YAKIMA, WA – With one member in opposition, the Yakima City Council voted on Tuesday to repeal a policy that permitted nonprofits to paint rainbow crosswalks if they covered all of the costs.
While Tuesday’s decision made it official, the council also voted 5-2 on July 15 with the intention of repealing the community crosswalks policy. City staff had planned to give a presentation on whether to repeal or amend the policy, but they didn’t actually have a resolution ready to revoke it at the time.
While open to other designs, the policy led to groups painting a few rainbow crosswalks around town.
While some argue that rainbows offer a sense of community for marginalized groups, others view the artwork as controversial and divisive in the current political climate. The Trump administration recently directed all states to identify and remove distractions from crosswalks, including political messaging.
“They want a lot of contrast between the white and anything that goes in between, so right now it’s white and black, right? Sometimes it can be white and gray if it’s concrete,” Community Development Director Bill Preston said on July 15. “But a brighter color reduces that contrast, and the guidance is that they don’t want that white of the crosswalk to get lost in the other colors … within the crosswalk.”
The officials didn’t have much else to say to Preston on Tuesday, quickly voting to revoke the policy.
One resident compared repealing the policy to a “book burning” in July, suggesting that the country is dealing with a “fascist takeover.” Another person criticized the council for considering paying to remove the rainbow crosswalks amid a $9 million budget deficit that they’re hoping taxpayers will help close.
Preston and the majority stressed the importance of following federal guidelines. Noncompliance could result in legal liability for the city if an accident were to happen due to the artwork. Yakima would’ve also risked the loss of transportation funding if it didn’t comply with state and federal directives.
He said between the application fee, permitting, materials and other costs, one location ended up costing an organization about $30,000 a few years ago. Any group that paints a crosswalk must also maintain it, creating additional costs as the controversial artwork becomes a target for vandalism.
“I kind of look at it as a failed experiment,” Mayor Patricia Byers said in July. “My position about this is the same as the flag policy. That is, we are a government building, and my personal opinion is that we should have only government flags, the U.S. flag, the state of Washington flag and the POW flag.”
Byers said she feels the same way about city structures, whether that be the street or buildings.
