I arrived in Kansas City on a rainy September night in 1969. I had driven all day, mostly in the rain, from my hometown of Louisville, KY, and didn’t have an apartment or a place to stay. All I had was a suitcase and a job with The Star, which I was to start in a few days.
I found a Travelodge downtown and asked if a room was available. Sorry, the desk clerk told me, no vacancies. When I asked for suggestions on where I might get a room, he said, “You might try the Admiral Motel over on The Paseo.”
“On what?” I said.
“The Paseo,” the clerk repeated. “It’s a boulevard divided by a median.”
I had never heard of a street with the word “the” preceding its name, and I had never heard a name like “Paseo.”
(I learned within the last few days it is named for an iconic Mexico City thoroughfare called Paseo de la Reforma.)
The clerk gave me directions, and I drove over to Admiral Boulevard and The Paseo and spent my first night in KC at the Admiral Motel, which last year was renovated and converted to a Rodeway Inn.
Since that first night, I have always loved The Paseo, not only for its distinctive and elegant name but also for its wide and grassy median, its smooth-flowing traffic patterns and the variety of neighborhoods it cuts through.
And so it is with a sense of propriety that I oppose the effort by black political leaders and a group of black ministers to change the name of The Paseo to Martin Luther King Boulevard.
Near Research Medical Center
This has quickly become a contentious issue. The Star’s Bill Turque, who covers City Hall, had a front-page story on it over the weekend, and today three black community leaders spoke about it on Steve Kraske’s “Up to Date” show on KCUR-FM.
On Friday, advocates of the name change will stage a march and a rally to promote the cause. The march is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. at 34th and The Paseo. It will proceed north to 27th Street and end at Prospect Avenue, where U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver will be the lead speaker.
Before going any further, I want to say I am totally in favor of renaming a boulevard or parkway after King…just not The Paseo. My preference — which I suggested in an email to Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department Director Mark McHenry yesterday — is Linwood Boulevard.
Unlike The Paseo, Linwood is not a distinctive name with intrinsic appeal. It is, however, a major east-west boulevard, stretching from Van Brunt Boulevard on the east to Broadway on the west. In addition, because of its east-west layout, Linwood (or Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard) would be seen and traveled by a wider cross-section of Kansas City residents. In straight language, as I told McHenry, “it would get greater exposure to white and Hispanic people than The Paseo would.”
The Paseo, as you know, runs north and south on Kansas City’s East Side, where a majority of Kansas City’s African-American population lives.
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The main reason this issue has mushroomed into a controversy is that the Kansas City Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners, which oversees the Parks Department (which has jurisdiction over the city’s renowned parkway and boulevard system) has mishandled the matter.
In a March 23 letter to two black leaders, Park Board President Jean-Paul Chaurand wrote that long-standing naming policy is to honor only those “who have made significant and outstanding contributions of land, funds, goods or services” to the city or park system.
Chaurand went on to say the park board “believes wholeheartedly the work and legacy of Dr. King merit recognition and gratitude,” and he suggested the establishment of a “citizen-based commission to develop, examine and recommend how best the city can pay tribute to Dr. King and his legacy.”
All I can say about that is…worse than lame.
Chaurand should never have said the policy is to honor people who have made significant contributions to the city or park system. That is incredibly short-sighted.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy supersedes any parochial barometer such as whether he personally made a significant contribution to the city or the park system. Hell, he changed the course of the nation and deserves to have a thoroughfare or major building named after him in every major U.S. city!
Compounding the problem is that Chaurand has now apparently decided to duck the issue publicly. Turque was not able to reach him for his story, and he didn’t respond to Kraske’s attempts to get him to appear on, or at least speak by phone on, “Up to Date.”
On the plus side, McHenry, the Parks Department director, opened the door for a compromise in his email to me and also in a conversation we had this afternoon.
For this post, I’ll stick to what he said in the email, which was…
“We agree a major thoroughfare does warrant bearing the name of Dr. King. This has been said to the individuals making this proposal on more than one occasion.”
