The Left thought they’d turned America’s streets into their personal political canvas.
They painted rainbow flags and political slogans on taxpayer-funded roads from coast to coast.
And Sean Duffy delivered one message to woke cities about Pride crosswalks that sent activists into damage control.
Trump’s Transportation Secretary drops the hammer on woke street art
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just told cities exactly what taxpayers have been thinking for years – stop wasting our money on rainbow crosswalks and actually fix the roads.
In a July 1 directive that has left-wing activists running to their lawyers, Duffy announced the SAFE ROADS initiative (Safe Arterials for Everyone Through Reliable Operations and Distraction-Reduced Strategies). The message was crystal clear: get your political statements off our streets or lose federal funding.¹
Duffy reportedly released a statement saying taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks, and urged cities to prioritize safety over political statements.²
Florida’s Republican leadership didn’t waste any time backing up Duffy’s common-sense approach.
Governor Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 1662 in June, and FDOT Secretary Jared Perdue said Florida’s “proactive efforts to ensure we keep our transportation facilities free & clear of political ideologies” were solidified into law.³
And here’s the thing that’s really got the woke mob scrambling – this isn’t just about new murals.
Cities have to rip out the ones they’ve already painted. No grandfathering, no exemptions, no special treatment for the Left’s favorite causes.
St. Petersburg’s leftist coalition melts down over mural mandate
The reaction from Florida’s liberal enclaves has been exactly what you’d expect – complete hysteria.
In St. Petersburg, activists launched a petition called “Save Our Street Murals” asking residents to “support the City of St. Petersburg’s efforts to fight back against state overreach and anti-gay rhetoric.”
They’re defending their rainbow crosswalk at Central Avenue and 25th Street and a “Black History Matters” mural outside the Woodson African American History Museum.⁴
Dr. Byron Green-Calisch, president of St. Pete Pride, called these murals “visual cues of inclusion” for both residents and tourists.⁵
Visual cues of inclusion?
How about visual cues that our tax dollars are being wasted on virtue signaling instead of actual infrastructure?
The petition states that street murals and public art “play a vital role in our everyday lives” and that they are “not just mere decorations; they are symbols of our diversity, a celebration of our unique identity, and a testament to our city’s spirit as the ‘City of the Arts.’”⁶
But when pressed about actual safety concerns, these same activists can’t provide a single study showing their political art makes streets safer.
“We can find out if there is an actual situation, let’s figure out a better solution for it, but no data has been provided,” Dr. Green said when discussing the safety claims.⁷
That’s because the data doesn’t support their narrative. The U.S. DOT noted there were 39,345 traffic fatalities in 2024, with more than half of roadway fatalities in America occurring at crosswalks, intersections and rights-of-way along non-freeway arteries.⁸
Yet these activists want to add more distractions to our roads?
Blue cities scramble while red states restore sanity
The contrast between how different cities are responding tells you everything about the political divide in Florida.
Some municipalities like Boynton Beach have already removed their murals.⁹ They understood the message – follow the law or lose funding.
But predictably, the most liberal cities are throwing tantrums.
Key West voted on August 6 to find every possible legal option to preserve its popular rainbow crosswalks at the intersection of Duval and Petronia streets.
They even voted to designate the crosswalks as a cultural landmark and the surrounding area as the “Historic Gayborhood of Key West.”¹⁰
Historic Gayborhood? Give me a break. This is exactly the kind of nonsense that Florida voters rejected when they overwhelmingly supported DeSantis and Trump.
Delray Beach’s City Commission openly defied their own city manager Terrence Moore, who announced the city “must adhere to state guidelines.” Instead, the commissioners said it would be premature to remove the crosswalk without receiving a direct order from the state – essentially daring Florida to enforce its own laws.¹¹
Miami Beach Commissioner Alex Fernandez told Axios the city hasn’t received any communication from the state, calling this “a non-issue, a distraction, a solution in search of a problem.”¹² This from the same city that can’t keep crime under control but somehow has time to paint political messages on streets.
The real agenda behind the rainbow resistance
Look at what’s really happening here. For years, leftist activists have been using public infrastructure as their personal propaganda platforms.
They paint “Black Lives Matter” on streets in Washington, D.C. They put rainbow flags on crosswalks in every liberal city. They turn sidewalks into political billboards.
And they do it all with your tax dollars.
When conservatives put up a flag or a sign supporting their values, they’re told it violates “separation of church and state” or creates an “unsafe environment.”
But when the Left does it? Suddenly it’s “art” and “inclusion.”
The Florida DOT directive from Chief Operating Officer Will Watts explicitly states that existing pavement and surface art must be “immediately remedied (i.e. removed, modified or replaced).”¹³
There’s no wiggle room here. These cities know exactly what they need to do – they just don’t want to do it because it means admitting their woke agenda isn’t welcome anymore.
Think about Sarasota, where they’re crying about losing 200 hand-painted sidewalk panels that line Pineapple and Orange avenues in the Burns Court arts district.¹⁴
Fort Myers was planning to paint sheet music from a Duke Ellington arrangement in crosswalks at the intersection of Cranford Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.¹⁵
Sheet music in crosswalks? While people are getting killed at intersections? This is the Left’s priority?
Sean Duffy and Ron DeSantis are doing what voters elected them to do – restore sanity to our government and stop the waste of taxpayer money on leftist virtue signaling.
The fact that it’s causing such panic among the woke crowd just proves they know their free ride is over.
These activists spent years turning our streets into their political playground. Now they’re learning what happens when adults take charge again.
The Trump administration’s message is clear: roads are for driving, not for pushing radical politics.
And if these cities don’t like it, they can explain to their taxpayers why they chose rainbow paint over state funding.
¹ Tom Hall, “DOT directives ban and order removal of asphalt art in streets, intersections, crosswalks and sidewalks,” WGCU, August 15, 2025.
² Amber Jo Cooper, “Advocates launch petition to save St. Petersburg Pride, Black History Matters street murals,” Tampa Bay, August 19, 2025.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Jennifer Kveglis, “Committee forms to save St. Pete street murals targeted in new Florida mandates,” Yahoo News, August 18, 2025.
⁶ Cooper, “Advocates launch petition.”
⁷ Casey Albritton, “People in St. Pete form a group to try to save street murals,” Tampa Bay 28, August 19, 2025.
⁸ Hall, “DOT directives ban and order removal.”
⁹ Kveglis, “Committee forms to save St. Pete street murals.”
¹⁰ Martin Vassolo, “These Florida cities are defying a ban on rainbow-colored Pride crosswalks,” Axios, August 19, 2025.
¹¹ Ibid.
¹² Ibid.
¹³ Hall, “DOT directives ban and order removal.”
¹⁴ Ibid.
¹⁵ Ibid.
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Author: rgcory
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