MLK Street in YOUR Neighborhood?

[Kalhoun]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/South/05/....ap/index.html

The article above talks about how a town was torn apart over re-naming a street after Martin Luther King. Friends are no longer speaking, blah, blah, blah.

Ben Youmans, who lives on Sixth Avenue, said he opposed renaming the street because of King's opposition to the Vietnam War.

"I don't consider Martin Luther King to be an icon or a hero to be looked up to," he said.

Just curious...how would your town react? Sad to say, but I think my town would probably have a shit-fit. It is small, mostly white, and middle- to upper-middle-class.

Is there a difference between small towns in the North and small towns in the South?

[romansperson]

Funny you should bring this up. The town I work in is going through this right now. They do have a street named after Dr. King already, but it's a small and short residential street, and some folks think that isn't good enough. So there is a proposal to name a much larger, very busy street after him instead - one of the oldest ones in town. The town is mostly white and upper-middle class, and quite liberal. It seems to be mostly about political correctness, unfortunately, rather than a genuine feeling regarding honoring the man's accomplishments. I think there are better ways to honor them, too.

Personally I've always wondered why just about every town of any size has a street named after him. Why not a school, or a public rec center, or a library? Why not give out scholarships in his name and have a nice public ceremony?

[racinchikki]

Gosh, I don't think there's any town around here that DOESN'T already have a MLK street.

[Kalhoun]

Originally Posted by romansperson

Funny you should bring this up. The town I work in is going through this right now. They do have a street named after Dr. King already, but it's a small and short residential street, and some folks think that isn't good enough. So there is a proposal to name a much larger, very busy street after him instead - one of the oldest ones in town. The town is mostly white and upper-middle class, and quite liberal. It seems to be mostly about political correctness, unfortunately, rather than a genuine feeling regarding honoring the man's accomplishments. I think there are better ways to honor them, too.

Personally I've always wondered why just about every town of any size has a street named after him. Why not a school, or a public rec center, or a library? Why not give out scholarships in his name and have a nice public ceremony?

We have schools (and probably other public buildings) in the Chicago area named after him.

[35340]

I remember the big hullaballoo about renaming Quirt Street in Lubbock Martin Luther King Blvd. "It will mess up the naming convention!" was one notable quote I think my second hand remembery recalls (the streets there are in alphabetical order).

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems to me that of the four counties I've lived a significant amout of time in during my life (three that have MLK streets or blocks), the street seems to tend to be placed in a more ethnic part of town when it does happen ... And Quirt was/is in a part of town considered by most of the people who didn't live there 'the wrong side of the tracks' (and was, IIRC, across a set of railroad tracks).

Martin Luther King Jr Middle School

Scholarships

[Revtim]

It's bizarre that that one issue, Vietnam, is his sole objection. Not exactly the first thing I think of when I think of MLK.

I'd point out to that guy that all of the people even he admires probably disagree with him on some issue. Doesn't mean they aren't people worthy of honor.

Of course, that's assuming that's his real objection, and not just an excuse to cover up his true racist objection.

[justwannano]

I've noticed that for the last several years that a highway around here has slowly had MLK blvd signs erected along it.
It looks like they first erect a sign naming it the 3__ engineering batallion highway and then later the MLK sign goes up.
I don't know if it is something official or someone trying to force a name change.
I don't even know if MLK ever even visited Iowa.
I also noticed a large billboard with Kings picture on it .The picture looked to be faded and the caption was iirc "don't let his memory fade."

[TroubleAgain]

Originally Posted by racinchikki

Gosh, I don't think there's any town around here that DOESN'T already have a MLK street.

Here either.

[Eva Luna]

Originally Posted by Kalhoun

We have schools (and probably other public buildings) in the Chicago area named after him.

I’m a graduate of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Experimental Laboratory School in Evanston, Illinois. It’s a sort of a weird magnet school; entrance is very competitive, and consideration is given to siblings of students and alums, and to the racial/geographic balance of the school as a mirror of the community (which is very racially mixed, although clumped in geographic clusters).

However, Evanston, Illinois isn’t exactly a representative cross-section of the U.S. as a whole, or even of the Midwest. It’s a very politically liberal university town. I distinctly remember thinking John Anderson was going to win the Presidential election in 1980, because all my friends’ parents were going to vote for him.

