ORLANDO, Fla. — The Florida Department of Transportation deleted its own social media posts praising a decorative crosswalk near the Pulse memorial for “enhancing safety” amid a statewide street art crackdown that set off a firestorm of controversy, according to records made public late Tuesday.

State officials revealed the deleted posts just hours after the Orlando Sentinel filed a lawsuit over a public records request for the material that had been pending for about four months. However, the state denied the Sentinel’s requests for other information related to its Aug. 20 removal of a rainbow crosswalk adjacent to the former Pulse nightclub, saying it had no relevant records.

Under cover of darkness that August night, an FDOT crew had painted over the crosswalk paying tribute to the victims of the 2016 Pulse mass shooting. The agency cited a policy memo it issued on June 30 that such “nonstandard” road markings could jeopardize pedestrian and driver safety.

But July 8 Facebook and Instagram posts contradicted that position and suggested FDOT officials had viewed the colorful crosswalk near Pulse as a success story, according to the social media material that was removed from public view. The agency’s public position changed as top officials in the DeSantis and Trump administrations over the summer began attacking rainbow crosswalks and others deemed to make political statements, in particular those viewed as supporting progressive agendas.

Orlando’s rainbow crossing was first painted in 2017 with FDOT’s approval, a year after a gunman opened fire at the nearby Pulse nightclub and killed 49 people in one of the nation’s worst mass shootings.

In the deleted post, FDOT’s Central Florida division touted road improvements along Orange Avenue near the Pulse nightclub, highlighting the project as “enhancing safety for pedestrians with new lighting and decorative crosswalk features.”

“This project improves traffic flow while incorporating decorative elements near the Pulse memorial,” the post stated.

FDOT’s response to other portions of the Sentinel’s public records request suggests state transportation officials did not review any studies, research or analyses regarding the safety of the Pulse crosswalk or other nonstandard road markings in the state before making their move.

The Sentinel asked for studies or other documents considered from June 1 until Aug. 21, but an FDOT lawyer said no responsive records were available. FDOT also did not have a record of meeting agendas, notes or minutes, work orders, invoices, requests for proposals or bids related to the Pulse crosswalk’s removal.

The Sentinel’s lawsuit was filed just after 5 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 23. The state’s response to the news organization’s Aug. 21 records request was sent at 7:45 p.m.

FDOT’s June 30 memo targeting street art coincided with a letter written to governors by U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. In the letter, Duffy stressed the need for “consistent and recognizable traffic control devices.”

“Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks,” Duffy wrote in a July 1 post on X.

Critics, though, have argued crosswalk art has actually made intersections safer — the city of Orlando, in particular, released data supporting that argument — and the state’s efforts to remove them are motivated by politics, not data.

An FDOT spokesman did not respond to a request seeking comment Wednesday. State offices were closed for the Christmas holiday.

Defending the agency’s street art sweep in late August, FDOT Secretary Jared Perdue said pavement art was no longer allowed, and the new standard was being applied across the board regardless of content.

“Anything that was previously permitted or installed or awarded, anything you can bring up from the past, essentially is irrelevant now, because we have a new law and we have a new standard, and we’re simply implementing that standard,” Perdue said at an Aug. 26 press conference.

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