Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space

"A community’s physical form, rather than its land uses, is its most intrinsic and enduring characteristic." [Katz, EPA] This blog focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Naming civic assets


http://blog.tilos.hu/malestripshow/Happybirthdaymonroe.jpg
Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday to President Kennedy...

I think it's a bad idea to rename places after people who are living. At the very least, time and reflection is a good thing. I know that plenty of places have been named after John F. Kennedy, post-assasination. (Or places after donors who later become "disgraced.")

Still, I can't help but think of all the b.s. (women, anti-Cuban plots, Vietnam--whether or not you believe that he wouldn't have escalated the war) that came out afterwards, every time I see a place named in honor of John F. Kennedy. Or how I would think about justification of torture and the creation of an unnecessary war in Iraq were I to happen by the George W. Bush Elementary School in Stockton, California.

Just as I would be skeptical of naming schools and public parks after George W. Bush during his adminstration, I am not so quick to want to jump and do this for the park at 14th and Girard (Obama Park is suggested by the Friends group, according to the Columbia_heights e-list) or for an elementary school in Prince George's County (see "School board approves Barack Obama Elementary name" from the Gazette)

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