32K sign petition to rename Columbus ‘Flavortown’
On Thursday, the mayor of Columbus, Ohio, announced a Christopher Columbus statue on City Hall property would be removed because of its offensive history, but more than 32,000 people are hoping the city will take it a step further by renaming itself Flavortown, after celebrity chef Guy Fieri, who was born there before being raised in Ferndale.
As of Monday afternoon, a petition to change the name of Columbus, Ohio, to Flavortown gathered over 32,000 signatures. Tyler Woodbridge, who started the petition, said he thought it would be great for tourism if the city did change it’s name.
“If it changes, think of all the people who’ll be making pilgrimages to Flavortown,” Woodbridge said. “Columbus is already a great market for restaurants. It would be a tourism boon. For my favorite city I wouldn’t want anything more than that.”
Initially, Woodbridge said he was leaning in favor of renaming the city Tecumseh after a Shawnee chieftain from the area, but the support for Flavortown on the Ohio forums was overwhelming, he said.
On top of being a tribute to Fieri’s catchphrase, Woodbridge said the concept behind Flavortown represents a “truly 21st century progressive ideal.”
“It represents a melting pot and isn’t named after a person with a checkered and controversial past,” Woodbridge said.
The city decided to remove the statue of Columbus for similar reasons, according to a press release from Columbus.
“For many people in our community, the statue represents patriarchy, oppression and divisiveness. That does not represent our great city, and we will no longer live in the shadow of our ugly past,” Mayor Andrew Ginther said in a statement. “Now is the right time to replace this statue with artwork that demonstrates our enduring fight to end racism and celebrate the themes of diversity and inclusion.”
Ginther added that replacing
the statue would allow the city to focus on “critical police reforms” and increasing equity in other areas of life, such as health outcomes and employment. At the moment, however, Woodbridge said he didn’t see that happening.
“I want to take a moment and stress that Columbus as a city and a government is not acting in a way that would be an embodiment of Flavortown,” Woodbridge said.
At protests over the weekend, Columbus police pepper-sprayed peaceful protesters and allegedly took away a double amputee’s prosthetic legs, according to national news outlets.
Woodbridge said the government should be held accountable and Black and Indigenous people should be listened to in order to create a more welcoming environment for everyone.
“Flavortown to me embodies the concepts of nonviolence, community cooperation and mutual assistance,” he said, “and that kind of government strong-arming is not the kind of thing I’d like to see.”