TRADITION WINS OUT IN KANSAS CITY, MO

by Bob Walsh

For several years a vocal minority in Kansas City has attempted to get a 10 mile long street called The Paseo renamed to Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. In January the city council decided to rename the street on the city's east side, which is a largely Black area.

However, a lot of residents didn't like it. They kept using The Paseo as the street name, and launched a campaign to get the street name changed back. They needed 1,700 signatures to get the issue on the ballot. They got well over 2,800 signatures.

Many of the supporters of the original name were pissed that the city council did not follow their own rules in making the change and did not accept any input from locals in the matter. They just did it. The Paseo is a historic name, over 100 years old, and a portion of the street is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The supporters of the original name were often referred to as RACISTS by the supporters of the name change. Gee, what a surprise.

The Save The Paseo group won, getting 70% of the vote in the election two days ago.