04/18/2026
Not AI…our rainbow bricks return May 8th!
I got a sneak peek at the installation of our historic and beloved rainbow bricks that the state of Florida forced us and many cities to remove last fall. It’s not been a secret, but it has been a work in progress the past several months.
We were already working on refreshing the City Hall Plaza, but when the state government blackmailed us into removing the crosswalks I and other Commissioners knew we needed to keep this part of our community’s history alive. Responding to community feed back, I advocated with the City staff to reuse the brick somehow and to mark the history of the crosswalks.  Eventually, what came to the Commission was a plan to incorporate the bricks into a portion of the Plaza and install a historic marker, as well as ceremonially renaming part of 1st Street for the community leader who made the crosswalk possible years ago, Terry Fleming.
The Commission voted unanimously that smack dab in front of City Hall was the appropriate place to preserve this part of Gainesville’s history.
Watch for details about our ribbon cutting on May 8th.
Tallahassee can try to bully us and try to get us to turn on our neighbors, but Gainesville won’t back down!
