Nearly a year after the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) covered St. Petersburg’s Progressive Pride street mural in black, the rainbow underneath is beginning to show through again.
Traces of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple are visible along portions of Central Avenue and 25th Street in the Grand Central District. Traffic has worn at the surface applied over the mural in 2025, exposing parts of the colored design beneath it.
FDOT ordered St. Petersburg to remove the mural as part of a statewide crackdown on pavement art on public roadways. The city sought exemptions for several installations, including the Progressive Pride mural, but the state rejected the request, maintaining that nonstandard pavement markings could distract or confuse drivers and conflict with roadway standards…