Is a Rainbow Crosswalk Coming to the Gayborhood? [Updated]

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Reddit’s Philadelphia page is going crazy right now over the idea of a rainbow-colored crosswalk in the Gayborhood. It all started when one Chestnut Hill user submitted this photo, along with the question “How can we make this happen in the gayborhood?”

That was yesterday afternoon. Since then a horde of boosters, naysayers, and nitpickers have chimed in.

frank0127 2 points 12 hours ago

Get a bunch of friends, chalk, and wait for a red light. Run out, quickly make progress, run back. Repeat until colored! Not on yhe white, do it on the asphalt itself.

smallspark 2 points 10 hours ago

3-5 am. tape. spray paint. friends. bike with broken wheel/flat tire (for you to pose with when the cops stop by and your lookout says “squirrel!”)

Sounds good! Except…

keepinithamsta 10 points 13 hours ago

It’s a federal regulation to have them painted white.

MUTCD Section 3B.18.04
When crosswalk lines are used, they shall consist of solid white lines that mark the crosswalk. They shall not be less than 6 inches or greater than 24 inches in width.

But wait, is that even right?

passim 2 points 10 hours ago

There must be ways around it, downtown Manyunk has all kinds of crazy ones. There they just got permission from the mayor, and had to provide their own materials.

Or better yet, try this:

Barboski 20 points 12 hours ago

Just paint the space between rainbow.

crawsome 4 points 10 hours ago

Genius!

Anyways, don’t be surprised if you see some guerilla street painters nonchalantly pulling a My Bloody Valentine on your neighborhood Abbey Road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYqrlaU3k-w

Update [3:15 p.m]

Center City resident A. Tyler Lynch has sent me a rendition of the potential crosswalk on 12th Street, by Tabu.

Lynch also points out that exactly this sort of crosswalk was laid down in West Hollywood’s “Boystown” neighborhood last year.

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