Photo courtesy Prince of Petworth
On Tuesday, the Post’s D.C. Wire blog reported that Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham’s proposal to name the recently renovated park at 14th and Girard Streets NW “Barack Hussein Obama Park,” wasn’t allowed under D.C. law, which prohibits the city from naming things after people who are still alive. Not so, according to Graham. He wrote in an email to constituents today:
While the Washington Post accurately quoted law, it did not accurately state the legal situation. For years, the Council has been naming “public spaces” after living persons. The Council in the last year “renamed” roadways to honor Kathy Hughes and Chuck Brown. One of my first acts as a Councilmember in 1999 was to successfully sponsor a bill naming the alley next to Ben’s Chili Bowl “Ben Ali Way” to honor the restaurant’s founders. All these folks are happily still with us! There are other examples.
This is possible due to an interpretation by our legal counsel that each time the Council acts in this fashion it is implicitly creating an exception to the law that the Council, itself, passed.
Having sponsored these prior measures, I was and am aware of the legal approach.
It’s fascinating to learn that such a legal interpretation exists which allows the Council to contradict any law it itself passes whenever it wants! The implications would presumably far-reaching, wouldn’t they? Perhaps a new slogan is in order: D.C. government: We do whatever the heck we feel like™.
UPDATE: Also read this great stuff from Gary Imhoff in themail:
The bill doesn’t really rename the park; instead, it “symbolically designates” it as Obama Park. It’s not a new name; it’s a nickname, a play name, a pretend name. Obama will be honored, I’m sure. But that’s not the punch line. I wrote about the park that it was difficult to see where the $1.6 million was spent, and that “we’ll never find out how the city managed to spend so much money to so little effect.” On Monday morning, the future Obama Park failed city inspections. It was closed to redo a substantial amount of the work that has been done; it’s expected to be closed for several weeks.
