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Street will bear just one name: M.L. King
By BRYAN GILMER, Times Staff Writer
ST. PETERSBURG -- The City Council unanimously voted to drop the name "Ninth Street" from one of St. Petersburg's main thoroughfares and rename it "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street" Thursday. The north-south corridor has borne the dual names "Ninth" and "Dr. M.L. King" since 1987, when a previous City Council struck an awkward compromise to silence a racially charged debate over how to honor King. Applying King's full name to the street and dropping the numerical designation were fitting ways to honor America's great advocate of racial harmony, said Sevell C. Brown III, local and state president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Brown and the SCLC pushed for the change both in 1987 and this month. "This distinguished council has just given Dr. King a birthday present," Brown said. King was born Jan. 15, and the federal holiday in his honor will be celebrated Monday. Renaming the street required passing a city ordinance, and that requires two readings, City Attorney John Wolfe said. The council passed the change on first reading Thursday and scheduled a legally required public hearing for Feb. 6. Public opposition to the change has been slight. Some people have said a named rather than numbered street between Eighth and 10th streets could be confusing, but council members brushed off those concerns Thursday. Because it is highly unlikely that five of the eight council members would reverse their positions on the issue, final passage on Feb. 6 seems certain. Thursday's vote came after just 10 minutes of discussion by council members, all in favor of the idea. In 1987, the council had debated the idea for hours and remained divided. Council member Jay Lasita said the city government's attitude toward race has evolved since then: "In the '50s and '60s, this city resisted diversity. In the '70s and '80s, it tolerated it. In the '90s and the present decade, I like to think this city embraces diversity. It's high time we went ahead with this." What will happen next?The City Council will hold a public hearing and take the final vote on renaming the street on Feb. 6. The second vote is legally required and likely to be a formality. The new name would be in effect immediately.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
