Last year may have been a tale of two rainbows in the Tri-Cities. Rainbow crosswalks, that is.
While a proposal by members of the Tri-Cities Pride Society to paint a rainbow crosswalk in Coquitlam divided council and sparked a debate on social media, a similar crosswalk was readily accepted by Port Moody council after a pitch by Amy Lubik of the group Creating LGBT+ Community in Port Moody. The only issue to be resolved was where to put it.
That decision came down in December, when Port Moody council elected to paint the crosswalk in Newport Village because of safety concerns over the site requested by Lubik’s group and recommended by a staff report, on Murray Street between Rocky Point Park and Brewer’s Row.
“Maybe we don’t need another distraction there,” Port Moody mayor Mike Clay said.
Meanwhile, some Coquitlam councillors worried painting a rainbow crosswalk would open the floodgates to other interest groups requesting other crosswalks be painted to support their cause or community.
“We don’t have to wear badges or pins or put billboards up or paint crosswalks,” Coun. Terry O’Neill said. “We do it, not with symbols, but with actual action.”
But symbols can be a powerful tool to convey the kind of community residents desire and value, Port Moody’s Clay said. Especially when a city promotes itself as a home for the arts.
“I would love to have a rainbow crosswalk as much as I would love to have a salamandar crosswalk,” Clay said. “We’re a city of the arts and we should do that sort of stuff.”
So much so, in fact, in November Port Moody council forwarded to its arts and culture committee a pitch by local resident Brad Marsh for a variety of crosswalks celebrating other interests and causes be painted all around the city.
“We are a community that likes to have fun and celebrate art,” Clay said. “Life doesn’t always have to be life or death, doom and gloom serious decision making.”
In Coquitlam, the Evergreen Cultural Centre installed a rainbow on a set of large doors facing Guildford Way as a symbol of support for a rainbow crosswalk in that city.
“We want to be active in the community because, as an arts centre, we are all about inclusiveness, expression and identity,” Evergreen’s executive director Jon-Paul Walden said.
A pair of community activists, Katrina Shelast and Jerome Bouvier, also started a fundraising drive in September to help pay for the installation of a rainbow crosswalk in Coquitlam.
“We wanted to take the money issue off the table,” Bouvier said of the estimated cost of $7,500 to $8,000 for the symbol to be painted onto pavement. So far the effort has raised a little over $1,000.
But that money won’t be needed for a crosswalk.
Instead, it will go to support a local organization or community group after Coquitlam council decided in October to allocate $10,000 of the city’s money to paint a rainbow crosswalk right next to city hall on Burlington Drive at Pinetree Way.
Clay said the $11,000 Port Moody is budgeting to paint and maintain its crosswalk is money well spent.
“It’s all of us symbolizing in our community what we want to be known for,” Clay said. “In some ways it says we’re dynamic and progressive enough to do that as a symbol of our diversity, and also that we’re fun.”
— with files from Gary McKenna
