Eric Swanson, who performs as drag artist Miss Bouvée, bought 50 salvaged bricks from Miami Beach's dismantled rainbow crosswalk at a government surplus auction, and he's now selling them for a minimum $250 donation each. The goal: raise $15,000 for Pride organizations in Key West and Naples that have struggled to pay performers since the crosswalk's removal and a subsequent state funding crackdown.
Swanson picked up the 4-by-12-inch pavers after the City of Miami Beach listed mixed lots of the salvaged bricks through BIDERA Government Surplus Auctions in July and September, according to auction records. As CBS News Miami reports, he has already raised more than half of his $15,000 target, with every brick sale going toward live performance stages and production costs for municipal Pride events in Key West and Naples, ensuring local performers get paid a living wage.
Swanson told the station the fundraiser specifically targets smaller Pride organizations because Florida Senate Bill 1143 bars local governments from spending tax dollars on diversity, equity, and inclusion activities, leaving groups outside major metro areas scrambling to cover basic production costs. The brick sales, in other words, aren't just nostalgia — they're filling a budget gap the state helped create.
How the Crosswalk Disappeared in the First Place
The bricks Swanson is selling once formed Miami Beach's rainbow crosswalk at 12th Street and Ocean Drive, a 2018 installation designed pro bono by Savino & Miller Design Studio. Per Miami Today, the crosswalk paid homage to Leonard Horowitz, the architect behind the Art Deco District's signature rainbow pastel palette.
Florida Department of Transportation crews tore the crosswalk out brick by brick on October 5, 2025, less than 48 hours after Miami Beach lost its administrative appeal to preserve it, according to the Associated Press. The removal stemmed from Florida Senate Bill 1662 and a July 2025 memorandum from FDOT Secretary Jared Perdue banning non-standard pavement markings tied to political or social messaging, with the threat of withheld state road funding hanging over any city that refused, as detailed by WUSF.
That state action followed a broader federal push: a July 2025 notice from U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy gave governors nationwide 60 days to remove non-standard crosswalk markings, arguing public roads should serve traffic control rather than political artwork. Before it was erased, city crash data cited by the Associated Press showed the 12th Street rainbow crosswalk had recorded half as many collisions as the closest adjacent intersection on Ocean Drive since 2018, undercutting the safety rationale behind the ban.
A Park Replica and a Patchwork of Local Pushback
Miami Beach has tried to preserve the symbol on its own turf since losing the fight over Ocean Drive. In February, the Florida Politics reported that the City Commission voted to allocate up to $120,000 from its year-end surplus to build a permanent rainbow crosswalk replica off state roadways inside nearby Lummus Park.
Other Florida communities have taken their own routes around the state ban. Five Points unveiled a $130,000 mural after its crosswalk was erased, while officials in St. Petersburg have publicly criticized FDOT after Pride murals there were blacked out again. Hoodline previously covered the overnight removal of the Ocean Drive crosswalk and the rallies that preceded it, as Miami Beach residents and Fort Lauderdale neighbors pushed back against the looming FDOT deadline.
For Swanson, selling pieces of that history has become a way to keep Pride programming alive in smaller cities even as state law squeezes municipal budgets. Each $250 brick sold pushes his campaign closer to the $15,000 goal that, per CBS News Miami's reporting, will directly fund stages and pay performers in Key West and Naples.
