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What's in a Name?One of the things that has
fascinated me the most about this project so far is the concept of
changing a name to make a place more appealing. To me, the idea
seems pointless. Changing the name of a thing does nothing to the
thing itself, “A rose by any other name…” However, now that I have
been talking to people and reading some of the articles I am
beginning to think a bit differently. There must be two sides to the story (or more). Some people want the name changed. Some people don’t want the name changed. There are the vast majority of people who don’t care what they call it; they are going to live there just the same. For the first perspective I would like to turn to an article from the Arizona Republic (30 April 2004). The article in the Arizona Republic is an editorial by George Young. Mr. Young is for the changing of the name “South Phoenix” to “South Mountain Village”. He talks about the fact that the term “south” carries a negative connotation. He goes on to say that changing the name is, “…something we felt we had to do to survive.” He wants to have the name changed because, “We are very proud of our village and what it has accomplished as one of the places to live, play and work in the Valley.” I really wonder what “we” he is talking about. Mr. Young is white, male, upper class. The vast majority of the “South Mountain Village” is lower to middle class minority. I have yet to be able to find someone who really wants to keep the name “South Phoenix”. There is a good deal of history associated with the name however, so I am sure it is only because I haven’t met them yet. The vast majority of the people I have spoken to so far don’t seem to care if the name is changed. My group spoke with the owner of the restaurant “Cancun” on the corner of 19th Ave and Baseline. He told us that the name didn’t matter to him. He had run the restaurant in South Phoenix and he would run the restaurant in South Mountain Village. Either way, the restaurant would be there and so would he. We also spoke with a very kind woman in a smaller housing area near the restaurant who provided a similar opinion of things. She had been living in South Phoenix for over 30 years and her grand children lived nearby. She told us that changing the name of the place wouldn’t change the way the place is. It just changes what people call it. Another of the groups ran into a rather jaded police officer that works a beat in South Phoenix. He told them that nothing was ever going to change around there. Granted I don’t think the officer meant it in a good way, but both Mary Helen and the restaurant owner did. It seems that changing the name is only important to the people who make it important. It seems that it is the focus only of a group people who see that there is something wrong with South Phoenix, something that needs to be “fixed”. Maybe changing the name will change something, maybe it won’t. Only time will tell.
--Christopher Way |
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