Somebody Better Call Rand McNally
I don’t really care whether they rename a couple Lincoln streets after Rosa Parks or Bertram Goodhue. Parks and Goodhue are both fine people to commemorate. The case for Goodhue is particularly strong.
But I wonder: Are these two proposals the start of a larger trend of renaming streets in Lincoln? I sure hope not. There’s the confusion factor, of course, as well as the problem of the resources required to change a street’s name. But my larger fear is that if the trend continues, everybody is going to want their token street. Once that starts, the quality of debate always goes downhill quickly. There’s really only one way to find out if a trend has begun, and that’s to wait around and see what happens over the next few months.
On the other hand, as long as we’re throwing out proposals, here’s mine. (I’m such a troublemaker.) I think we should rename Highway 2 (a.k.a. Nebraska Highway) Bison bison Street, in honor of one of the species our ancestors (im)politely asked to move out of the way so that we could occupy this state. It’s only fair.
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