Where the streets have no name
Folks in Doncaster are getting the chance to choose the name of a new street via a consultation effort run by Doncaster MBC. It seems they've already narrowed it down to short list - all some of Doncaster's best loved sons and daughters.
Deputy mayor Councillor Margaret Ward said: "The new complex is for everyone in Doncaster so we have involved the local community in the major decisions. We want this road to be named after an individual who has had a significant impact on Doncaster, and who better to comment on this than the people who live here?"
Doncaster is a step ahead of some. Long before I was born, my grandfather was an elected member of the local government in the small, rural Tennessee town where I went to high school. A number of streets in the town had no names and the postal service got a little uptight about that. It fell to my grandfather and one his city official friends to name those streets.
Did he engage in public consultation? Not so much. Apparently, he and his mate just drove around town randomly assigning names. Their designations so lacked imagination that I can only remember one of them. And that because of a story told to me by the (then) young son of his city official friend many years afterwards. This young son accompanied them on a naming expedition one day.
"What do you think of that street?" my grandfather asked him.
"It's short," said the youngster.
"Short Street it is then."
And it is...to this very day.
Back to main page
No comments:
Post a Comment