The city has put in the first of 10 rainbow crosswalks in Oak Lawn, a nod to LGBTQ pride the city says will be fully installed by May.
The crosswalks will stretch from Oak Lawn Avenue to Douglas Avenue on Cedar Springs, the social center of the city’s LGBTQ community. They come as a piece of a $1.4 million beautification project that will include multicolored gateways over Cedar Springs, improvements to sidewalks (ongoing construction has caused a bit of a problem in the interim), pedestrian plazas, and better access for people with disabilities. Oak Lawn will also get a traffic signal at Knight Street, stained concrete at various locations throughout the area, and some new landscaping.
While the larger beautification will be paid out of 2012 bond money, funding for the crosswalks—about $128,000—came through a donation from the GLBT Chamber of Commerce Foundation. The Chamber is also responsible for repairs and maintenance after installation.
“It really sets us apart as a community,” the Chamber’s president, Tony Vedda, told NBC DFW. “So, if people come to the area of town and they see the crosswalks, then they know they are in the LGBT community and hopefully that says to them they are in a community that is welcoming to everyone.”
The entire beautification is set to be complete by May, and most of the crosswalks will go in toward the end of that timeline. The sections at Oak Lawn and Cedar Springs went in early, as the contractors finished up other work on that intersection, according to Chris Turner-Noteware, an assistant director and city engineer in Dallas’ Department of Public Works.
We have a request for comment from Councilman Adam Medrano. In the meantime, here are those sidewalks. Take ’em in:
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