This time - a group nomination. It goes to the Council of the City of Charlottetown P.E.I.
In a 9 - 1 decision last week that Council changed the name of a street that honoured the Island's only Olympic gold medalist.
Dave 'Eli' MacEachern Court named after the 1998 Olympic gold medal brakeman will now be called Eli Court.
Council was pressured last March to make a change but hung tough.
However, it appears that a petition signed by every resident on the street won the day. Council caved. Apparently the half dozen families who live on the street were concerned that the name was too long for children to remember.
CBC reports quote MacEachern as "not upset." However, the Sun Media claim that the bobsledder finds it "a bit of an insult."
Is there a lesson here? City of Burlington Ontario Councillors used to make decisions on what to call streets too. One night, running out of ideas, they decided to name a street after an apparently (and appropriately) bored reporter who was covering the proceedings.
Burlington Council now leaves street naming to staff.
Maybe Charlottetown should too.
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1 comment:
Hey Bob, I have always wondered why politicians go with excessively long names that will never be used in naming bridges, etc. Then they are too timid to do the logical thing and drop a previous name and so try to please everyone. Is there anything more dumb than the Burlington Bay James N. Allan Skyway Bridge? Make up your minds! Similarly, the Dave Andreychuk Mountain Arena. Make it Andreychuk Arena, drop the Dave, drop the Mountain. And why the middle initials - are we going to mistake the Lincoln M. Alexander Parkway as being named after some other Lincoln Alexander?
Keep up the good work.
Don W.
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