'I don't want this to be a fight': Aurora dad chips in for rainbow crosswalk

Dan Kagan covers remaining $2,600 to support LGBTQ symbol

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 25, 2020

Dan Kagan didn’t want the bickering over the price tag of Aurora’s new rainbow crosswalk to diminish the meaning behind it.

So, he paid the outstanding cost.

“I don’t want this to be a fight,” the Aurora father of three children said.

“The monetary side is not the important side for me. It should have just happened with open arms.”

The crosswalk on the south side of the intersection of Yonge and Wellington streets was unveiled on Aug. 20 as a symbol of support for the LGBTQ community and a sign of inclusiveness.

However, the $12,600 cost ignited an ongoing debate in the community.

While an anonymous donor picked up $10,000 of the cost, some residents remained concerned about taxpayers being on the hook for the outstanding amount.

That’s when Kagan stepped in, contributing the final $2,600.

Kagan, a friend of Mayor Tom Mrakas, wants the message of the crosswalk to transcend the “grumbling” taking place in community Facebook groups.

“The one thing that I enjoyed about coming to Aurora more than 25 years ago was it was just open and friendly and inclusive. There’s everybody here, there’s every walk of life in this town,” said Kagan, the general manager of the Canadian division of electronic signature company DocuSign.

“What a crosswalk like this really represents is, ‘Come here, we got you. We embrace you, we embrace everybody.’ Today is the rainbow crosswalk, but tomorrow it might be another crosswalk or it might be another opportunity. But I just felt it was so important to have it. And so many people were against it that I just said to Tom, ‘Forget it, I’ll pay for part of it, whatever’s left.’ If it’s going to stop the yelling and the screaming and the upset that so many of these residents had, then tell them it’s not coming out of your taxpayer money. It’s donated.”

Kagan’s children-- Jordan, 21, Sydney, 18 and Jayme, 14-- agreed their dad should financially support the crosswalk and its message.

“I just think it’s the right thing to do. It’s a responsibility that we have as humans to help each other. If I can help in some meaningful way, so be it,” he added.