Council pumps the brakes on street renaming
Mount Evans Drive in Longmont won’t be renamed anytime soon, if at all.
During Tuesday’s City Council study session, Councilman Tim Waters asked the council to reconsider its previous decision to discuss forming a Community Name Change Committee, arguing that city staff already had enough on its plate.
Waters wasn’t necessarily opposed to the idea of such a committee but clearly thought the city had more urgent matters.
“I’ve never had a constituent in Ward 1 express a concern about the name of their street,” Waters, who has served on the council for five years, said Tuesday.
Ward 1 includes Mount Evans Drive.
Mount Evans is named after John Evans, who served as governor of Colorado territory from 1862 until his resignation in 1865, following the Sand Creek Massacre.
More than 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho people — many of whom were women, children and elders — were killed in the brutal attack that occurred on Nov. 29, 1864. Evans, who is widely condemned, received blame for the massacre, which is the deadliest day in Colorado history, according to historycolorado.org.
On Jan. 24, the Longmont City Council voted unanimously to discuss possibly forming a Community Name Change Committee to review troublesome street names.
Councilman Sean Mccoy, who made the original motion to discuss a naming committee, said community leaders should not wait until their constituents are “outraged” to react to cultural insensitivity.
“It shows a sense of tone deafness … if we don’t consider that,” Mccoy said during Tuesday’s study session. “I know it’s easy for
folks … to give flippant answers that we should be doing this, that and the other thing … instead of name changing.”
Councilwoman Marcia Martin said that the possibility of creating a name change committee had “not been well received,” particularly on social media.
“It gets mentioned every time somebody complains about red light runners or parking violations or almost anything,” Martin said Tuesday.
“It’s like, the City Council has time to change the names of the streets, but it doesn’t have time to fix whatever it is they’re complaining about.”
Ultimately, the council voted unanimously to table its discussion concerning a Community Name Changing Committee until it identifies its priorities at its upcoming retreat.
During its meeting on Nov. 17, the Colorado Geographic Naming Advisory Board unanimously recommended changing the name of Mount Evans — a more than 14,000-foot peak in Clear Creek County — to Mount Blue Sky.