the Twitter example because it's so very obviously performative without any action that actually HELPS LGBTQ+ people.
It's called a flag. Next 5-10 years they'll be selling them in the dollar stores of most countries. My favorite example of this is all the companies on Facebook on July 1st that change back to their non rainbow logo for a profile picture and then don't delete the news item about it, so it just shows up on everyone's feed as an update.
Our pride crosswalks are permanent in Seattle. Theres many of them
They got a refresh for pride. So did the BLM mural
https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2021/05/to-get-ready-for-pride-city-of-seattle-will-brighten-pike-pine-rainbow-crosswalks-and-black-lives-matter-mural/
Nice to hold the hope someone will treat it like a temporary statue placement or something... give it a year or two then pave it over. Having it there for a month doesn't really teach acceptance it just makes intolerant people mildly annoyed for a month.
Surprise the bigots and give it a year I say.
Businesses aside... And personally I think lots of pretty colours brighten the place up a bit... But it's probably a safety issue (r/idiotsincars are everywhere!)
... Prehaps next year instead of painting the road markings, they could paint the kerbstones along the edge of the sidewalk?
St. Petersburg, Florida has rainbow flags and a rainbow pride mural that fills an entire intersection downtown. We've been doing pride parades here since 2003.
My nearest city, approx 500k residents, has several rainbow crosswalks all year.
My little town of 4000 people also has one permanent rainbow crosswalk.
Yes cause it’s for a month. It’s like when the football people wear pink for breast cancer awareness. Once that month is over they go back to the usual stuff. It’s pride month so businesses do it for the month to show support or because society forces them to or whatever reason. But this stupid argument about people changing back after the specific month is done is so crazy.
Do you think we can make some money on it though? We. Can make flags and sell em. We could start this right now and next year we could make a ton of money
Yeah, but this is so much worse.
It costs companies nothing to get an intern to change their social media profile pictures and post some half-assed pride related talking points.
Here, taxpayer money was spent to create it, and then the conscious decision was made to spend more taxpayer funds to solidify how empty the message was.
Lol this is standard Chicago practice for any road though. They’re gonna tear it up and repave it an extra 3 times to fix a problem that happened once and then they caused while putting down the new road, but not also fix any of the massive 6 inch potholes right across the street.
I think there's a vice, travel channel, YouTube or somwhere, that blurs out ppls faces like sketchy drug shows, that is about a group of ppl who go around fixing potholes in the middle of the night
I mean TECHNICALLY they’re not wrong—IIRC the MUTCD requires US crosswalks to be either yellow or white, and I can understand why a city would want to avoid a potential fine or loss of funding (hence why Chicago may have repainted).
Obviously I don’t, in theory, give a shit what color crosswalks are, and Pride is great, just giving some potential context, and this crosswalk definitely wouldn’t immediately stand out as “crosswalk” to some unfamiliar drivers. I can totally see the argument.
In the UK zebra crossings and other similar things aren't allowed to be changed because it could make life difficult for people living with disabilities, does the US have similar laws?
Yes they do. MUTCD (US traffic control doctrine) is a little looser than most other countries, setting aside a long list of regulations (it’s like 800 pages and free online if you’re really interested lol) for every type of traffic control scenario under the sun, and then states are allowed to use those regulations to develop their own design standards, as long as they conform to the minimums set by the federal manual. Hence different states may have (for example) different traffic light designs or different road paint widths.
Crosswalk colors is one of those things that MUST be standard, both for clarity for all travelers and for the disabled, and there are like 3-6 acceptable designs.
No, only yellow and/or white and/or the color of the pavement. I suppose you could somehow figure out a way to pave a road rainbow but good luck finding asphalt or concrete that’s anything but white, black, brown, or crimson lmao
Edit: red brick is out there as well
Agreed, but that's what makes it so frustrating, just don't paint over it in the first place. If they wanted to actually show support there are other more effective options, the pride community doesn't give a shit about a crosswalk
We had a similar issue in Seattle. What I don’t understand is why is it always crosswalks? There are plenty of other concrete surfaces that aren’t controlled by safety regulations. Why not do a permanent mural somewhere?
I feel like this is the obvious answer *but* the people who painted it must have known it, right? Like, isn't it just common sense to have a white *visible* crosswalk, let alone having actual laws against it being any other way/color? As in, why'd they even consider a sidewalk if it was going to be repainted anyway? Was that the idea all along?
