Some refuse to get with the times. I’ve met some researchers and historians who think precedent and the past matters more than the parlance of our times. It does. I agree. But, at some point you have to accept the reality of the here and now. Sometimes I think it is smug or simply stubborn to stick to the original names.
But accuracy boils down to the definition, borders, laws, rules and yes, names.
Take Easton Avenue and Franklin Avenue. It is Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard because the people made it so. Was it right? Who knows, I say yes. I call that stretch of road MLK.
A recent trip to the Soldiers Memorial revealed that many of the German street names were removed during WWI through WWII. Was it right? Maybe not, but I get it. I’m not gonna hit you with a Kaiser Avenue when it is Gresham now. No modern mapping software uses Kaiser, it’s Gresham, and I’m sticking to the modern name.
It’s not just streets that change names, neighborhood and park names change too. Tiffany was once called McRee City, then renamed McRee Town, later it becomes Botanical Heights. It’s all history, but times change.
To me, the current, official name is the accurate one. When I talk about the neighborhood in the 1980’s, I might say McRee Town, but when I’m discussing the place today, Botanical Heights all the way.
How about the recent name change of Dwight Davis park to Gregory Carter park? This one caught my attention and I gave it some thought last year. Sometimes the life and body of work favors one over another, but the people/elected officials favor a name change for race and personal relationship reasons. I accept it as modernization and change.
Then there are commemorative names, like the Bernard Dickman bridge, sometimes they just don’t stick. Most say Poplar Street Bridge or the PSB. I’m fine with it. I say Poplar Street Bridge. Bob Gibson, one of, if not the most dominant St. Louis Cardinal pitchers of all time recently had a stretch of Gibson Avenue in Forest Park Southeast to Bob Gibson Way. Nice effort but it’s still Gibson Ave to most.
It’s kind of annoying to use your political or idealist bent to take it one way or another. The populist name is the one that sticks, but when writing about a topic, I feel it accurate to call a place or thing the name that is the official one for the time the piece is published. I’ll stick to that.
Sometimes you can be in the minority or on the wrong side of populism by being accurate; I say I-64 not Highway 40. It’s how my phone mapping app depicts it, and I’m sticking to it. Neither is wrong, this is a true example of either/or. Another example is Gravois vs. “30”. Most say Gravois, so does my map, so do I.
Is Palestine Israel? Depends. I say Israel post 1948. I was born in 1971. It’s Israel. I’m sticking with it. Historians and citizens of the region disagree. Burma or Myanmar, I’ll stick with Myanmar and take the scorn from the U.S. and U.K. folks who insist on Burma.
When in Rome, no?
Then it comes to the name of our city. St. Louis is St. Louis, there is only one city called St. Louis in our region, it’s borders are clearly defined and well documented. Check any map, there is no disputing it.
The 88 or so cities west of St. Louis County (the suburbs), are just that: other cities or unincorporated swaths of County. They are proud, they deserve their own identity. In many cases, no one is St. Louis’ worst enemy than these 88 cities when it comes to geographic accuracy.
Ask somebody from any city west of St. Louis the five why’s on why they don’t live here (you might need to say “downtown” because they think all of St. Louis City is “downtown”). The truth will tell. And it’s not always pretty. Sometime benign, but usually quite telling.
We need to focus in on accuracy in this region. We are different, we an independent city, similar to Baltimore, MD, a truly unique situation for a major American city. It’s hard to understand and it needs to change, but for now and maybe my entire lifetime, we will be our own city entirely separate from the 85+ cities in the County that St. Louis is not part of and was unfortunately named St. Louis County. If it were Buzz Westfall County or Dooley County or Grant County or some other name, would we avoid the confusion?
I think it would help with honesty and accuracy. It would help bring ownership to our fragmentation and our strange history that makes us really different than other cities in U.S.
Suburban cities are proud enclaves set up to be completely independent from one another and of course, St. Louis. Let them have and own their identity. Small, medium and large suburbs all exist and they want to maintain their identity and “brand”. From Maplewood (population 8,115), Clayton (population 16,200) to Webster Groves (population 23,779) to Ferguson (population 18,343) to Chesterfield (47,588) are all proud cities ranging in size and they love their own brand, politics, school district, taxing structure and way of life. St. Louis? Not so much and hence the current structure of our fractured region.
In my writing and in my real life, I just keep it accurate and precise and use the right name.
It is fully inaccurate to call the above places St. Louis. They are different in every way, schools, taxes, politics, electorates, police, fire, parks and services from trash to streets. Everything is different, so in the spirit of true reporting, discussion and accuracy. St. Louis is St. Louis, Clayton is Clayton, Ferguson is Ferguson, Chesterfield is Chesterfield. Respect it. Own it.
Would we be better as a team, one taxing district, one police/fire, economic engine, school district, one trash collection service? Of course, but that’s a different topic. You will find this parochial aspect of schools and police, especially, are held near and dear as strengths of people who choose to live in the suburbs of St. Louis. They are ahead of us in nearly all categories of service and value per tax dollar vs. us who choose to live in St. Louis.
On this website I will continue to try and stick to accuracy. You will get real facts on our region. I’ll stick to the modern rules and definitions.
Back to names. Does it even matter? Mill Creek Valley for example. Should it be commemorated or wiped from history as a blemish of racial and urban clearance? I say own it, I like that it is being written about and honored with public art exhibits.
To know you past is to understand your current place in history and the future way of doing things.
Take our 79 neighborhood names, if someone wanted to consolidate the neighborhoods and make some name changes would you be upset? I discussed a consolidation from 79 to 29 neighborhoods back in 2010.
It’s fun to think about, and I dream of a day when the wards, police districts and neighborhood boundaries align. It is so inefficient from an aldermanic, ward funding and crime prevention perspective.
But does the neighborhood name even matter? I suppose I’d be a bit upset if Fox Park became part of a larger Tower Grove neighborhood designation, but in the end, I’d get over it and I think we’d be a stronger area with more cooperation and combination of skills/volunteer resources.
Does it annoy you when people use the historic name to let on that they are linked into or simply aware of the past? When someone says McRee Town because they don’t politically or idealistically agree that Botanical Heights in the official name, are you miffed? I’m not, but I immediately know that person if leveraging a preferred narrative.
I don’t call Forest Park Southeast “the Grove” when talking about the neighborhood as a whole. That is not what the city calls it, so until they change the name, I’ll call that neighborhood Forest Park Southeast.
I say stick with the accurate name in the current times. I think McRee is a better name because of the history of Mary McRee, but in the end, I’ll stick with my American mother of German/Czech ancestry who said, mox nix.
Modern names will always be used on here. And it’s not for political or idealist reasons. Simply trying to be up to date and accurate.
