The Paseo
Several weeks ago, the City of Kansas was involved in a heated debate pertaining to the renaming of The Paseo to Martin Luther King Jnr Boulevard. The focus of this debate was not on the person The Paseo was named after. Instead, the debate was focused on whether or not it was appropriate to rename the boulevard. This paper explores what The City of Kansas did properly or improperly in The Paseo dilemma.
What the City of Missouri did properly was to consider having a major boulevard name after Martin Luther King Jnr. Kansas City is alleged to be the largest city in America that does not have a street named after Martin Luther King Jnr (Johnson, 2019). King was a central figure in America and across the globe, and it would be important if his legacy continues, for example, through the naming of a Kansas City street after him. However, the city did not conduct a proper poll to assess the importance the residents attaches to The Paseo. Many residents of Kansas City believe that The Paseo is the crown Jewel of their neighborhood (Reid, 2019). This means that although the residents of Kansas City have much respect for Martin Luther King Jnr, there are not ready to part ways with the connection they have established with The Paseo.
More importantly, Kansas City failed to follow the right procedure when renaming The Paseo to Martin Luther King Boulevard. To begin with, the process of collecting people’s votes pertaining to their opinions on the topic of changing the name of The Paseo to Martin Luther King Boulevard was flawed. For example, Sharpton (2019) argues that the flaming of the questions in the initial proposals to rename The Paseo Boulevard was flawed. As a result, people who were opposed to the proposal ended up saying yes to it. Besides, unofficial statistics suggest that the majority of Kansas City residents are in support of the naming of the boulevard in question back to The Paseo (Sharpton, 2019). This suggests that the majority of the residents of Kansas City were opposed to the proposal to change the name of The Paseo to Martin Luther King Boulevard from the beginning.
The City of Kansas needs to avoid making the issue of the renaming of the Paseo to be a race-inspired topic. According to Mayor Quinton Lucas, the most important thing is for the city of Kansas to ensure that the change of the Paseo name is done in the right way (Payne & Holmes, 2019). The city official should ensure that the desire to have a major street named after King does not create divisions among the residents.
In conclusion, the City of Kansas is facing a major dilemma stemming from a recent decision by its officials to rename The Paseo. The decision did not settle well with many residents of this city. Most importantly, the proper procedure was not followed before the street could be renamed to Martin Luther King Jnr. Boulevard.
References
Johnson, M. T. (2019, February 25). With one sign, the shift from Paseo to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard begins. KCUR. Retrieved from https://www.kcur.org/post/one-sign-shift-paseo-martin-luther-king-jr-boulevard-begins-2
Payne, G., & Holmes, M. (2019, November 13). Kansas City feels the heat over MLK Boulevard vote. KCTV. Retrieved from https://www.kctv5.com/news/local_news/kansas-city-feels-the-heat-over-mlk-boulevard-vote/article_eb23c5f8-0677-11ea-af92-1fc3ae7dd5b3.html
Sharpton, A. (2019, November 10). Missouri city removes Martin Luther King’s name off Boulevard sign. Retrieved from https://www.msnbc.com/politicsnation/watch/missouri-city-removes-martin-luther-king-s-name-off-boulevard-sign-73248325901
Reid, C. (2019, January 23). The history of The Paseo and why some neighbors are against changing the name. KSHB. Retrieved from https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/the-history-of-the-paseo-and-why-some-neighbors-are-against-changing-the-name