Rainbow crosswalk coming to Fredericton in time for Pride festival

The City of Fredericton has found a way to accommodate safety concerns in order to paint a rainbow crosswalk in the downtown in time for the annual Pride Week Festival.

The rainbow, a symbol of the lesbian, gay, bisexual andtransgender(LGBT) community, will be painted on Queen Street in front of city hall before the festival starts on Aug.13.

City staff expressedconcerns that replacing the regular crosswalk with the rainbow one could confuse pedestrians and drivers, so the city decided to have both, saidCoun.HenriMallet, who chairs thetransportation committee that voted unanimously to go ahead with the idea.

"The paint is going to be right beside the crosswalk and for safety reasons staff recommended that we keep the crosswalk," said Mallet. "But at the same time, we want to show support to that group."

Concerns over cost, other groups

The committee also consideredother concerns, including the cost of painting the rainbow, which will be$1,200, and what would happen if other groups wanted to have similar presentations around the city.

"In the future, if there areothers who askfor similar projects we'll take a look at it and then we'll probably come up with a policy to address those issues," Mallet said.

But thepresident of the Fredericton Pride Committee for 2017, L.A. Henry, saidthat's exactly what the city should want.

In the future, if there areothers who askfor similar projects we'll take a look at it and then we'll probably come up with a policy to address those issues.- City councillorHenriMallet

The city should be excited to celebrate Indigenous art or art by people of colour "and make that part of the public spaces," she said.

The cost of the rainbow will be paid for by the Pride committee, which received a $2,000 grant from the city for the festival.

The city will alsoconsider repainting the rainbow crosswalk annually.