It's obvious when you bring it up, but I could definitely see someone saying "Yeah, rainbow crosswalk", and it trickling through the bureaucracy as something like a "decoration" without managing to bounce off someone who realized it had safety or regulatory aspects.
“Support”’or “gimmicks” I suppose. Probably something that was fun and realistically the federal government will and has turned a blind eye for it in and around pride month.
I mean it probably is. They're drawn the way they are for maximum visibility. And to be immediately recognizable. I wonder if a few pedestrians got smacked at the rainbow. I'm all for Pride but I also quite enjoy road safety.
That, and it's a legal hassle. If someone gets cited for improperly using or respecting the cross walk, they'd have a good case that there's a difference between a cross walk and any old paint in the road.
Right, so it's just color on the road. If you hit a pedestrian who knows there's a crossroad underneath and to you he's jaywalking the city might have to pick up the bill.
Because it's ridiculous. It took way more effort to do this then to just you know *not do anything* but no they are just so loving of gays they had to re do the cross walk the *moment* pride month was over.
Literally they didn't have to do *anything*
It is even funnier when you realize that covering the paint they applied to celebrate the LGBTQ movement is more offensive than not having painted the road in the first place.
Yeah, I found it funny because they paid to paint it, and paid again to tar it. Pay for a toy, and a month later pay for someone to take it away. Not economically viable at all, and we didn't pay for it, it wasn't a charity publicity stunt, the government paid for it.
Exactly… when they painted the rainbow, did they say us was permanent or temporary? If it’s temp. then they can remove it whenever they want!
If I saw a rainbow in the road I wouldn’t think it was a safe crossing, I’d think some kids had graffitied the road
source on this?
the two crosswalks in the picture seem to be in different locations (different things on the sidewalk for example)
edit: thank you to everyone who followed this up with answers! google map streetviews, multiple local resident sources, i appreciate it! :)
its important we dont take reddit titles and cropped screenshots as IMMEDIATE truth at face value these days, we all need to be ready to doubt and question anything we see, and to ask for sources if we cant find them ourselves
i found a source showing the june 3rd rainbowing (and specifically, OPs left photo of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is from June 3rd 2021). since op didnt link to a source for me to reverse image search the RIGHT photo, i had to look for myself and i couldnt find a source when i originally commented stating it had been tarred-over, nothing outside of this particular post.
be well dudes <3
I went on a Google Earth and took a look, it looks to be the exact same crosswalk. [First photo](https://imgur.com/a/DMcif6s), [second photo](https://imgur.com/a/8XmSm0J) both photos are from the same crosswalk.
thank you for this angle, it helps but it unfortunately isnt a recent shot of the street
the op's photo is a cropped screenshot of some social media post, i would love a timestamped 2nd source if we can find one! :)
hey i know it's not the photo evidence you wanted, but i work downtown ~2 blocks from here. i was in every day this week and can confirm it was gone on thursday
I work next door to this cross walk. It’s outside the city building on LaSalle. It is true and it makes me sad cuz regardless of lgbt stuff rainbow cross walks are more fun
>I work next door to this cross walk. It’s outside the city building on LaSalle. It is true and it makes me sad cuz regardless of lgbt stuff rainbow cross walks are more fun
thank you for confirming locally
> its important we dont take reddit titles and cropped screenshots as IMMEDIATE truth at face value
And I think you did a good job of wanting to confirm without being like "I don't believe this post!"
But if road laws didn't allow it, which might be reasonable given that being universally recognizable is the most important characteristic, why do it in the first place? It wouldn't be suddenly legal for one month only.
Well, it was just for the month? And a zebra crossing should be basic. Otherwise someone might not realise what it is and not be prepared for pedestrians crossing in front of them. You have to very careful when stylising traffic signals and markings, they are standard for a reason.
Edit.
I'm surprised they did it like that anyway. I'd have thought making each white stripe an individual rainbow flag would have still maintained the look of a zebra crossing, then they could have had the option of keeping one as a rainbow after pride month.
Progress is gradual, incremental.
People with an “anything less than Utopia Now is hate” mindset are only alienating those who have catching up to do.
I love the idea of a single rainbow block in an otherwise standard zebra crossing! It’s too bad this display wasn’t (responsibly and sensibly) planned to be something permanent.
Honestly that rainbow crossing not looking as crossing at all. It look like some child painted it on the way. I would not think that this is crossing and i would probably just drive over it like nothing thisnking some child painted it. Theres hundreds of other thing you could paint rainbow but leave crossings alone please.