[UncleBill]

In Savannah, GA there was a street, West Broad St, with rich Black Historical significance, already well known in the region as the area where blacks were treated equally well before it became vogue, or required. There was resistance from the Black Community when that street was chosen to be renamed, it ALREADY HAD cultural significance on its own.

The town I live in now is 80% black, and we do not have an MLK Street.

[romansperson]

Originally Posted by Eva Luna

I’m a graduate of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Experimental Laboratory School in Evanston, Illinois.

This sounds really, really cool.

[Ponder Stibbons]

I am always astounded when I hear people getting up in arms about this. I mean, it's just a street name! Named for a famous historical figure, like many other streets. Would these same people get worked up for Abraham Lincoln Lane? Dwight D. Eisenhower Circle? Even if you don't "get" the significance of Rev. King, why all the fuss? I mean, when it comes down to it, who gives a flying flip if you live on "Timid Deer Lane" or "MLK Avenue"?

[Eve]

Why is it always Martin Luther King? Is he the only famous black person in the United States? Where are all the streets named after Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Bert Williams, Thurgood Marshall, Eubie Blake, Josephine Baker?

[Dogzilla]

I think Eve brings up an excellent point. I've lived in three different states, and at least six different cities and I think every single one has an MLK street. (Actually, on second thought, that might not be true for the Ohio cities -- I don't remember being aware of MLK street in those places, but that doesn't mean they don't have them.)

I thought this was going to be a thread about how MLK street is always in a sort of ghetto kind of neighborhood. Everywhere I've lived where there IS a MLK street, it usually is in a ghetto-y part of town. Except in Tallahassee. MLK Boulevard here starts in a shopping/strip mall sort of area and gradually (literally) goes down the hill... and ends up in a sort-of ghetto neighborhood. Not necessarily in the worst, worst part of town, but not near Jeb's house either... Although MLK does pass behind Jeb's house a couple blocks to the west. (Referring to the Florida Governor's Mansion, for those not familiar.)

So... What about your MLK? What sort of neighborhood is it in?

And to the OP: Do you think there's racism inherent in your town's reaction to the name change?

[BobT]

As other people have pointed out in this thread, street name changes often meet with opposition. And sometimes it's not because people don't like the person that the street will be named after, but rather because it's a pain in the ass to change the name of the street you live on or to reprint stationery with your new address.

So, a city may change one street and they will opt to name it for the most famous person they can find.

To get a bunch of streets named after famous African-Americans you would need:
1) a new housing development where the streets haven't been named 2) an African-American developer who can choose the names and 3) a predominantly African-American group of homebuyers who would like to live on Josephine Baker Drive

[romansperson]

Originally Posted by Dogzilla

I think Eve brings up an excellent point. I've lived in three different states, and at least six different cities and I think every single one has an MLK street. (Actually, on second thought, that might not be true for the Ohio cities -- I don't remember being aware of MLK street in those places, but that doesn't mean they don't have them.)

There is an MLK Blvd. in Cleveland.

And where I live now, there is an MLK Parkway in a very busy section of Durham - near a lot of shopping and one of the local universities. Just drove up it the other day myself.

[Ennui]

Originally Posted by romansperson

There is an MLK Blvd. in Cleveland.

When I was driving taxis in Cleveland I would have an occasional fare who would refer to MLK by the previous name "Liberty Blvd." I'm not sure but I had been told the old name was a token granted to returning WWII vets and with only one exception I can think of off hand those referring to the street by the old name were vets heading to the VA hospital at Wade Park, so racism might not have been the motive for preferring the old name.

[GorillaMan]

There's even a Luther King Close in east London. Although it's actually about as small and insignificant as roads get.

[cheddarsnax]

The Minnesota State Capitol Building is located on *breath* Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. I don't recall too much controversy, but then maybe I just wasn't paying attention.

[dangermom]

My town is discussing this right now! We have no MLK street, and someone wants to have one. People are pretty hunky-dory with this idea. BUT the street he proposes is an old one, in a historical-ish area, and people treasure those names. So everyone is proposing a different road. Another proposal people are wrangling over is for a street named after the town's sort-of founder, who owned the giant ranch that turned into the town, and who donated all the parkland and everything. So now we're looking for two streets to rename, in a city where people are very attached indeed to their street names...

[mike1dog]

We have an MLK street here, but since it's also a U.S. highway, most people still call it that number. I'm not sure it's racist, because the other U.S. hwy in town is officially named after a well known former senator, and nobody calls that highway by that name. In fact I'd guess I've never heard anything about this since the city changed the name.

