Lafayette resolves King issue
Willow renamed for MLK
KEVIN BLANCHARD
Advocate Acadiana bureau
Published: Dec 20, 2006
Signs will be placed at major intersections on Willow Street within the
next six months designating the road Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Memorial Parkway. The plan was approved Tuesday night by the
City-Parish Council.
The council has been stalemated for the past year over the issue of
renaming a major road in Lafayette for the slain civil rights leader.
The stalemate has sparked picketing of council meetings and sparked a
protest by Councilman Chris Williams that led him to court on charges
of criminal damage to property.
Officials welcomed the resolution. “This chapter in
Lafayette’s history is over,” City-Parish President Joey
Durel said to applause from a standing room only crowd that came to
support the designation.
The measure was defeated four times in votes along racial lines. It
passed Tuesday because of one difference — no one’s
addresses will change.
The important thing, councilmen and Durel said Tuesday, is that King
will be honored, and that no one — not businesses or residents of
Willow Street, nor those who live on the already-existing Martin Luther
King Drive — will be inconvenienced.
The designation approved Tuesday is similar to Interstate 110 in Baton Rouge, which is also designated a memorial to King.
“I was told something a long time ago, … that politics was
the art of compromise and I think that’s what we’ve seen
tonight, although its several months late,” Durel said after the
council approved the measure.
Councilman Chris Williams, who along with Councilman Louis Benjamin has
led the year-long fight for change, said the community should welcome
resolution of the issue and that finally Lafayette will be honoring
“one of the greatest Americans to ever live.”
Benjamin said he thinks the pressure finally won over those on
the council who “thought this was going to go away.”
Benjamin thanked Durel for showing leadership, by meeting with a group
of religious and community leaders and coming up with the compromise.
“This wasn’t a Williams-and-Benjamin thing, this was a
community thing,” Benjamin said.
Months ago, Durel proposed designating Interstate 10 in Lafayette
Parish as a King memorial. Durel, like many councilmen, has always said
he could support changing the name of Willow Street or any street only
if more than 50 percent of property owners approved.
Recently, Durel said, he got word that the I-10 compromise might have support.
Durel said he met with a community group at the Northside restaurant
owned by Williams’ family and pitched the idea. Someone suggested
Willow Street instead. A second meeting sealed the deal, Durel said.
Councilman Bobby Badeaux was absent from Tuesday’s meeting. Only
Councilman Lenwood Broussard voted against the proposal, saying he
would have supported a change of Simcoe Street — which he’d
proposed months ago — but not Willow Street.
Durel said Tuesday that maybe all the “hurt and anxiety” of
the last year was needed to finally reach a compromise. “I
apologize for maybe not talking to the right people earlier,”
Durel said. Durel said it was time for Lafayette to move on to
“much, much more-significant things,” like education,
children, economic development and jobs.
He said a call center plans to hire 1,000 people in its new business at
the Northgate Mall and that a large shopping center is under
construction at Louisiana Avenue and I-10. “We have focused and
will stay focused on the things that will change people’s
lives,” Durel said.
Benjamin said there are still issues that are important and need to be
resolved and that he hoped the stalemate would not be repeated.
“People need to learn something from this,” Benjamin said.
“Where there’s no justice, there’s no peace. We have
to be respectful to each other.”
Bishop Jarvis Harmon said the vote showed some progress. “This is
hopefully a positive start for the city and Lafayette parish,”
Harmon said.
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