City talks rainbow sidewalks

 

BY TERRY SCHMIDA

 

The “Pink Triangle” intersection at Duval and Petronia streets is about to get even more colorful, after the City Commission agreed in principle to allowing rainbow-colored crosswalks to be installed there.

 

Exactly how the crosswalks are to be colorized, and who will foot the bill was the subject of gay debate, at the commission’s May 5 meeting, at Old City Hall, with Commissioner Jimmy Weekley absent.

 

The move was suggested by the Key West Business Guild, as a way of commemorating the June 2003 unfurling of a 1.25 mile rainbow flag from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean.

 

The commissioners were mostly supportive of the measure, with a few notable concerns.

 

District 5 Commissioner Teri Johnston called the idea “terrific” and overdue, noting that a number of North American cities have already taken similar steps. Johnston also expressed the hope that the crosswalk would dovetail nicely with both Art in Public Places, and Key West’s emerging same-sex marriage industry.

 

Commissioner Billy Wardlow, of District 3, however, expressed reservations about a permanent installation, predicting the rainbows would “divide the city up.”

 

Pretty soon, people are going to want a Fantasy Fest intersection, and a Bahama Village crosswalk, he said. He also wondered aloud about some of the language in the proposal.

 

“There’s no such thing as a ‘gayborhood’,” he said.

 

In response, Commissioner Clayton Lopez, whose District 6 riding includes Bahama Village, assured Wardlow his home neighborhood wouldn’t be lobbying for a crosswalk anytime soon.

 

“We’ve already got an arch,” Lopez pointed out, to laughter from the gallery, in reference to a Key West landmark located, coincidentally, at the same three-way intersection at Petronia and Duval..

Lopez added that would “certainly support” the project.

 

Commissioner Mark Rossi, of District 2, took a businesslike approach to the matter, which could cost up to $4,000 depending on the materials used.

 

“I’d support it if [the Business Guild] pay for it and maintain it,” he said.

 

To that, District 4’s Tony Yaniz retorted that he has just returned from visiting relatives in Cuba, whom he claimed he could finagle into doing the job for $50 and a bottle of rum.

 

Toward the end of debate, Commissioner Johnston reminded her colleagues that the city paints and does “normal maintenance on our crosswalks anyway.”

 

City Manager Jim Scholl than indicated that he had “heard direction to go forward” with investigation into the project.

 

 

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]