[UrbanChic]

Some opponents said they didn't want to change their addresses and weren't consulted. Others said renaming a street after King could hurt the town's economy, as streets named after him elsewhere frequently run through poor neighborhoods.

The first sentence in the quoted material--taken from the OP's link--is important. Why not have a town meeting proposing the street name change first?

The second sentence is just silly. Are they actually implying changing the name will make the neighborhood economically depressed because MLK streets in some other towns are in poor areas? Us darkies aren't going to move in just because a street is named after one of our--and America's--heroes. So they can just stop worrying their pretty little heads about that.

All in all, it sounds like the city council members followed the will of the people.

As to the OP, the MLK Blvd. here in Baltimore seems to bisect some rather depressed neighborhoods from some OK ones, especially as you get closer to the Loft District.

[Zsofia]

I don't remember who it is, but some comedian has a bit about how it's such a shame that MLK was a nonviolent, pacifist leader, and whenever you go to a street named after him you're probably in the part of town where you're most likely to get shot. Everywhere I've lived this has, indeed, been the case - Columbia, SC now, where there's a park and a neighborhood named after the man where you don't go after sundown.

I have never been anywhere without an MLK street, and I've never been anywhere where getting lost and seeing that street sign dosen't mean you have taken a seriously wrong turn. Our recent trip to Charleston resulted in a particularly bad example.

It's really quite a shame.

[Mr. Blue Sky]

Originally Posted by UncleBill

In Savannah, GA there was a street, West Broad St, with rich Black Historical significance, already well known in the region as the area where blacks were treated equally well before it became vogue, or required. There was resistance from the Black Community when that street was chosen to be renamed, it ALREADY HAD cultural significance on its own.

The town I live in now is 80% black, and we do not have an MLK Street.

An alternate choice was 37th Street. It runs through predominately black neighborhoods. However, there was so much resistance due to the number of private citizens who would have to have their addresses changed it was switched to West Broad.

[Czarcasm]

It's absolutely amazing how "historic" a street name is once someone proposes to rename it Martin Luther King. I bet if someone tried to rename Fifth Street MLK Street, someone would claim that it was named after Josiah Fifth, the second cousin of the founder of the town, and thus must not be renamed!

[Starguard]

Here is a News Report about it from CNN

[dangermom]

It's absolutely amazing how "historic" a street name is once someone proposes to rename it Martin Luther King. I bet if...[snip]

If that was directed at my city, I'd just like to point out that it's been about a week since this idea was floated, and people are happily proposing streets right and left. And, they are just as talkative and worried about changing a street to be named after the single most revered city father we've got (I don't know why he needs a street, since he already has a giant park, a mansion, a junior high, and a coffee shop). We've been fighting about his wife's nature trail for three or four years now, and she was a Kennedy and universally beloved.

[AskNott]

A smallish town near here had been known in jokes and folklore as a poster town for racism. This year, they had a ceremony on MLK day, their first.

My town has a section of a big diagonal street named for him, and there's a minipark there with a bronze statue of Martin.

[gum]

Street, square, schools and a park.

[Spectre of Pithecanthropus]

We have one in L.A.; I think it used to be called Santa Barbara Blvd. It did originally run pretty much through African American areas, but there are now probably many more Hispanics than Blacks in the neighborhoods through which it runs.

I don't think anybody here really objected to it.

[JohnT]

There's a MLK Ave here in Knoxville (88.1% white). I don't think it's in a "bad" part of town... Laura and I went to hear Mozart's Requiem at a church on the road. Then again, K'ville is such a quiet town that school fights make the evening news.

[asterion]

There's an MLK in Albuquerque. There's also a Cesar Chavez, an Unser, and lots of other weird names.

[masonite]

I live in Tacoma now, where many of the streets are letter names. I'm mildly amused that M.L. King St. lies just between J Street and M Street. It's as if they chose the former K Street to rename King so as to cause the least confusion.

[NDP]

I don't remember who it is, but some comedian has a bit about how it's such a shame that MLK was a nonviolent, pacifist leader, and whenever you go to a street named after him you're probably in the part of town where you're most likely to get shot.

It was Chris Rock.

Anyway, there's no street named after Martin Luther King where I live. There is a "Martin Luther King Family Outreach Center" though.

