The year 2018 left us with many trends. Smart feeding devices, CBD for virtually every malady known to modern man and of course, proposed City Ordinance 180828, which would rename The Paseo Boulevard to Martin Luther King on The Paseo Boulevard.
Words mean things to most of us but apparently no doesn’t mean no when it comes to listening to one’s electorate when strong opposition is voiced by the afore mentioned electorate to proposed City Ordinance 180828, renaming The Paseo to Dr. Martin Luther King on The Paseo Boulevard. Yes, we’re still talking about this believe it or not, and no, the matter apparently hasn’t been settled thanks to a last- minute move by Councilman Scott “EastSide” Taylor who, during last week’s Legislative Session, roughly 74 minutes into the game, decided rather than vote on the issue, kick the can down the road for a third time until the January 17th council session in the hopes that the opposition will maybe, just maybe, forget about the matter so it will sail through council garnering unanimous approval.
Here’s a heads up for the backers of this pandering piece of municipal legislation, as has been noted so many times before, the voters, those are the people who elected you by the way, are overwhelmingly opposed to this measure. Our own Northeast News poll last week showed a 93% opposition and a scant 7% approval for the measure.
Similar numbers were brought forward by the Mayor and Councilwomen Hall and Canaday, as you might recall, who recorded 80-85% opposition in constituent conversations they had been involved with. The mayoral candidates pushing this against the public’s will might want to remember that there’s an election in a little over 90 days. Might not be the smartest thing to foist this on an un-wanting public given the backlash potential.
The Dog might have an overly altruistic world-view but we always thought elected officials served their constituents, not the other way around. We always thought that government, be it state, federal or municipal, was from the ground up, not the other way around. Given that paradigm, that government is of the people, by the people and for the people, how in good conscience, do you continue to push this ridiculous measure in the face of 80-90% disapproval? We won’t even go into the whole Historic Designation of The Paseo that the Parks Department poured over $100,000 in to back in 2016 that would have to be overturned to appease a few black pastors on the East Side. We won’t mention there’s already an MLK Park, but that’s not important here.
What is important here is words mean things. No means no.