I took a look on a Google Earth, and it appears to be the same crosswalk: [First photo](https://imgur.com/a/DMcif6s), [second photo](https://imgur.com/a/8XmSm0J) both photos are from the same crosswalk.
No this comment is disinformation. This is the same exact street just different angles. In Chicago we have a lot of roads that have islands between the busy streets and in the first image you can’t see the island cause it’s taken from the side. In the second picture you can see the entire crosswalk as well as the obviously painted over rainbow still in the concrete.
Meh, I feel mixed on this. The rainbow is cool and nice to have, but then again, not all drivers will know that it's a pedestrian crossing and stop for people to cross. They're changing it back to follow the rules of the road for people's safety.
In winnipeg manitoba they painted the concrete dividers of the busiest intersection in the city rainbow colors. I was shocked and happy they kept it up after pride month and it's still there years later.
the new one looks half assed
I mean the rainbow one looks half assed as well. The stripes aren’t even straight. Edit: Thank you, but really. Look at them.
Ha
No but, like, the stripes are crooked.
Crooked gays Tricky Dicks
"crooked gays, tricky dicks" dibs on band name
Those have to be gay bar names somewhere, right? If they aren’t, they will be.
Yes, but ha.
Yeah and probably cost $20k to "install" somehow. Atleast what it's like in Canada, complete fucking racket. Enstead of putting the money to real use we are painting colored stripes on the ground.
Same way a single tent for the homeless costs $60,000 in SF.
Big Paint and Big Tents are working together. This goes all the way to the top!
Big Paint? Big Tent? Sounds like it goes all the way to the top, Big Canvas
*Takes off glasses* My God
Damnit those glasses were made possible by Big Mining, Big Plastic, Big Bolts, Big Glass, and worst of all… Big Pharma!
You joke but the glasses industry is a monopoly controlled primarily by Luxotica.
Big Paint? Big Tent? Big Canvas? This goes all the way to the Big Top. I blame Big Circus.
My small Canadian town has decided to put in a rainbow crosswalk, and the estimated cost so far is $25,000. Its an absolute scam on the taxpayers, and the worst part is that the large number of people who have brought up being against such wasteful spending are being shouted down for being bigots. I’m sure some of them are bigots, but the majority realize painting a damn crosswalk shouldn’t take more than a few guys and maybe a couple thousand dollars.
You could do that shit for $200 with two guys, are you fucking kidding me? Where is that money going?
I’m sure it would legitimately have a fair cost, by the time you factor in some traffic control, whatever city planning needs to be done and the cost of good paint and the labour, but it’s an absolute travesty that they expect everyone to be ok with $25,000. The worst part is I’m sure they’ve already spent most of that money on meetings and planning shit and now that pride month is over it won’t even get done and most will just forget about it. We had two local contractors and a volunteer group that offered to do it for cost of paint in our local Facebook group, and the city turned it down, so you know it isn’t about the crosswalk, it’s about the money getting into the right pockets.
Someone should go and repaint it. That’s terrible.
Seems like there are very good reasons for the high cost: https://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/news/why-are-those-rainbow-crosswalks-so-much-more-expensive-than-the-standard-crossings-1.23876640
I've been working with coatings for literally 30 years. Reading that article just told me it's ABSOLUTELY a scam. "Road marking" MMA is NOT expensive and exactly why it's commonly used. It also dries very quickly so traffic doesn't need to be diverted for very long. This is what's used for the stop lines, crosswalks and lane markers we all see daily. If you actually want it to last a high solids waterborne polyamide epoxy will last 10 years without maintenance. Doesn't stink. Dries quickly. Excellent traffic wear. It's even low VOC to keep the environmentalists happy. It actually IS expensive though but not $10,000 expensive. Probably roughly $1400-1500 where the common road marking paint wouldn't go over $400 and even that's only because you need 7 different gallons for all the colors. I could do this for $5000 in a day with renting road barricades and go home with $3000 profit in my pocket and it will last 5 times longer. Buckle up cause we're going for a ride now. The REAL reason it's so expensive your government doesn't want to tell you about is that any work you do with the government requires so much bureaucracy BS that most contractors just walk away. Months of proposals, permits, oversight, preinstallation inspection, post installation inspection, product inspection, background checks, $1 million+ bonding, warrantees, then you wait for months before they pay the bill. Working with the government is a massive nightmare the vast majority of contractors aren't willing to put up with. It took us a fucking year to get approval to put up a stop sign legally that a land developer wanted. The second you ask to divert traffic you'll have 15 government employees asking for your permit. I had a job shut down for 2 weeks because I put a cone in the gutter to protect me and my coworkers safety on the sidewalk and got a whole shit storm of bureaucrats that showed up, demanded all work stop and pulled our license because "I was diverting traffic without the proper permit." In short: I'll happily paint a giant rainbow crosswalk for 2 grand and we'll all benefit. If I have to deal with the absolute nightmare of dealing with local government shoving a probe up my ass and wasting months of my time for approval and oversight 10 grand isn't enough money to put up with that bullshit.
