{"id":9983,"date":"2018-06-27T06:22:55","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T12:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=9983"},"modified":"2018-06-27T06:22:55","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T12:22:55","slug":"at-the-corner-of-wells-and-wells-huh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2018\/06\/at-the-corner-of-wells-and-wells-huh.html","title":{"rendered":"“At the corner of Wells and Wells” – huh?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s comical \u2014 to an extent.<\/p>\n

Here in Chicago, aldermen may not exercise much power \u2014 after all, when Daley sold the Skyway and the parking meter revenue (OK, \u201cleased\u201d them \u2014 for 100 years, to fill in a short-term budget hold), the aldermen just rubber-stamped the deals.<\/p>\n

But in some respects, they have vast power.\u00a0 And when Alderman Sophia King got the idea that Ida B. Wells should have a street named after her, well, it had to happen.<\/p>\n

Now, Wells was a great anti-lynching and equal rights campaigner of the early 20th century and is certainly worthy of the honor, if, say, Chicago happened to be casting about for someone to honor in naming a street to be carved out in a new development, or a city building.\u00a0 But King decided that it was time to remove the name Balbo from Balbo Drive, due to Italo Balbo\u2019s association with Mussolini, and, when the Italian-heritage community objected that his association with fascism was mistaken, the need to respect the alderman\u2019s street naming power meant huddled negotiations, resulting in the decision to rename Congress, which was palatable to all concerned (or at least to the power-brokers who mattered)because, with only 5 businesses with mailing addresses on that street, it would not be especially disruptive.<\/p>\n

(This is all reported in the Sun Times<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

But readers in the area will know that there already exists a Wells Street, a north-south street in the loop which intersects with Congress.\u00a0 And Congress may only have 5 business addresses but it\u2019s a significant street for orienting oneself in the South Loop area.\u00a0 Which means that not only will visitors and residents alike have to deal with the confusion, but we\u2019ll also look like fools to the rest of the country.<\/p>\n

Asked what might be done to avoid confusion at the intersection of Wells Street and Ida B. Wells Drive, [Transportation Committee Chairman Anthony Beale] said, \u201cI\u2019m gonna let the experts figure it out,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was my job to negotiate a peace treaty. I think I did that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, look, this is a small thing, but it\u2019s emblematic of so much that\u2019s wrong with Chicago, and Illinois in general.\u00a0 The idea that, in certain issues, aldermen get to do what they want.\u00a0 They idea that we have to discard the old in favor of the new, that honorees should be those relevant to the current generation of Chicagoans at any given time.\u00a0 The importance placed on these sorts of symbolic honors \u2014 the city is rife with \u201chonorary\u201d street signs but at least these aren\u2019t the \u201creal\u201d names of the streets.\u00a0 (And what is it with deciding that we now need to use a person\u2019s full name on a street sign?)\u00a0 Heck, we\u2019re a state whose legislators just \u201cratified\u201d the Equal Rights Amendment as a symbolic gesture.\u00a0 And to honor Obama, the state is going to shell out $200 million on infrastructure projects as requested by his museum\u2019s architects.<\/p>\n

And the expectation that one can cause headaches for the purpose of a symbolic gesture, and then \u201clet the experts figure it out\u201d when it comes to the consequences \u2014 oh, that\u2019s Chicago, too.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image: \u00a0https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Wells_and_Adams_Street,_Chicago_Loop,_Chicago,_Illinois_(9181614950).jpg; By Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s comical \u2014 to an extent. Here in Chicago, aldermen may not exercise much power \u2014 after all, when Daley sold the Skyway and the parking meter revenue (OK, \u201cleased\u201d them \u2014 for 100 years, to fill in a short-term budget hold), the aldermen just rubber-stamped the deals. But in some respects, they have vast […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[33,89],"class_list":["post-9983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chicago","tag-the-chicago-way"],"yoast_head":"\n"At the corner of Wells and Wells" - huh?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It's comical -- to an extent. 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