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As St. Petersburg drops the Ninth from the Dr. M.L. King Street name, the process of replacing signs and getting new stationery will take some time.
By BRYAN GILMER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 18, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG -- The philosophical debate over naming Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street has been simple and quick this time around.
But the logistics of rechristening one of the city's longest thoroughfares will be more complicated. Hundreds of street signs have to be replaced. Businesses will need to reprint brochures, business cards and stationery and update telephone listings.
It appears that those tasks will take place gradually.
The City Council on Thursday unanimously supported putting King's full name on the street that has been known as Dr. M.L. King (Ninth) Street. They dropped the numeric part of the name, which a previous City Council had included to resolve a 1987 debate over whether to name the street for King.
The second of two council votes needed to approve the change is likely Feb. 6. Once that happens, changes will begin.
"We'll put correspondence out telling people that they need to make the change," said St. Petersburg Postmaster Thomas W. Pawlowski. "About six months later, we'll do a follow-up note to those who are still getting a lot of mail to the old address. And we'll do it again at a year."
Pawlowski said letter carriers will still deliver items addressed with "Ninth Street."
"Our mission is to deliver the mail," he said. "We will always try to deliver mail if we know how to get it to someone."
However, as time passes, using Ninth Street on a piece of mail could delay it or cause it to be returned to its sender. But the policy gives businesses time to use printed materials with the old address.
"We have a lot of stuff, like all of our fliers and birthday party packages," said Ann Taylor, day manager of Sunrise Lanes bowling center, which has been using the address 6393 Ninth Street N. "Whatever we have is going to run out, and then what we'll do is we'll change it. Obviously we're going to have to start putting the new name on there."
Florida Blood Services operates a 144,000-square-foot office and laboratory building with some 300 employees at "10100 Ninth Street." It will have to change everything from stationery to business cards.
Vice President J.B. Gaskins said the organization will deal with the change cheerfully, especially because of the chance to ease into it.
"People need to have a chance to use what they have so it doesn't come to waste," he said. "But you know what, that's just a fact of life sometimes. You have to make some changes as you reprint stuff."
A community committee originally chose the street to honor King because it ran through racially diverse neighborhoods from the city's northern border to the southern tip of the Pinellas peninsula.
The street has at least 160 intersections, each of which will need new signs. That will probably cost more than $10,000.
"We're developing what expenses and schedule would be involved," said City Engineer Mike Connors. "Unless there's a directive to do it within an extremely short period of time, I would hope that we could do it over a slightly longer period of time with city crews."