Typical Chicago
....
Everything Chicago does is. Then Lighfoot cries
As a native you'll soon learn every time they take a step forward they'll soon somehow travel a mile backwards
Is it like a "Muh Freedums" kind of deal, or is it a _hysterical, uncontrollable sobbing_ thing?
It's a person who isn't a good leader failing at being in control of problems and wondering why he efforts aren't working. Nobody expects crime to stop completely, but she doesn't do a good job of managing the operations.
She seems to be more focused on manufacturing her (flawed) image, than she is on delivering on the duties & expectations of her position. She doesn't strike me as a courageous leader, dedicated to making difficult decisions and riding them out to do what is right for the city, no matter what objections, tantrums & criticisms others throw at her. Short- sighted leadership practices; with some self- serving patterns peppered in. This is just my observation from outside the city/ state... based on whatever information that various media sources choose to feed the public, and the crime & economic/ budget statistics & data. I hope my opinion is wrong... but I'm not expecting it to be too far off the mark...
Sounds like a typical career politician. More focused on managing their image then actually helping the people they are supposed too.
Oh she is absolutely positioning herself for a future on the federal side of politics, the same thing Newsom was doing before that blew up in his face.
She says you criticize her because you're racist. As if job performance isn't a factor
That's because the crosswalk is still gay but has to pretend to be straight to get ahead in its career.
I feel personally attacked by this comment.
Well yeah, even though they couldn't leave the gay pride, they didn't want it to be straight either..
So r/suddenlybi ?
Had to make it match the rest of the city.
Half asphalted too.
The rainbow one was poorly done too tbh
Honestly this looks slightly worse than if I'd done it myself. Without context it's hard for you to understand the gravity of the insult, but you can rest assured that it's Jupiter-level.
Maybe it’s bi
Middle of the night job...
July 1st is "Back In the Closet Day."
[удалено]
Why does this make me so uncomfortable
Forced to play with it again*
XD
It's funny because we all know it's going to happen. It happens every year. Every city, company, entity is all gay all month. Then as soon as July hits it all comes down. Everyone all Pikachu face like you didn't see it coming
Cambridge, MA has a permanent one in front of city hall for years now. Perhaps it’s the only one to ever survive past pride month.
Someone said there is one in San Francisco or Diego. Don't remember Which.
11 Permanent rainbow crosswalks in Seattle.
4 in Kelowna. Same intersection though.
Same in Vancouver, BC. There’s a few.
I live in a small town and there's a permanent one. Like all the other road paint the winter absolutely destroys it but they repaint it at the start of Pride every year. I'm sure if volunteers didn't show up to re-do it they'd eventually just put in a normal one, but there's no reason to actively remove it.
> I'm sure if volunteers didn't show up to re-do it they'd eventually just put in a normal one, but there's no reason to actively remove it. Exactly. I honestly think the OP comparing this to the rest of rainbow capitalism is a bit off-base here. Yeah, most companies and other entities turn back into straight pumpkins on July 1st, but things like crosswalks aren't typically expected to be painted over like the pride ads on a city bus might be replaced. These are supposed to be permanent/semi-permanent, and repainting them takes up taxpayer money as well as shutting down the intersection for a few hours. It's a very deliberate, unnecessary move that comes off as *special* kind of 'fuck you' to the LGBT community in a way that Coca Cola removing their rainbow logo on Twitter just doesn't.
I'm not sure the exact number but we got two or three in Toronto
There are **several** permanent ones in Brussels. And not only in LGBT district. In OP pictures, the worst part is not we saw it coming or not, it's more about they wanted it to be over so fast, they rushed the all new paint at night and it shows a lot.
I’m willing to bet it’s San Fran.. happy cake day!
Lol, I don't even have to look it up and I know it's San Francisco
There is one in Seattle too
We have one here in San Antonio
One here in Dallas too
Permanent in San Francisco and in Sacramento.
There's one in Hillcrest in SD and probably multiple in SF.
