February 3- 9, 2005

city beat

Forward Drive

After being noncommittal, Mayor Street backs effort to rename road after MLK.

by Doron Taussig

Several days before Martin Luther King Day, City Paper asked Mayor Street's press office whether he would support the efforts of a North Philadelphia community-newspaper publisher who wants the city to rename West River Drive in honor of the late civil-rights trailblazer [News, "Fit for a King?" Doron Taussig, Jan. 13, 2005]. A spokeswoman responded that the mayor had no comment.

Last week, however, Street publicly endorsed the campaign. Led by Sonny Driver of Scoop USA, it had been stuck in the ruts of bureaucratic back-and-forth. The reason for the quick change? The same spokeswoman explained Street was saving his endorsement for his Jan. 25 budget address.

"It surprised me, to a degree," said Driver, who didn't see the endorsement coming. "It definitely helps. He opened up a lot of eyes and ears."

Philadelphia is one of the only major cities in America that doesn't have a street, drive, avenue or boulevard named after King. That fact wasn't lost on Driver. Even though he collected 5,000 signatures in support of the effort, he couldn't seem to get anyone in a position of power to pay attention. Today, Street credits Driver for bringing the issue to his attention.

Still, the mayor's endorsement doesn't seal the deal. The decision is in the hands of the Fairmount Park Commission, which has jurisdiction over the naming of the park's roads. The commission will discuss the proposal at its Feb. 16 meeting.

"The mayor has asked the park's commission to consider it," said Barry Bessler, the commission's chief of staff, "so the commission will have a discussion in an open forum about the positives, negatives, merits to doing this."

According to Robert Nix, the commission president, in order to change the name of a street there has to be a "public will" for the change.

"I know it's difficult," Nix said, "but it would be much more difficult if we were trying to name it Bobby Nix Drive."

The recent news was not enough for Driver to be content. While the activist is glad to have the mayor on his side, he says that since he's been pushing this campaign for five years now, he won't count his chickens before they hatch.

"Maybe this'll be it," he said. "But, you never know."