Kansas City voters approve plan to remove Martin Luther King's name from street

[babylonsister]

Kansas City voters approve plan to remove Martin Luther King's name from street
By Owen Daugherty - 11/06/19 07:57 AM EST


Voters in Kansas City on Tuesday decided overwhelmingly to remove Martin Luther King’s name from one of the city’s historic boulevards.

The decisive vote comes less than a year after the city council had voted to change the street's name to honor the civil rights leader.

The Associated Press reports unofficial results from Election Day found the proposal to remove King’s name garnered nearly 70 percent of the vote, compared to just over 30 percent of voters wanting to keep his name on the boulevard.

The proposal made its way onto the ballot after several Kansas City residents pushed to restore the street’s original name, The Paseo. The residents collected 2,857 signatures in April to put the measure before voters, well surpassing the 1,700 needed.

more...

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/469179-voters-in-kansas-city-approve-plan-to-remove-martin-luther-kings-name

[rampartc]

1. why would they do that?

what is the new name of the street?

I, personally do not like renaming streets. it is expensive and confusing. if it is a matter of naming a street for a local hero, there are new streets being paved all the time.

[AkFemDem]

2. It had just changed 9 months prior...

And the main contention was that the city just did it, without citizen input/vote. Apparently the majority of democrats also voted to revert to the original name. It sounds to me like one of those uniquely local issues that the rest of the country won’t really get- I sort of understand, I’ve lived places where a street or building has a specific identity and name attached to it that locals are very sentimental attached to.

This goes into a little more- https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/election/article237026484.html

[Farmer-Rick]

3. You're not kidding about it being a local issue

12 years ago when I first moved to this little hamlet, the city council, without consulting anyone, changed about 5 street names surrounding the high school. The previous streets were all called by one name with North, South, East and West added to differentiate them. It was very confusing.

People are still calling the streets by its previous name and even refuse to put the new names on their stationary. It is very confusing for a newcomer.

Street names should really be opened up for input from citizens. It can get very personal.

[brooklynite]

4. The mistake was changing the name of a Street synonymous with the City...

The same reaction would likely happen if NYC changed the name of "Broadway". Years back, the City changed "Sixth Avenue" to "Avenue of the Americas". Use that name and a New Yorker will think you're an idiot.

[Coleman]

6. it'd be like changing the name of the Country Club Plaza to Truman Plaza

and Truman is well beloved by KC.

[cbdo2007]

5. Plenty of other streets around there for them to change...

How about Meyer Blvd or Gregory Blvd or Blue River Rd. or Prospect Ave or Volker Blvd or Summit St....I doubt they would get any push back by changing any of those.

Also, wasn't this led by an outgoing KC Mayor? He must have known that just doing this without a vote was risky.

It was interesting crossing The Paseo on the way to work this morning though and seeing the fairly new Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd road signs out, that they are just going to have to change back. What a waste.