Another day, another street renaming proposed for Downtown - this time for Ted Turner

• Joeff Davis
• Stretch of Spring Street between Whitehall and West Peachtree streets would be renamed ‘Ted Turner Drive’

Downtown business owners and residents by now must feel there’s a conspiracy between City Hall officials and address label makers.

Every few years or so, an Atlanta City Council member proposes changing the name of a Downtown street to honor a notable (and often still living) Atlantan. Some residents applaud the person. Others shake their heads, wondering if erasing one part of history is the best way to pay tribute to important men and women. The street renaming passes in some form, and everyone waits for history to repeat itself. Or for City Hall to try and find a better way to honor Atlantans.

Well, history is repeating itself. Atlanta City Councilman C.T. Martin wants the city to brand a long stretch of Spring Street between Whitehall and West Peachtree streets to “Ted Turner Drive.”

According to the application requesting the street name change, the group behind the effort is “Friends of Ted Turner.” It shares an address and phone number with the Trumpet Foundation, which is overseen by civil rights workers and Atlanta broadcaster Xernona Clayton, herself the recent honoree of a Downtown street renaming. The renaming legislation was introduced last month and is coming up for a public hearing on April 28.

Turner, as readers surely know, is the larger-than-life businessman and philanthropist. After taking over his father’s advertising business, Turner went on to found Turner Broadcasting, CNN, and other media companies. He also owned the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Hawks, and even a pro-wrestling organization. But the Ohio native is just as well known for his charitable endeavors, including the $1 billion pledge he made to the United Nations in the mid-1990s.

Turner, an avid environmentalist, now spends much of his time overseeing his numerous philanthropic endeavors, promoting clean energy, and raising bison. He is also a Downtown resident who has a penthouse in the same building that houses one of the Ted’s Montana Grill restaurants he co-founded. Occasionally he walks around his building and picks up trash.

Martin tells Creative Loafing that he was approached by the Friends of Ted Turner. The group’s compelling reasons for renaming a street in honor of Turner was the “contribution he has made to the city, and the world for that matter... And a lot of his properties are on Spring Street.”

There’s not much argument against Turner being recognized by the city where he based his business empire and which he also helped build. But the kind gesture is the latest in a series of name changes that often needle preservationists by wiping away previous nods to the city’s past, not to mention causing a headache for some residents, businesses, and travelers. Past renamings caused such heated debate and confusion over the years that, in 2003, the City Council even created a task force to study the issue and passed legislation tightening up the process.

“Atlanta’s streets are confusing enough already, and the renaming of streets imposes a hardship on countless businesses, residents, and visitors,” says Kyle Kessler, the president of the Atlanta Downtown Neighborhood Association. “Nearly four years after the renaming of Harris Street, I still regularly encounter maps and signs that have still not been updated, including ones published by the City of Atlanta.

Kessler continues: “Instead we should focus on alternative ways to recognize worthy Atlantans such as the dedication of streets — like the recent installation of honorary Dominique Wilkins Lane signs on a portion of Centennial Olympic Park Drive — which cause minimal inconvenience or additional expense.”

In 2011, councilmembers approved renaming several Downtown streets in honor of Clayton, developer and architect John Portman, and construction mogul H.J. Russell. The move was met with strong pushback from historic preservationists, who argued that the city could pay a more lasting tribute to these men and women through other ways — for example, naming intersections “squares,” planting a tree, or naming a park. (Considering how often streets get renamed in this town, would you want one named after you?)

Ultimately, the city commemorated a public plaza in honor of Clayton. And signs noting John Portman Boulevard were accompanied with a small topper noting its previous life as Harris Street. The effort to honor Russell stalled.

Martin says the Friends of Ted Turner had explored other ways to tribute Turner, including a statue and a square, but settled on the street renaming. He doesn’t think there should be much of a brouhaha over the change because the name’s origins are linked to a waterway, not a person.

According to the legislation, the street was named after a spring that “ran through property owned by Anderson W. Walton, one of Atlanta’s first city council members and the owner of the property where the spring was situated and was referred to as ‘Walton’s Spring.’”

“So we shouldn’t end up — you never know when you do these — when people will come and say this was a cousin or this was a famous inventor,” he says. “We don’t know... But we always learn something whenever we do these.”

Kessler says that neighbors are not opposed to honoring Turner, only that they have concerns about the street renaming. Supporters of the street renaming have reached out to neighborhood leaders to discuss the tribute.

The ADNA last week unanimously voted not to support Martin’s proposal. So did Neighborhood Planning Unit M’s executive committee. The Facebook group “Stop Renaming Atlanta Streets” is rallying people to attend the April 28 public hearing about the name change.

We sent a line to Turner last week asking his thoughts. We also left a message with the Trumpet Awards Foundation. We have yet to hear back.