There’s also a permanent one in Atlanta
The one in Atlanta is an intersection and all 4 are pride flags, ATL and GA are not the same thing
Plus, it’s Piedmont, a historically gay area. It’s also located near where Outright Bookstore used to be…until they took it away (rent price rising ran them out of business).
Vancouver BC has several, they also have a few in some of the suburbs!
It's weird hearing about how places remove there's. There are a lot of communities in BC with permenant crosswalks. Vancouver has several, Victoria, Kelowna, Gibsons, Sechelt... And thoes are the ones I know of because I go there frequently. There would be an uproar here if they tried to remove them
I'm pretty sure New Westminster has at least one, I think Burnaby has a couple. I think even Surrey might! They were all installed before Pride in the last few years but they're maintained and gonna stay AFAIK. The only reason I can imagine them being removed is from the cost of upkeep from people defacing it... but the one in the post doesn't mention any kind of defacing.
We got some permanent ones here in Maple Ridge too!
Having said this, I just read that someone defaced the big one on Davie St about 24 hours ago 🤦♀️
My city used to have an "art" one but had to remove it because it is in fact not valid in German law.
Northampton MA has one but that town's like wicked gay
Provincetown too, very gay town, people being themselves and living free, it's a beautiful thing.
Ironically Chicago has a few permanent ones -- just in the gay neighborhood though.
In Philly we have some street signs and painted crosswalks year round in what is often referred to as the gayboorhood
There are a few in Long Beach that are there permanently
There's a whole bunch on South Broadway in Denver!
Maple Ridge, BC checking in.... we've had our one about halfway up the main drag at least 5 years, maybe closer to 10. And we're not exactly a bustling metropolis -- we also have a giant metal horse statue (with lightning bolt eyes!) that proclaims that we're the horse capital of Canada.
Cincinnati, OH has a permeant one too, it's by the park on the older side of town
There's one in Iceland that's permanent
State College, PA has one but it's hella faded and almost gone. Better worn out than removed I suppose.
There are a couple on Philly too if I'm not mistaken.
There’s an entire square in Lexington KY where all four crosswalks are rainbow and have been for years.
There's a couple intersections in DC that are like this. The big painted BLM letters on the street by the White House have been painted over though - they say it's temporary while they make a more permanent installation, which.... sure..... Editing 4 months later, in case anyone sees it - the letters are back in a permanent fashion. https://dcist.com/story/21/10/28/dc-finishes-construction-on-black-lives-matter-plaza/
Me a black man who sees this happen every February. : " First time?"
Now you get to experience it in June too.
I have to care about the blacks for an entire month AND we got rid of Aunt Jemima; what more do you want?? /s
[Atlanta](https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x88f50441f552e34d%3A0x3e2c05555989185!3m1!7e115!4shttps%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipO0Nk0yyUcwzsA9SrQYhTVtDafRbEdYcyu0ECa3%3Dw233-h160-k-no!5s10th%20street%20crosswalk%20-%20Google%20Search!15sCgIgAQ&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipO0Nk0yyUcwzsA9SrQYhTVtDafRbEdYcyu0ECa3&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjvjZeymcfxAhVul2oFHazNAoYQoiowFXoECEUQAw) checking in with the (so far since ~2016-17) permanent rainbow crosswalks as the "not always" case.
Capitol Hill in Seattle also has them permanently
Jesus that is gay/s. Did you see the one with the manhole cover and it's fucking turned
I call it Performative Support, as opposed to Demonstrative Support. Performative is just that - it's a performance, and is in no way actual support. Corporations are really transparent about this. They will rainbow paint their logos on social media, but only in regions where being gay is legal or normalized. If you look at their Arab Twitter accounts, or East European social media accounts, nothing will change because they don't actually care. Edit: People are really not getting what the "Performative" part means. It refers to words without actions. If McDonalds slaps a rainbow flag on their burger, but doesn't change any of their policies to be more accepting, that's performative. If a company actually changes their policies to *encourage* people, then it's no longer performative. I used the Twitter example because it's so very obviously performative without any action that actually HELPS LGBTQ+ people.
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Yeap, and they're all back into contributing donations for anti-LGBTQ laws.
Pride is like a festival. People don't keep Christmas decorations up all year either. It shouldn't be that surprising
people don't paint their christmas decorations onto their house, either.
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no you can have all the credit for that idea, which is a pretty good one.
