The city of Orlando has installed a
rainbow-colored crosswalk near a gay nightclub where 49 people died
and dozens were wounded when a lone gunman opened fire last year.
According to alternative weekly the
Orlando
Weekly, crews finished installing the crosswalk on Wednesday.
The crosswalk, located at West Esther
Street and Orange Avenue, cost $2,900 to install. More than 2,700
people signed an online petition asking the city to install the
crosswalk to honor the victims and survivors of last year's massacre.
Cassandra Lafser, a spokesperson for
Mayor Buddy Dyer's office, said in a statement released Monday that
the crosswalk's rainbow colors “honor the memory of the 49 lives
lost and the lives of those that were forever changed on June 12,
2016.”
“This will serve as a symbol of our
compassion, love and unity in the Central Florida community,”
Lafser said.
According to the Orlando Sentinel,
the city on Monday approved other upgrades to the shuttered
nightclub, which serves as a temporary memorial. Designs shown by
the onePULSE Foundation call for lighted benches, a new fence with
murals and an expanded walking area for visitors to the club.
Mayor Dyer applauded the plans at a
meeting on Monday.
“You guys have done a fantastic job
on the temporary memorial site, making it much more accessible and
using the space on the site that currently is not available for use,”
Dyer
said. “It's going to be much more friendly, I think, to the
public that are coming there.”