Regarding my suggestion that Linwood would be a good alternative, McHenry wrote…
“Linwood Boulevard has been suggested for the exact reasons you have mentioned, along with a couple other east/west streets.”
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The process of honoring Martin Luther King Jr. by naming a boulevard or parkway after him would have been smoother and more amicable if not for Chaurand’s ill-advised March 23 letter. What he did was hand black ministers and black political leaders a megaphone they are now using to bellow that the Park Board is insensitive to and unappreciative of King’s legacy.
The letter gave Paseo-name-change advocates a reason to rail and chant, march and rally, and stir the cauldron of emotions.
That is regrettable, and I hope it doesn’t result in a name change for a very special boulevard, one I have had a strong sentimental attachment with the last 49 years.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
The Paseo is in a predominantly black neighborhood. If that’s the street they wish to name after King, why not? Why should they pander to white people? We don’t seek them out when we build brand new predominantly white subdivisions and get their input on what the streets should be called.
I like the idea of naming a major street that crosses the city east to west, transecting the imaginary-but-real racial barrier in our town. I don’t expect much support for this due to historical connections, but I’d also be OK with renaming Troost as an alternative. I do completely support honoring the memory of Dr. King, however it gets done.
As a certified oldie, I’m OK with naming The Paseo as MLK Boulevard, but I can pretty much guarantee it will always be The Paseo in my head. I suspect that will be the case for a whole lot of old people. We’re just stuck in time.
Ironic that the lead speaker will be the man who gave KC the awkwardly named Cleaver II Blvd. Just goes to show anything is possible. Again, being elderly, I still think of it as 47th Street. Hard to believe we have not gotten an MLK street or boulevard but did decide to name a street for a guy who (as far as I can tell) participated in the stiffing and subsequent bankruptcy of the company that built much of the Jazz District. (I sure will stand for correction if my facts aren’t straight; in fact, I’d love to as I’d hope to be wrong.)
Troost was mentioned as a possibility by a caller to Kraske’s show, but The Paseo advocates said it (like 63rd Street, which was also mentioned) was a commercial corridor and had “a different ambiance” than a parkway or boulevard.
…I’m trying to come up with the name of the street you’re referring to, related to 18th and Vine, but am drawing a blank.
Out with it, man!
How about Main? It’s a great street, loaded with diversity, and burdened with the dullest possible name.
That’s a great suggestion, Mark…I don’t think the black community leaders would go for it though, if they object to any street that is a “commercial corridor.” That’s the objection they had to both 63rd Street and Troost Avenue. They seem to be dug in on The Paseo; I think they should open their minds and consider other possibilities, like Main or Linwood. Everybody (everybody south of the river, that is,) drives Main Street.
The Star, I see, is in favor of The Paseo, and the editorial writer said he or she believed that if it went to a public vote, voters would approve by a large margin. Maybe so; I don’t have much feel for voter sentiment at this point.
First, what I don’t like about renaming the Paseo: to some it seems as Martin Luther King Jr belongs only to Black people. Do black leaders think this? Keeping King to The Paseo, as John Altevogt suggests, seems to undermine the universality of King’s message.
King belongs to all of us, as your proposal would recognize.
Still, I would favor renaming our half of State Line Road the “Martin Luther King Jr Road” — and challenge the Kansas jurisdictions to match us. If this is a State matter, then advance State legislation. A state border recognition could be regarded as a larger measure of inclusion.
We perpetuate racism unconsciously by failing to listen to King’s actual voice embracing all people, working on the behalf of all, the oppressor as well as the oppressed, for none can be free until all are free.
“King belongs to all of us” — Couldn’t agree more, Vern. Thanks.
…It’s unfortunate black leaders appear to be totally dug in on this; they’re not interested in any street, boulevard or parkway other than The Paseo, which is ridiculous. If their initiative petition gets on the ballot, I hope a majority of voters are smart enough to think it through and realize the correctness of what you say.
