Kansas City votes to remove Martin Luther King's name from historic street

[bellmartin]

32. Not a racist move

This ballot item was to return the original name of the historic Paseo Boulevard, a Kansas City landmark and jewel of city planning, after the name was changed without a process that asked for citizens' opinions. The objection on the part of many was not that it was renamed for Dr. King, but that it was the renaming of an iconic thoroughfare tightly tied to the city's unique history, period.

It's unfortunate that, in order to let it be known that citizens want it to remain The Paseo, we've had to vote it out in a way that can be misconstrued. We shouldn't have been put in this position.

My take on it is that it was not changed back out of disrespect to Dr. King, and was not a racist move, and not even culturally controversial in the bigger picture. I know other liberals that agree, and suspect that there are many Kansas Citians who would favor naming a different boulevard after Dr. King. There's a Cesar Chavez Boulevard, for instance, in a section of 23rd Street, and of course, 15th Street has been Truman Road for decades. But The Paseo has a strong identity, and the city government changing the name willy-nilly was like suddenly changing the name of Times Square (or insert another iconic place name), and foisting it on the city with a tough-cookies-if-you-disagree attitude.

The street that has become notorious as the black/white dividing line in KC is Troost. Imo, that's the one they should change in favor of Dr. King.