[wireless]

Originally Posted by JuanitaTech

As to the OP, the MLK Blvd. here in Baltimore seems to bisect some rather depressed neighborhoods from some OK ones, especially as you get closer to the Loft District.

Don't know how long you've lived in Baltimore, but the "Loft District" used to be a pretty marginal neighborhood, too (as is the case in many cities).

In all the US cities where I've lived, if there was a MKL Jr. Rd./Ave./Blvd., it followed true to Chris Rock's observation, and I had always wondered why this was, as if poor black people were the only ones who appreciated the man? Perhaps it's because they were the best neighborhoods for not getting some of the idiotic objections raised and mentioned/quoted here?

Wireless
Mid '80s SoBo resident

[UrbanChic]

Originally Posted by wireless

Don't know how long you've lived in Baltimore, but the "Loft District" used to be a pretty marginal neighborhood, too (as is the case in many cities).

Wireless
Mid '80s SoBo resident

The Loft District is just west of the Inner Harbor, close to University Hospital, right? Considering it's where the Sailcloth Factory, Inner Harbor Lofts, The Greenehouse and a few other upscale loft/apartment buildings are located, I'd say it's a bit better than marginal. In fact, if my family consisted of just my husband and me, we'd live there in a heartbeat.

I wouldn't want to live on the other side of MLK Blvd., though. ::shudder::

[syncrolecyne]

The MLK Boulevard near where I live is a new extension of an earlier road. It isn't called MLK until after it crosses a highway, and I generally dislike it when a single road has different street names . Why they couldn't have named the whole road after him, - I don't know.

The MLK portion of it actually goes through a relatively new middle income suburban area, which does have a significant number of black residents, compared to other neighborhoods in my city - which overall is only 4-5% black. Another differece here is that black people here tend to be middle class or at least not the poorest of the poor, and there is no true "ghetto" that is mostly black. Our poor neighborhoods are mostly Mexican-American. I think its a shame that in many other places people automatically associate "MLK street" with declining property and crime. This particular story also displays how little conditions have improved (or perhaps gotten worse) since 1968.

[wireless]

Originally Posted by JuanitaTech

The Loft District is just west of the Inner Harbor, close to University Hospital, right? Considering it's where the Sailcloth Factory, Inner Harbor Lofts, The Greenehouse and a few other upscale loft/apartment buildings are located, I'd say it's a bit better than marginal. In fact, if my family consisted of just my husband and me, we'd live there in a heartbeat.

I wouldn't want to live on the other side of MLK Blvd., though. ::shudder::

Hi Juanita-

Things have changed a lot in that part of baltimore in the last 20 ( ) years.

I lived in Baltimore in the mid-80s, in what we jokingly called "SoBo", playing on making South Baltimore hip (SoHo, SoBo, get it, HAR HAR HAR). It was just beginning to "gentrify" at the northern end. Others tried to call it Federal Hill, but truthfully, it wasn't. It was a few blocks too far south of that (1400 block of Patapsco St., to be exact). To me it was a near-the-Inner-Harbor-but-affordable neighborhood. Totally blue collar. I, the (then) yuppie, was quite a curiosity.

The "loft district" (didn't have a name then, IIRC) was basically derelict. Lots of empty buildings and surface parking lots. Some friends in from the suburbs and I got attacked by a rat one night walking to their car. I wouldn't have walked it alone.

So, that's why I said it was marginal.
Glad things have changed.
Wish I'd bought some of that real estate!

[Eve]

Originally Posted by Mr. Blue Sky

. . . it was switched to West Broad.

About time they started naming streets after Mae West!

[Paul in Qatar]

I just wish more MLK Streets were in the good part of town. A man like him deserves better.

[Hampshire]

Didn't Chris Rock's routine have him talking to his friend on a cell phone?

"Hello?"
"Hey man, can you come pick me up?"
"Sure, where are you?"
"I'm down on MLK Blvd."
"RUUUUUUNNN!"

[kelly5078]

We've already got one in Houston. I think it would be odd for any city of any size not to have one, since I think MLK was the greatest American of the 20th century. This, FWIW, from a white guy.

Some people tried to get a street here named after Lightnin' Hopkins (the greatest Houstonian of the 20th century), but it didn't fly.

