Miami rainbow stairs: Pauline Young will fight to bring them back

A Gold Coast councillor is vowing to bring back the colourful Miami rainbow stairs after council’s controversial decision to paint them back to grey last week.

The rainbow stairs at Miami. Photo: Supplied

A DIVISION councillor is backing a plan for the return of the Miami Rainbow stairs a week after council workers painted over them.

Councillor Pauline Young told the Bulletin yesterday she will be going to bat for her constituents who want to see a return of the coloured stairs, which were painted by an unknown artist.

The stairs, which climb the headland between Miami and North Burleigh, were controversially painted over last week by council workers, sparking community outrage that the bright colours had been replaced by a dull grey.

The rainbow stairs appeared at Miami Hill/North Burleigh last year by a mystery member of the public. Photo: Supplied

OTHER NEWS:

Giving at the heart of one Coast school

Coast woman speaks out after being detained in Thailand

Coast waterfront lots fetching big prices for Chinese developers

Cr Young is expected to bring it up at first full council meeting of the year today.

“I want it reinstated. I was disappointed the Rainbow Stairs were painted over,” she said.

“I run up those stairs every day of the week.

“So many people were enjoying them and I was getting heaps of positive feedback, even though council didn’t have anything to do with it.

The North Burleigh Lookout and Miami stairs have been spray painted with the words "Eternity" since the rainbow stairs were painted over by council. But these will disappear too.

“If I had known they were going to be painted over, I would have done something about it.

“It could have saved ourselves a couple of steps.”

Cr Young is at odds with other councillors and officers, with Deputy Mayor Donna Gates saying last week would-be artists had to be deterred from decorating the Coast without permission.

Cr Young could not put a time on the potential return of the rainbow colours, but said she had a lot of keen helpers who had put up their hand.

“I’ve had a lot of residents and people from the community approach me to say they can repaint it so it’s not an issue of finding someone to do it. There’s a process that we need to go through first,” she said.

Councillor Pauline Young (right) in a meeting. Picture Glenn Hampson

SUBSCRIBE TO THE GOLD COAST BULLETIN — JUST $1 FOR THE FIRST 28 DAYS

“If we do a survey, that could take two weeks. I wouldn’t like to put a time on it because there is a process that I have to follow.”

In another twist to the tale, the Bulletin spotted and photographed graffiti on the grey stairs on Monday. Someone had painted the word “Eternity’’ in green on three of the steps.

A council spokesman said yesterday they were not aware of the graffiti, but would be removing it.

“The city had not received any reports of fresh graffiti on the Miami steps. The city will aim to remove the graffiti within 24 hours,” a spokesman said.

The stairs were painted grey a week ago, covering up a rainbow design with a heart that was painted by an unknown member of the public late last year.