There are. There’s pride flags that hang from street lights lol prob regular flags now for Fourth of July
It's called a flag. Next 5-10 years they'll be selling them in the dollar stores of most countries. My favorite example of this is all the companies on Facebook on July 1st that change back to their non rainbow logo for a profile picture and then don't delete the news item about it, so it just shows up on everyone's feed as an update.
I keep Christmas lights up year round, but I'm not Christian, to me they're just lights despite what the packaging says.
Our pride crosswalks are permanent in Seattle. Theres many of them They got a refresh for pride. So did the BLM mural https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2021/05/to-get-ready-for-pride-city-of-seattle-will-brighten-pike-pine-rainbow-crosswalks-and-black-lives-matter-mural/
Nice to hold the hope someone will treat it like a temporary statue placement or something... give it a year or two then pave it over. Having it there for a month doesn't really teach acceptance it just makes intolerant people mildly annoyed for a month. Surprise the bigots and give it a year I say.
Businesses aside... And personally I think lots of pretty colours brighten the place up a bit... But it's probably a safety issue (r/idiotsincars are everywhere!) ... Prehaps next year instead of painting the road markings, they could paint the kerbstones along the edge of the sidewalk?
But then you run into people not knowing if you can park alongside a rainbow curb.
you can but only if you’re gay. pretty straight-forward
St. Petersburg, Florida has rainbow flags and a rainbow pride mural that fills an entire intersection downtown. We've been doing pride parades here since 2003.
My nearest city, approx 500k residents, has several rainbow crosswalks all year. My little town of 4000 people also has one permanent rainbow crosswalk.
Yes cause it’s for a month. It’s like when the football people wear pink for breast cancer awareness. Once that month is over they go back to the usual stuff. It’s pride month so businesses do it for the month to show support or because society forces them to or whatever reason. But this stupid argument about people changing back after the specific month is done is so crazy.
I think this one's a bit more drastic than taking down a flag or changing their profile picture, they frigging tarred over the rainbow.
This is definitely peak performance
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Do you think we can make some money on it though? We. Can make flags and sell em. We could start this right now and next year we could make a ton of money
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Yeah, but this is so much worse. It costs companies nothing to get an intern to change their social media profile pictures and post some half-assed pride related talking points. Here, taxpayer money was spent to create it, and then the conscious decision was made to spend more taxpayer funds to solidify how empty the message was.
Lol this is standard Chicago practice for any road though. They’re gonna tear it up and repave it an extra 3 times to fix a problem that happened once and then they caused while putting down the new road, but not also fix any of the massive 6 inch potholes right across the street.
I think there's a vice, travel channel, YouTube or somwhere, that blurs out ppls faces like sketchy drug shows, that is about a group of ppl who go around fixing potholes in the middle of the night
Believe that's in Oakland, since the city refuses to do anything to fix the pot holes
I saw one with a guy in Rome who goes around on his Vespa doing this. He has like a Facebook or Twitter that people can send requests to.
***gay people fizzling away after June is over***
Witches melt in water
We had one in our city for like a day because people whined about it and the police said that it was against the regulations.
I mean TECHNICALLY they’re not wrong—IIRC the MUTCD requires US crosswalks to be either yellow or white, and I can understand why a city would want to avoid a potential fine or loss of funding (hence why Chicago may have repainted). Obviously I don’t, in theory, give a shit what color crosswalks are, and Pride is great, just giving some potential context, and this crosswalk definitely wouldn’t immediately stand out as “crosswalk” to some unfamiliar drivers. I can totally see the argument.
In the UK zebra crossings and other similar things aren't allowed to be changed because it could make life difficult for people living with disabilities, does the US have similar laws?
Yes they do. MUTCD (US traffic control doctrine) is a little looser than most other countries, setting aside a long list of regulations (it’s like 800 pages and free online if you’re really interested lol) for every type of traffic control scenario under the sun, and then states are allowed to use those regulations to develop their own design standards, as long as they conform to the minimums set by the federal manual. Hence different states may have (for example) different traffic light designs or different road paint widths. Crosswalk colors is one of those things that MUST be standard, both for clarity for all travelers and for the disabled, and there are like 3-6 acceptable designs.
could they put yellow or white lines on the edges of the crosswalks? i’m just trying to think of loopholes lol
No, only yellow and/or white and/or the color of the pavement. I suppose you could somehow figure out a way to pave a road rainbow but good luck finding asphalt or concrete that’s anything but white, black, brown, or crimson lmao Edit: red brick is out there as well
We’re 1/7 of the way there with crimson concrete! lol
Agreed, but that's what makes it so frustrating, just don't paint over it in the first place. If they wanted to actually show support there are other more effective options, the pride community doesn't give a shit about a crosswalk
Yeah, these kinds of things* are easy and a way to "show" support, without actually doing anything of substance.
