Confederate Ave. residents meet to discuss street name change (Atlanta: how much, neighborhood)

[Airforceguy]

While much of the chatter about changing the street names has played out online, Grant Park resident Andrea Knight, decided to move the conversations from online to real life.

“After watching what happened in Charlottesville, I had a very immediate ‘let’s get the name off the street reaction,'” Knight said. “I think if people actually talk to one another they can come to common ground. When people talk online they calcify in their position,” she said.

Knight first reached out to council member Carla Smith and Joe Thomas, the neighborhood resident who launched a name change petition on Change.org. Both will be in attendance at the Aug. 25 meeting at Hodgepodge Coffeehouse, she said.

Conversations in the community about changing the street names were energized after the events in Charlottesville. Thomas launched a change.org petition that would be presented to Mayor Kasim Reed.

The name change of Confederate and East Confederate Avenues, two streets that run through the communities of Grant Park and Ormewood Park, is part of a larger effort to “remove symbols of hate from our city,” wrote Thomas.

“In response to the increasingly vocal population of white supremacists in this country, Atlanta must stand up and declare that neo-Confederates, Nazis, white nationalists, and their allies are not welcome here, and neither are their symbols,” he said.

By Aug. 16, the petition had surpassed 7,500 signatures. Mayor Reed said he would make a decision soon on whether to rename streets like Confederate Avenue. Links to the petition were shared on social media prompting exchanges between neighbors who didn’t always share the same point of view.

There were questions of history — would changing the street names be detrimental to history and what exactly is the history of Confederate Ave. anyway? There were also questions of economics — how much of an expense or hassle would residents who live on the streets have to incur if the street names were changed?

Residents of Atlanta’s Confederate Ave. hold meeting on street name | Talk of the Town

[Pemgin]

It's time.

[glovenyc]

I guess we need something around to commemorate the losing team.

[Iconographer]

I guess we need to start brainstorming new names for the nation's capital, the Evergreen State and the Mississippi, Texas and Missouri state capitals while we're at it.

[cqholt]

Don't forget the City of Dunwoody too!

[Gulch]

If the residents are cool with it, I don't see a problem.

[ATLTJL]

They should.

Anytime I see an address on Confederate Ave. I think it sounds so hillbilly.

I also can't believe the main thoroughfare in Miam, US-1 is called Dixie Highway. I'd change that, too.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Don't forget the City of Dunwoody too!

And Memorial Drive. And Gwinnett County. And Henry County. And Covington. And Spalding Drive. And Roswell. And Roswell Road(both of them!). And any street with 'Pace' in it. And Clayton County. And Grant Park.
I'm exhausted.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by Gulch

If the residents are cool with it, I don't see a problem.

At the end of the day, I agree. Pick your battles.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

They should.

Anytime I see an address on Confederate Ave. I think it sounds so hillbilly.

I also can't believe the main thoroughfare in Miam, US-1 is called Dixie Highway. I'd change that, too.

Don't forget Jonesboro's main drag, Tara Boulevard. Really, dudes?