The state Department of Transportation ordered the city of Jacksonville to remove pavement markings at six intersections as part of a statewide crackdown on pavement art such as rainbow-colored crosswalks.
The removal order includes a mural featuring geometric shapes at the intersection of San Marco Boulevard and Children’s Way that was painted in 2023 without any controversy at that time.
The letter from the state Department of Transportation does not cite the yellow paw prints painted on Bay Street as non-compliant art targeted for removal. The state did not immediately say whether those paw prints, which are on a state-maintained road, will go as well.
The state gave the city a Sept. 4 deadline to remove the pavement markings for city-maintained streets or risk losing millions of dollars in state transportation funding.
The city calls the state’s position a “perplexing reversal” from its previous stance on multicolored crosswalks but it will comply with the order.
A rainbow-colored design celebrating Pride illustrates a crosswalk at the Five Points Intersection of the Riverside neighborhood in Jacksonville, Fla. on July 11, 2025.
The state has cited traffic safety as the justification for removing arts painted on streets. Gov. Ron DeSantis also has said roads shouldn’t have political messages on them.
“We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes,” he said in a post on X.
In addition to the mural on San Marco Boulevard, other intersections that fall under the order are for crosswalks at Lomax Street and Margaret Street, Lomax Street between Park and Oak streets, and west of Lomax Street and Oak Street.
The order also will wipe out art on crosswalks at 9th Street West and Pearl Street North and a crosswalk on Milnor Street near Richard L. Brown Elementary School.
Some of the art involves rainbow-colored crosswalks that celebrate the LGBTQ+ community.
The art on San Marco Boulevard consists of geometric patterns. The Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville commissioned the pavement mural designed by Neptune Beach artist Ansley Randall.
A vehicle turns at the colorful intersection of San Marco Boulevard and Nira Street on July 11 2025 in Jacksonville, Fla. where a mural painted by Neptune Beach artist Ansley Randall has decorated the intersection since 2023.
The painted crosswalk near Brown Elementary School was designed with pedestrian safety in mind.
In a statement about the state’s order to remove the art from the six intersections, the city said a Bloomberg study in 2022 found decorating crosswalks resulted in a 50% drop in accidents involving pedestrians along with an overall drop in accidents.
The city statement said the state at one time encouraged such traffic-calming measures.
“While the perplexing reversal will be costly to our taxpayers, we will be complying with the state’s request to remove these paintings and working with local artists to recreate them on a different canvas that is on private property and not on a roadway,” the city’s statement said. “In Jacksonville, we welcome everyone and believe that public art beautifies the city while driving economic development.”
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U.S. Transporation Secretary Sean Duffy also has called on all states to remove any pavement markings whose purpose isn’t traffic control.
“Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks,” Duffy wrote in a post on X about the July 1 letter he send to every governor. “Political banners have no place on public roads.”
He said in his post that any recipient of federal transportation funding can only put markings on streets “advancing safety, and nothing else. It’s that simple.”
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville will comply with FDOT order on pavement art