Mayor Randy Taylor speaks on crosswalk controversy
MARYLAND – The City of Salisbury held a council meeting Monday night, July 8th to where public comments over the city’s pride crosswalk were the bulk of the conversation. Many people spoke out and there were many opinions and ideas thrown out. Mayor Randy Taylor went on camera for the first time with WMDT to discuss the issue.
Mayor Taylor says his decision to weigh the removal of the colors on the crosswalk does not have anything to do with any disdain towards the LGBTQ+ community and says this should have been looked at a bit closer. “It has everything to do with fairness, and staying neutral and supporting everyone not just a singular group… We as a city, we have gotten ourselves, where we adopted, I think an inappropriate level of connection with a particular group, that is somewhat political in nature. and all I’m saying is there is an artful way to now deal with it, and that why I’m working with the public Art Committee.”
Art Committee member K.T. Tuminello was in attendance and says he was there and spoke out. “These pride crosswalks were the very first in the entire state of Maryland, and they deserve to be protected as a cultural landmark. If he’s successful in removing these, what’s next where does this end? Is the Black Lives Matter Mural Next?”
There were others who spoke, all of whom shared a variety of viewpoints. Lisa Gingrich said she doesn’t feel like she included in this display. “As soon as you put up a sign that says were all equal, but yet it’s on the very clear insignia of a particular group, then were not all equal. and I think that itself is not inclusive.”
Other community members such as Tim Starnes suggested this could bring us more together. So we can keep searching for a rainbow here, a Haitian thing here, all these different subsets, but we’ll be chasing that to the end of the day. What if just a question, what if we found something to invest our time in and money? What if we found something to invest our time in and money in something that is common to us all? Something that would really honestly unite us?”
Mayor Taylor says crosswalks should be just that, but when it comes to art, there should be a process. “I’d like to give artist an opportunity… if we’re going to treat it as an art corner. Artist have the opportunity to express their own version, we’d have a small committee that would pick… We have a lot of activities around here, it might be a good spot to do an artistic treatment of those cross walks.”
The crosswalk paint is currently wearing away, which is why the discussion has come up to paint it again. Mayor Taylor says he hopes future conversations will produce a solution, and residents say they will continue to speak out on both sides until the issue is resolved.
