Community members use chalk art to protest FDOT removing St. Pete street murals
Chalk art done in protest of street mural removal
Honks, rainbows and messages written in chalk sent a message loud and clear Monday, organizers in St. Pete said. Kailey Tracy reports.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Honks, rainbows and messages written in chalk sent a message loud and clear Monday, organizers in St. Pete said.
"All the things that are symbolized by the existence of the street art, we're putting it back, only in chalk, but just so folks know that they aren't forgotten and that we won't be erased," Tamara Leigh, with the Stand Up St. Pete Collective, said.
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"This is another battle in the culture wars that are Florida and that are now the United States," she said.
The Stand Up St. Pete Collective organized the protest of FDOT’s removal of street murals on Monday near the Pride mural on Central Avenue.
"We love St. Pete," participant Amanda Dinaro, said. "We've been here for a long time, and we've always really liked that it's an inclusive and welcoming city, and the fact that they're erasing some of these murals is really sad to us. And, we just want it to continue to be a welcoming place, and we want to be here to represent that," she said.
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The backstory:
New state legislation said "non-standard surface markings" can cause distractions and jeopardize safety. State officials said this includes street art with political, social or ideological messages.
"We’re not doing the commandeering of the roads to put up messaging," Governor Ron DeSantis said last week. "The roads are there for either pedestrians to cross or cars to go, and that's what it's going to be."
Transportation officials said they have more than 400 spots with street art statewide, including the Pride mural, a Back the Blue mural in Tampa and a Black History Matters mural in St. Pete that crews painted over on Friday. Two pastors were arrested after police said they tried to block crews from painting over the mural.
"They want to erase arts and culture," St. Pete City Council member Richie Floyd said. "They want to erase particular identities, like Black people, LGBTQ members of society. Just a few years ago, FDOT was putting forward ideas around street murals for safety and for arts reasons," he said.
The other side:
St. Pete leaders pushed for the state to exempt several murals, saying data shows crashes decreased around murals, but state officials denied the request.
"Unfortunately, the state has told us that they're going to withhold funding, and they're going to come out and paint over the murals if we refuse to do it, and so, I think the next step for us is finding a new place to put these murals that aren't on roads, public property, private property, making sure that we continue to broadcast St. Pete's identity all across the city," Floyd said. "No matter what happens at the state level or the federal level, St. Pete's local officials are going to stand up for every individual in our city and nothing will ever change that."
"The most important part of the day isn't just the chalk. It's not the messaging. It's the fact that there'll be so many people out here standing together to show that we're still here, that we are still standing," Leigh said.
What's next:
State officials said the street art has to be gone by Sept. 4, or municipalities risk losing state funding.
The Source: Information for this story was provided by activists in St. Pete, local and state leaders.