DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
The steps at the Oak Lawn Library are receiving a colorful upgrade this week, and the new look will be dedicated at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 27.
Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Gay Donnell Willis, whose district ends just a few blocks away from the Gayborhood, spearheaded the project, and she said she was amazed herself at how quickly things can actually get done at City Hall when everyone puts their minds to it.
The library steps are being painted in rainbow colors as a response to the removal earlier this year of the 10 rainbow crosswalks that had been at intersections along The Cedar Springs Strip until Gov. Greg Abbott, who apparently has nothing better to do than direct pedestrian traffic in Dallas, ordered they be removed.
All crosswalks in the state, except those in University Park, must be painted white and must be identical, except where they’re not all identical. For example, some crosswalks in Dallas are just painted white while others are decorated with faux bricks in red (one of the rainbow colors). And University Park was allowed to keep its SMU crosswalk.
So while the state has come up with its rules for pedestrian crossings, the new regulations seem to be that as long as you’re not acknowledging the LGBTQ+ or the Black communities — the Black Lives Matter crosswalks around the MLK Jr. Community Center had to go as well — anything goes.
But could the state regulate sidewalks or steps on municipal buildings? Apparently not. San Antonio replaced its rainbow crosswalks with rainbow sidewalks, and Oak Lawn United Methodist Church has gotten international attention from European news crews in Dallas for the World Cup. Seems rainbow churches aren’t what foreign journalists expected to find in Texas after warnings of the governor’s vitriol.
But before FIFA arrived in Dallas, Oak Lawn resident David Fisher was chatting with Councilwoman Willis, and he suggested bookending the Gayborhood with rainbow steps at the Oak Lawn Library. That was on April 27.
“I’m the election judge at the Oak Lawn Library,” Fisher said. “It bothered me that the crosswalks had been erased.”
He noticed that the library conveniently had six steps and thought it would be a perfect counterpoint to the church’s rainbow steps.
Willis took the idea to heart and tried to figure out who to contact about making this little project happen. But first came funding. The LGBTQ Chamber of Commerce offered to provide the money, though, so “How can we afford this?” never became an issue.
Next came the question of who approves something like this. So Willis spoke to Assistant City Manager Liz Cedillo Pereira, Chief of Real Estate John Johnson, Assistant Director of the Office of Arts & Culture Glenn Ayars and Director of the Office of Arts & Culture Martine Phillipe.
But nothing was happening, so Willis decided to push the envelope.
On Friday, May 29, the city held its annual raising of the official City of Dallas June Pride flag out on the plaza in front of City Hall. Several elected officials spoke so Willis took her couple of minutes to announce the project.
“I think using that microphone as a bully pulpit at the Pride flag raising kicked [the library steps project] into high gear,” she said.
On Wednesday, June 3, Willis received an email from the assistant city manager thanking her for her insights and for championing the project.
“Based on the positive City Council and community feedback received around the rainbow-painted steps at the Oak Lawn Branch, along with the pre-existing mural project funded by the Parrill Foundation that complements these concepts, our team is moving forward with this project,” Cedillo-Pereira wrote.
Ever since the removal of the rainbow crosswalks — which happened just months after The Cedar Springs Merchants Association spent thousands of dollars refurbishing the crosswalks — the city has been trying to find a way to make it up to the LGBTQ+ community.
In her discussions with city officials, Willis pointed out that Oak Lawn United Methodist Church has gotten nothing but positive publicity since it painted its steps. She expected the same for the library. Among other suggestions they discussed what the city could do to help distinguish the gayborhood such as adding an historical marker or a sculpture.
But in an email, Willis noted, “The Oak Lawn & Cedar Springs area already have sculpture in the Legacy of Love Monument and the Oak Lawn Rainbow letters. There is a historic marker at Throckmorton and Cedar Springs marking the significance of The Crossroads.”
So, with other ideas quashed, the city ran with the plan of bookending the gayborhood with rainbow steps. Willis said the city has spoken to the church to get the precise colors and paint specifications so that the paint will be durable.
While plans originally called for only the risers to be painted and not the steps themselves, workers this week were painting both when Dallas Voice stopped by to take photos.
Fisher called the project “a good rebuttal to what Abbott did,” and said Willis “was incredibly responsive to the community.”
