So, the city is thinking of changing the name of Yellowknife’s main drag which would cost a lot of money and be inconvenient to many.
Personally, I don’t like naming things after people because it always leads to even more controversy and I like more colourful names. How about Siren Alley, or, to be more formal, “The Blaren Siren Speedway,” or “BS Speedway” for short. Or maybe Raven Road or Ptarmigan Pathway.
Out in the bush, one fellow got his hometown newspaper sent to him. As he read it, he started laughing because one of the town councillors had died of a heart attack at a meeting and the council immediately changed the name of main street to honour him. He found it funny because the councillor, who also ran the cab company in town, had served as mayor a couple terms, but was known as a bit of a shyster and allegedly the town’s biggest bootlegger and drug dealer. Apparently not everyone in town knew this.
The streets in Yellowknife’s downtown are numbered, but when some new subdivisions were going in, the city started naming them after prominent people in town. You or someone you knew could submit your name and then a committee looked at the entries and decided who got what street named after them even though the people had never lived on that street. Some people were happy to have a street named after them and those who didn’t get chosen felt snubbed. Also, they got far more names than streets to be named. It did cause some hard feelings in town, which is one of the problems of naming streets after people.
I remember being in the Miner’s Mess one day when the pros and cons of this were being discussed. One old timer said, “Well, I sure as heck don’t want no street named after me. I don’t want civil servants driving over me all hours of the day and night.” Everyone laughed and another fellow said, “Don’t worry, a few years after you pass on, no one will remember who you were.”
It’s a little sad but true — the name just becomes another name.
Politicians like to score popularity points by naming things after what they consider important people. I remember the uproar when someone wanted to name the big waterfall in the Nahanni after Pierre Elliott Trudeau. The uproar was significant, so they vetoed that idea.
As for Franklin, in my mind, I just pretend it is named after Benjamin Franklin, not Sir John. I read several books on Sir John and decided that if he was my party chief or boss, I probably would have deserted. Old Ben, on the other hand, was a writer, a humorist, a statesman and inventor. He wrote “Poor Richard’s Almanac” and an essay called “Fart Proudly.” So, while walking or driving down Franklin Avenue, I just smile and think of Ben.
Something else most people don’t think about. Let’s say a road was named after you or your family and then a bunch of crackheads, and drug dealers moved in. The crime rate skyrockets and every few days or few weeks there are news stories about the street and its latest murders, stabbings, shootings, robberies, stolen cars, etc. The spillover effect on your name could be considerable. The name, your name, becomes synonymous with crime and dastardly deeds. So much so that you start to think about changing your name to avoid it — an unintended consequence of naming things after people.
So having something named after you could be an honour or it could be a curse, but after a few years it will become just another name. Some people might like it and others not like it. So, I’m not at all sure naming things after people is really such a good idea, especially when it is done in haste without consulting everyone. And that could create even more controversies.