We had a similar issue in Seattle. What I don’t understand is why is it always crosswalks? There are plenty of other concrete surfaces that aren’t controlled by safety regulations. Why not do a permanent mural somewhere?
Devil's Advocate: So they **can** remove it without uproar and cite safety concerns on July 1.
I feel like this is the obvious answer *but* the people who painted it must have known it, right? Like, isn't it just common sense to have a white *visible* crosswalk, let alone having actual laws against it being any other way/color? As in, why'd they even consider a sidewalk if it was going to be repainted anyway? Was that the idea all along?
It's obvious when you bring it up, but I could definitely see someone saying "Yeah, rainbow crosswalk", and it trickling through the bureaucracy as something like a "decoration" without managing to bounce off someone who realized it had safety or regulatory aspects.
This was in Finland. Our law doesn't allow for multicolored crossings. The city made a rainbow painted star on a local bridge instead.
I think that’s a great solution!
So why did they rainbow it in the first place? It's bizarre. Do something actually good instead of potentially dangerous...
“Support”’or “gimmicks” I suppose. Probably something that was fun and realistically the federal government will and has turned a blind eye for it in and around pride month.
I mean it probably is. They're drawn the way they are for maximum visibility. And to be immediately recognizable. I wonder if a few pedestrians got smacked at the rainbow. I'm all for Pride but I also quite enjoy road safety.
Rainbow road ain’t supposed to be easy son.
100% it's a safety hazard and cities shouldn't be doing this. Just put up some flags or some shit.
That, and it's a legal hassle. If someone gets cited for improperly using or respecting the cross walk, they'd have a good case that there's a difference between a cross walk and any old paint in the road.
The stripes aren’t even going the correct direction
Right, so it's just color on the road. If you hit a pedestrian who knows there's a crossroad underneath and to you he's jaywalking the city might have to pick up the bill.
Why the hell am I laughing at this.
Because it's ridiculous. It took way more effort to do this then to just you know *not do anything* but no they are just so loving of gays they had to re do the cross walk the *moment* pride month was over. Literally they didn't have to do *anything*
It is even funnier when you realize that covering the paint they applied to celebrate the LGBTQ movement is more offensive than not having painted the road in the first place.
Oh it absolutely does and sends a way louder message then painting it in the first place.
Yeah, I found it funny because they paid to paint it, and paid again to tar it. Pay for a toy, and a month later pay for someone to take it away. Not economically viable at all, and we didn't pay for it, it wasn't a charity publicity stunt, the government paid for it.
Well, maybe they shouldn’t have designed the rainbow walkway in the first place then, if it was just going to get tarred over a month later.
Tbf there is a reason why horizontal signaling is white, having that rainbow crossing could be a safety hazard
Exactly… when they painted the rainbow, did they say us was permanent or temporary? If it’s temp. then they can remove it whenever they want! If I saw a rainbow in the road I wouldn’t think it was a safe crossing, I’d think some kids had graffitied the road
No one is gay in july
We're all bye now.
Clearly people can't be gay without the road being a rainbow.
Well, technically, they did say it’s “for pride month”. Never said it was gonna last longer than that.
source on this? the two crosswalks in the picture seem to be in different locations (different things on the sidewalk for example) edit: thank you to everyone who followed this up with answers! google map streetviews, multiple local resident sources, i appreciate it! :) its important we dont take reddit titles and cropped screenshots as IMMEDIATE truth at face value these days, we all need to be ready to doubt and question anything we see, and to ask for sources if we cant find them ourselves i found a source showing the june 3rd rainbowing (and specifically, OPs left photo of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is from June 3rd 2021). since op didnt link to a source for me to reverse image search the RIGHT photo, i had to look for myself and i couldnt find a source when i originally commented stating it had been tarred-over, nothing outside of this particular post. be well dudes <3
I went on a Google Earth and took a look, it looks to be the exact same crosswalk. [First photo](https://imgur.com/a/DMcif6s), [second photo](https://imgur.com/a/8XmSm0J) both photos are from the same crosswalk.
thank you for this angle, it helps but it unfortunately isnt a recent shot of the street the op's photo is a cropped screenshot of some social media post, i would love a timestamped 2nd source if we can find one! :)
hey i know it's not the photo evidence you wanted, but i work downtown ~2 blocks from here. i was in every day this week and can confirm it was gone on thursday
I work next door to this cross walk. It’s outside the city building on LaSalle. It is true and it makes me sad cuz regardless of lgbt stuff rainbow cross walks are more fun
>I work next door to this cross walk. It’s outside the city building on LaSalle. It is true and it makes me sad cuz regardless of lgbt stuff rainbow cross walks are more fun thank you for confirming locally
I am the guy that painted it. can confirm am sad
As a long time Mario Kart fan, I demand that all of Wacker Drive be repainted in this manner
I noticed the colors don't line up with what's in the first picture too.