I think The Star is being knee-jerk about this, coming out quickly in favor. Another factor could be that Colleen McCain-Nelson, editorial page editor, has only been here a little more than a year and perhaps doesn’t fully appreciate The Paseo’s singularity.
There’s another way to look at this, too: I don’t want to see the black leaders highjack The Paseo from non-East-Side residents.
Good points, Jim. I do wonder if there are black people other than those on Kraske’s show who might want to weigh in here. I’d sure like to hear from them, if they are listening. Speak now, please, we need to hear from you.
You missed my point. King’s message and the parochial, or universal nature of it had nothing to do with it. What I was addressing was that white people are trying to tell black people what to name the streets in their neighborhood and yet if a group of black leaders showed up at a new subdivision in the Northland with a list of street names I don’t think they’d get a very friendly reception. Their neighborhood, their street, their name, butt out.
When our son was working on his master’s degree in urban planning at KU he took us on a tour of KC. This included a fascinating explanation of the KC Plaza, KC’s unique boulevard system that not many people have a clue about, Loose Park and the mighty Paseo.
The Paseo is so much more than a street named after a thoroughfare in Mexico. It SHOULD be one of the jewels of Kansas City, but it is not. We were glad to be there in the daytime but I admit a little nervous. The next morning a woman’s body was found in the middle of the pavement at 10:00 a.m. In the last week I remember a headline of yet another body found on the Paseo. Surely Dr. King and his legacy deserve more than to be named after a roadway with a reputation for body dumping. And hopefully Kansas City can find a way to educate its citizens about the history and reclaim what was beautiful.
Then again, we wonder if a city with racism as a central part of its architectural core will ever overcome its past. In that regard renaming the Paseo as suggested puts lipstick on a pig.
Interesting perspective, Lisolette, but if we were going to eliminate all major thoroughfares where a murder hasn’t occurred, we’d have an extremely short list.
I wonder if Liselotte could explain the phrase “a city with racism as a central part of its architectural core”?
I am referring to JC Nichols and the other early supporters for laws that segregated the city, resulting in the so-called Troost Wall that exists even today. Perhaps “architectural core” would more appropriately be referred to as the early real estate development core, but it doesn’t have quite the same ring in a sentence. Didn’t Steve Kraske write several great articles about this?
At any rate, in my opinion Kansas City sowed the wind with targeted developmental segregation and oppression back in the day. And today the entire city continues to reap the whirlwind with no end in sight, no matter how many mayors, police chiefs and leaders wring their hands and talk about change. Renaming the Paseo achieves nothing towards that end.
Good question, Gayle, and good response, Lisolette…It is true that J.C. Nichols and his development company were incredibly short-sighted. The street by street “restrictions” the company included in its residential developments in the 1940s and 1950s included language prohibiting black people from purchasing homes within the company’s homes associations. Those didn’t come out until 20 to 25 years ago, when The Star did a big expose on it, prompting the General Assembly to approve a bill ordering the language to be eliminated.
I’ve been president of my Nichols-developed neighborhood the last three years, and to my horror, I discovered on our website last year that the objectionable language had not been removed from restrictions for two streets in our neighborhood. I had the website manager immediately take those pages down.
P.S. Lisolette, when you write the words The Paseo, be sure to capitalize the “T.” That’s part of its charm and singularity.
…If this issue should go to a vote, I’m thinking about forming a campaign committee that would be named “Long Live The Paseo” and actively campaign against it.
We didn’t get the “no Negroes” provision removed from our HOA plat restrictions until 2005; it was a deliberately onerous process.
What are the feelings of KC’s large Latino community about a name change? Also KC’s historic connection to Mexican American settlements in the SW US via the Santa Fe trail ?
My objection to renaming the Paseo (note style) is its historical importance to Kansas City, the parks and boulevard system and the City Beautiful movement. I think Linwood is an excellent alternative, also graceful and mainly residential.
I may be contacting you for more about that, Matt, especially if I have to launch my “Long Live the Paseo” campaign.
…Am I wrong about capitalizing the “t”???