New Westminster can now proudly call itself the home of a new rainbow pride crosswalk in the downtown core.
The crosswalk is located at Columbia and Church streets. New Westminster Mayor Jonathan Cote told Vancity Buzz this is a move that has been five years in the making after the first gay pride event in the city.
[am2_see_also]
“It started off as a small event and over the last five years, the event has grown tremendously and now involves closing down all of Columbia Street for one of our major festivals of the year,” said Cote.
“I think there’s a growing recognition that New Westminster is becoming more and more diverse of a community and we wanted to make sure we were recognizing that and celebrating that.”
Despite New Westminster historically having a largely blue-collar demographic, Cote says residents have been receiving the crosswalk positively so far.
“I actually went down to the site and there were lots of people taking photographs and really giving positive comments about the decision.”
“We’ve still got our traiditonal blue collar working class neighbourhoods, but our downtown has really been revitalizing over the last 10 years.”
The New Westminster Pride Columbia Street Party will be happening this year on August 15 from 3-8 p.m. and will close down Columbia from 4th Street to Begbie Street.
New Westminster will be joining legions of other cities with rainbow crosswalks to celebrate gay pride, including Vancouver.
New Westminster Pride Rainbow Crosswalk
Here you go #newwest Your new permanent #rainbowcrosswalk on Columbia at Church St! Definitely A PROUD moment to say we live in New Westminster! #newwestpride #vancouver #pride A photo posted by New West Pride Society (@newwestpride) on
Pride Rainbow Crosswalks Around The World
Here’s a much bigger picture of the guess the #rainbowcrosswalk challenge #TBT edition. #rainbow #crosswalk A photo posted by Michael Espiritu (@micmacattack) on
A photo posted by The Florida Keys & Key West (@thefloridakeys) on
#philly #rainbowcrosswalk A photo posted by Alexandra Zukerman (@sasha_z) on
Follow Channels and Categories