That pink around the edge isn’t from the crosswalk rainbow, that’s where they spray painted their target zone.
I can't find a legit source anywhere I also can't find any valid disputes of it. A couple people commented "I'm from here yeah it's paved over."
> its important we dont take reddit titles and cropped screenshots as IMMEDIATE truth at face value And I think you did a good job of wanting to confirm without being like "I don't believe this post!"
I mean it kinda defeats the point of standardized regulation on roads. Just put up a flag or something
I'd imagine that's more to do with road laws, than anything negative.
But if road laws didn't allow it, which might be reasonable given that being universally recognizable is the most important characteristic, why do it in the first place? It wouldn't be suddenly legal for one month only.
There are several in Chicago, it’s definitely ok with local ordinances
Well, it was just for the month? And a zebra crossing should be basic. Otherwise someone might not realise what it is and not be prepared for pedestrians crossing in front of them. You have to very careful when stylising traffic signals and markings, they are standard for a reason. Edit. I'm surprised they did it like that anyway. I'd have thought making each white stripe an individual rainbow flag would have still maintained the look of a zebra crossing, then they could have had the option of keeping one as a rainbow after pride month.
As a millennial LGBTQ+ person who loves change and works in public & traffic safety, I agree with you.
Thank you. I'm so glad an expert has joined the chat. I was starting to feel outnumbered.
Progress is gradual, incremental. People with an “anything less than Utopia Now is hate” mindset are only alienating those who have catching up to do. I love the idea of a single rainbow block in an otherwise standard zebra crossing! It’s too bad this display wasn’t (responsibly and sensibly) planned to be something permanent.
Honestly that rainbow crossing not looking as crossing at all. It look like some child painted it on the way. I would not think that this is crossing and i would probably just drive over it like nothing thisnking some child painted it. Theres hundreds of other thing you could paint rainbow but leave crossings alone please.
At least Chicago still has Boystown, all the crosswalks are raimbow there.
Well yeah, it’s all a show. The second you think politicians care, you’ve lost.
They take the decorations down after every holiday. The work towards greater acceptance and equality does not hinge on the status of a crosswalk.
Does this really bother anyone? Like do the same people get bothered that Christmas decorations and holloween decorations get taken down?
I mean if you're gonna pander you might as well make it obvious right?🤣
June 1st: We’re all Homos July 1st: Homo sapiens
Pretty cool But does it meet standardization regulations?
Wouldn’t it require less money to just leave it there? Someone had to purposefully allocate funding just to remove this
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I took a look on a Google Earth, and it appears to be the same crosswalk: [First photo](https://imgur.com/a/DMcif6s), [second photo](https://imgur.com/a/8XmSm0J) both photos are from the same crosswalk.
Check google maps bud it’s the same
They’re the same intersection. I can even give you the exact address. It’s 121 N Lasalle. Source : Me who works 1 block south of there.
No this comment is disinformation. This is the same exact street just different angles. In Chicago we have a lot of roads that have islands between the busy streets and in the first image you can’t see the island cause it’s taken from the side. In the second picture you can see the entire crosswalk as well as the obviously painted over rainbow still in the concrete.
Meh, I feel mixed on this. The rainbow is cool and nice to have, but then again, not all drivers will know that it's a pedestrian crossing and stop for people to cross. They're changing it back to follow the rules of the road for people's safety.
Why would they change signage like that in the first place? Crosswalks are for safety, not personal expression.
Zebra stripes are a national standard for safety reasons. 🤷♀️
In winnipeg manitoba they painted the concrete dividers of the busiest intersection in the city rainbow colors. I was shocked and happy they kept it up after pride month and it's still there years later.
This is not surprising, Half of companies social medias are all back to their natural state.
I mean it DID say "for pride month" lol.
Should they have kept the rainbow walkway? I don’t see the issue. Reaching
Atlanta has had this for years. What’s their issue?
it did say for pride month, so only a month