According to the Northwest Arkansas Times, Sixth Street will become Martin Luther King Boulevard in January 2009. A unanimous Fayetteville City Council vote on Tuesday sealed the deal.
For years there have been signs with the new name at major intersections but they’re blue instead of green and they don’t run with the street. This was the result of a City Council compromise back in 2002 when the name change effort originally began. In less than a year, however, it will no longer be just an honorary recognition.
One Fayetteville attorney and Sixth Street businessman who is against the name change read from a list of Sixth Street businesses who he claims also aren’t pleased with the idea of a name change. “We have 71 businesses that don’t want to do this, and it’s not because of disrespecting anybody,” he said. “It’s because of money, time and confusion, ” says Jim Burnett.
UPDATE : Want more? Check out Honoring the Dream over at The Iconoclast.
When this came up a while ago, probably back in 2002, the MediCap pharmacy (I think that’s the name of it – it’s across the street from Wal-Mart) owner was on the local news. He said the reason he didn’t want to do it was because he would have to change all of his business cards, forms, etc. and that the name Martin Luther King Jr. is really long and takes up a lot of space. I think the abbreviation MLK works pretty well, but that’s just me. Seems like a lame excuse. I mean, wouldn’t you just use your cards with the old street name on them until they run out and then order new ones later? I should probably be running that business instead of that guy. Duh.
Getting your info correct and kept current on a business card is super important. With mine scattered around all over town in the “free meal drawing” fishbowls, I want to insure they can find me when I finally win something.
And how does this honor MLK? Having a street lined by fast food restaurants, used car lots, a scrap yard, bars, liquor stores, etc named after oneself does not seem much of a honor to me.
Is the city going to reimburse the affected businesses the costs of updating all their ads, letter head, etc? Of course not, though they should.
Perhaps what irritates me most about this is that it wasn’t put to a vote by those affected. The city council just decided to change the name on their own, to reap good press for themselves from those that care more about impressions than real results. Rather than waste the money buying new street signs and paying crews to install them; how about that money get redirected to the personnel budget so police and fire staffing can be maintained.
[...] About a year ago, the Fayetteville City Council voted unanimously to officially rename Sixth Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in early 2009. [...]