What's in a (street) name?

Depending on who you believe in my hometown, this street sign represents either one of the nicest examples of renewal in downtown Tulsa or a avenue of evil equivalent to the desolate railroad leading into the death camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau.  In Tulsa the furor over the person that the street is named after has reached critical mass with the Tulsa city council voting on whether or not to change the name because the namesake of the street was reportedly a member of the Ku Klux Klan..

W. Tate Brady

Brady Street in Tulsa is named after Wyatt Tate Brady, one of Tulsa's founders.  He has an impressive list of positive accomplishments to his credit, including being one of those who incorporated Tulsa as a city, was an owner of one of the city's first hotels, built a garage that is now known as Cains Ballroom, and he was one of Tulsa's earliest and most successful businessmen.  Unfortunately he had a dark side.

Allegedly.

Here I must pause because most of what is considered Brady's dark side is not independently verifiable.  His past includes alleged Klan membership, participation in the Tulsa Race Riot, and several racist actions. If this were a definite thing...as in independently verified by something other than anyone who lives in Tulsa or even Oklahoma it wouldn't be a big deal, but it's not.  It had enough momentum to get to the Tulsa City Council, however and after three meetings the decision to change the name was made from Brady Street to...

Brady Street.

No, that wasn't a typo.  They decided to change the street from a namesake of Wyatt Tate Brady to that of Matthew Brady.  Oh, you don't know who Matthew Brady is?  Well, he's this guy...

Matthew B. Brady

Matthew Brady was a photographer during the Civil War.  One of the more prominent photographers of the conflict.  He has no connection to the Tulsa area whatsoever.  The idea to transfer the namesake of Brady Street from Tate to Matthew is rationalized that since the Brady District's full name is the Brady Arts District, it is now named for an artist instead of an alleged Klansman.  No drastic change to street signage and the merchants will not have to rework advertising and they can continue to say that they are proud inhabitants on Tulsa's Brady Arts District just as before.  

Everybody wins, right?  Well, not really.

Well, here's the problem...it wasn't really a decision.  When you take something to a city's governing body you expect a firm decision that is a lasting one.  It doesn't matter whether or not it's the name of a street or how much you pay when you get a permit, it has to be something that carries weight.  This does not.  It was a compromise.  Indeed, compromise is part of politics but in something as charged as this needs to be handled with more authority that the Council did last night.

As a result, Brady remains the name of the street no matter what  extra characters are put on it...it will be "M.B. Brady Street once the signage is posted...or a secondary sign added to the signposts, (in this case "Reconciliation Way"), and while the Council doubtlessly thinks this is a brilliant meeting in the middle it shows how weak and indecisive the Tulsa City Council truly is.  

I'm hoping that the voters do not engage their apathetic nature and vote every single one of them out because this "decision" does not inspire any confidence in this independent voter.  This same council wants Tulsa voters to approve a multi-million dollar extension of the Vision project in November as well, and my vote has changed on that from a game night decision to a very firm no because I no longer have any confidence in the council to use the funds correctly because they can't make a decision.  

RICH LOHMAN