[Kepi]

In Fort Worth, we have Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway, which does run through a predominately African-American part of town. It is also US 287, which is how some people refer to it. Occasionally you'll hear someone refer to it as the Poly Freeway, which was its former name and a reference to the neighborhood it runs through (Polytechnic Heights).

In Dallas, there's Martin Luther King Blvd., which also runs through a predominately African American part of town. It's a main boulevard that leads up to the main gate of Fair Park, home of the State Fair of Texas and the Cotton Bowl. It was formerly Forest St., but no one ever refers to it as that any more.

Originally Posted by Eve

Why is it always Martin Luther King? Is he the only famous black person in the United States? Where are all the streets named after Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Bert Williams, Thurgood Marshall, Eubie Blake, Josephine Baker?

Well, in Dallas, there is also a Malcolm X Blvd., which also runs through the same neighborhood as MLK. It also runs through the heart of Deep Ellum, the historical African-American retail and entertainment district where jazz and blues legends such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Leadbelly Ledbetter all played. I think it would be cool if they named some of the other street in Deep Ellum after them. (Come to think of it, there is a Ledbetter Dr. in Dallas, but I doubt it was named for Leadbelly. I've seen references that lead me to believe that Ledbetter existed at least as far back as the 1940s, so I somehow doubt it was named to honor Leadbelly.)

[dangermom]

Update on my town's MLK proposal: Well, if anyone cares, the local paper is now endorsing the idea of an MLK street, but wants it to be a new street, not a renaming of an old one. More convenient, and we're building lots of streets these days, there's no shortage. It turns out that the originally proposed street, Ivy/Warner, is more historical than I realized; it's not only one of the oldest streets, it's part of a series that spells out "Chico." Chestnut, Hazel, Ivy, Cherry and Orange were planned that way. Ivy turns into Warner, which was named after the movie company after Robin Hood was filmed here (the Errol Flynn one). So the guy kind of picked a dud, but it seems we're well on our way to finding something to name MLK Way.

[Stuffy]

We have one here in Oakland, and I remember when it was changed I think back in 83 or 84. As I recall there wasn't much of an uproar. It used to be Grove St. Now it MLK Blvd. It starts downtown and runs to Childrens Hospital where it ends. Only the part that runs through West Oakland is particulary bad, and it's kind of a shame, as most of the houses on that street are large Victorians. I thought the aea would change when housing prices soared here a few years ago, but it appears to have stagnated.

[BobT]

Originally Posted by Spectre of Pithecanthropus

We have one in L.A.; I think it used to be called Santa Barbara Blvd. It did originally run pretty much through African American areas, but there are now probably many more Hispanics than Blacks in the neighborhoods through which it runs.

I don't think anybody here really objected to it.

Actually there were people who objected, but it was mainly merchants who didn't want to pay for new stationery.

The fact that they weren't really wealthy merchants made their complaints a little less vocal.

[ParentalAdvisory]

Originally Posted by Zsofia

I don't remember who it is, but some comedian has a bit about how it's such a shame that MLK was a nonviolent, pacifist leader, and whenever you go to a street named after him you're probably in the part of town where you're most likely to get shot.

Hey, it's not all bad. They offer hookers too! North Chicago, Illinois has an MLK. -Comfirmed bad part of town.

[astorian]

Here in Austin, we have an MLK Boulevard- it used to be 19th Street, long ago, and you can tell how long a person ahs lived in Austin by what he calls that street. If he still calls it 19th Street, he's a native- otherwise, he's a transplant.

As far as I know, there's never any controversy when streets get re-named, here in Austin... but there SHOULD be. Nobody objects to MLK, mind you, but our city council (which has no real duties, since a city manager does all the real work of running municipal services) is always extremely liberal and seriously lacking in real work to do. They spend most of their time coming up with stupid, pointless, symbolic gestures like re-naming streets after politically correct persons, whether or not they had any connection to Austin.

Even the many Hispanic Austinites couldn't have cared less when our council renamed 1st Street after Cesar Chavez (most Mexicans still call it 1st Street, just as all the white folks do, and quite a few thought it was re-named after the boxer, rather than the head of the United Farm Workers!).

[emacularius]

We have a MLK bypass here in Co Springs.. the only notable person who objected to it was Betty Beedy (lovely name, eh?) who sd the man cheated on his wife (I believe Mr. Cecil did a piece on that bit). This was of course, the same woman who went on national TV and said single moms were sluts and only white people were "normal." All this while she was still part of the city council!