NEW ORLEANS— A total of 28 streets, parks, and landmarks around the City of New Orleans are set to be changed. At the busy corner of Jeff Davis Pkwy and Tulane Ave., both of those streets will be renamed.
In fact, earlier this month Jeff Davis Pkwy. was renamed in honor of Dr. Norman C. Francis, but the group charged with changing Tulane Ave. and the rest of the placed marked for change could use your help.
Mark Raymond Jr. of the City Council Street Renaming Commission said, “The New Orleans City Council Street Renaming Commission is at the most important part of the process, and that’s the community outreach portion. We’ve got a robust website built out it’s nolaccsrc.org where members of the community can submit street names that they feel are honoring white supremacists or confederates and also submit honorees to be considered for the renaming of the street.”
Submitting your suggestions can happen now, but the commission hopes to complete it’s work by the end of the month.
Councilman Joe Giarrusso’s District A contains a lot of the streets to be renamed and he spoke to us about what residents are saying to him.
According to Giarrusso, “(There are)two things really. One, is that they feel like they’ve participated in this process. They feel like that’s the biggest thing that we hear we want o have a voice to know what’s going on, and the other thing is that they know what the results are, and that they’re good with them.”
What is progress for some has not been easy for everyone. In fact, residents and businesses on these streets could incur expenses related to the name changes but Giarrusso feels inclusion is important.
“Obviously, when you do something like this, it’s going to be hard to get 100% buy in, but let’s make sure we’re having a conversation. Let’s do it up front, and at the same time I think it’s important to a lot of people that we’re addressing other issues,” said Giarrusso.
Yesterday, the commission held one of it’s virtual meetings, which affords everyone the chance to see the the process at work. The goal is to keep and eye on the present and future.
Raymond Jr. suggested, “How our city reflects our values and our principles of today and how we want that to be the guiding light and principles for tomorrow and the next 100 years.”
