Why is Decatur More Restrained in Renaming Things Than Atlanta?
Decatur Metro | December 30, 2010 | 1:32 pmUnlike the Atlanta City Council, which has gotten itself into some hot water recently trying to rename a couple streets after an Atlanta broadcaster and an architect, neither Decatur’s City Commission or its school board seem all that into renaming things recently.
Not that there haven’t been opportunities.
I recently openly wondered whether the Decatur School Board had plans to rename the 5th Avenue school once it was rebuilt as the 4/5 academy. Nope. And with all the recent street improvements, you’d think if a name change was in the works it would happen in tandum. But nothing. Sure we’ve recently named the MARTA plaza after Roy A. Blount, but why does Atlanta still have a “penchant” for street name changes while Decatur sticks to historic street names?
There certainly was a time when the Decatur City Commission renamed Oliver Street to Commerce Drive, but that era seems long past. (In fact, that decision should be reversed if at all possible.) Nowadays, famous Decatur locals are left fighting amongst new public buildings and civic spaces if they want eternal glory. But in Atlanta, apparently anything and everything is still up for grabs!
Is there a reason for this?
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I’m going to try to have the W. Howard crosswalk at Adair renamed the “Andisheh Nouraee Is Still Alive But Will Eventually Be Killed Here By Some Jackass Who Doesn’t Understand That’s It’s The Law To Yield To People In Crosswalks Memorial Crosswalk.”
I’ll let you know how it goes.
Needs to be a little longer IMO but otherwise good
It feels like some of the Atlanta City Council members either don’t know or don’t care that there are actual permanent residents downtown (like me) who call the place home. I suspect that, to them, downtown is a zone dedicated to temporary visitors — office workers, tourists, conventioneers — and the revenue generated from them. As such, it is unworthy of the kind of respect they might afford a purely residential neighborhood.
It’s probably part of the history of detached land uses in Atlanta — one kind of zone for residents, another for commercial/office/entertainment use. The purely-residential zones are protected like a holy shrine and, on the other end of the spectrum, the downtown area is a dumping ground for every revenue-generating idea (or attempt to honor/recognize/butt-kiss) that comes along. Stinks.
Decatur doesn’t have such a strict division of zones. Pretty much any place you go in downtown Decatur, you can look around and see obvious residential structures of some kind. So there’s no room for a similar ‘dumping ground’ of half-baked ideas.
File under “If you can’t be productive, be provocative.”
Hey AN- that’s how Sam’s Crossing got it’s name – how about “Nouraee Crossings”?
Are you kidding? So is “Glennwood Academy” going to be renamed? I’m still astounded that Glennwood Elementary est. 1913, could lose it’s name.
:). I didn’t say i loved the idea. I was just fishing for a story at the time.
No, I don’t believe there’s been any talk of renaming the school building named Glennwood. It was Glennwood Elementary (preK or K through 5) then Glennwood Academy (4 and 5) and will probably revert to Glennwood Elementary (K-3). The naming issue is what to call the 4/5 Academy moving into the new building on old Fifth Avenue site. There was some fun speculation on DM about this–Southchester, e.g.–but then the word came that it would be called “Fifth Avenue Academy”. But, more recently, I have heard that maybe the name is not decided yet. IMHO, Fifth Avenue is good choice since all the other elementary schools, past and present, have had names based on their location–Clairemont, Winnona Park, Oakhurst, Glennwood, Westchester, the old Fifth Avenue, the old College Heights, Second Avenue, Ponce de Leon, Beacon Hill. But it would also be logical to call it the Decatur 4/5 Academy since there is only one 4/5 school, just like we have Decatur HIgh School.
What I don’t like is naming schools after people, especially in a small school system where there aren’t enough schools to go around and make sure that all groups or interests are fairly represented. What I like even less is naming things after people who are still alive–that’s real big in Los Angeles where media stars or politicos are always donating some money to something and getting it renamed for them and they are only 24 years old. It always seemed like bad luck to me. And sure enough–everyone I know who has had something named after them while still alive….has eventually died! And if, and only if, a school is named after a person, could it please be just the last name, not the whole name plus initial? It’s bad enough that no one outside Decatur can remember how to spell spell “Renfroe” correctly, but it’s often hard to find on lists because it’s filed under “C”, not “R”, because it’s “Carl G. Renfroe Middle School”. And was the “G.” really necessary? Were there a whole lot of other Carl Renfroes who might get unintended credit? There’s only so much RAM in the adult brain and it shouldn’t get taken up by middle initials.
Don’t be surprised if they eventually name it after Elizabeth Wilson. I’m not advocating, just predicting.
I just REchecked and Bruce Roaden tells me that the name isn’t changing.