I'm tempted to say it didn’t matter.
The city recently completed a naming contest to help pick a moniker for a neighborhood just west of downtown.
Though I’ve written on a few occasions about the neighborhood and looking forward to participating in the contest, I still failed to set aside just a couple minutes to vote.
Turns out that maybe it didn’t matter. At least, that’s what I’m tempted to say.
Apparently, the contest was designed as a vehicle for residents to give input into the decision-making process. And that’s a good step.
It’s also a step that’s distinct from allowing residents to be the decision-makers themselves.
That would’ve been even better.
But because the neighborhood redevelopment committee that guided the contest picked the third-place choice – Pettigrew Heights – as the name that it’ll recommend to the City Council, I don’t feel terribly bad that I forgot to vote.
The winning name was only a suggestion, after all.
Now, don’t get me wrong. The committee should be congratulated for its work and launching the contest in the first place. It researched the neighborhood’s history and developed the well-thought-out list of choices to place on the ballot.
The group’s efforts are part of an overall movement to help redevelop one of Sioux Falls’ oldest neighborhoods. And the committee’s work involves much more than launching the naming contest. The group has been working on proposals that range from establishing a line-of-credit program for developers to the possible creation of a community garden.
Combined with picking a name for the neighborhood, these efforts are right on target to help protect a strategic area of Sioux Falls.
Nonetheless, when the City Council receives the group’s recommendation on Feb. 4, it should opt instead for the people’s choice – Old Town.
Not because Old Town says anything specific about the community. The committee and others have noted that name lacks any distinct ties to Sioux Falls. That’s a point well taken.
But the name for the neighborhood – especially this neighborhood – needs to reflect not only a sense of local history but also a tone of self-determination.
My early childhood years were spent living in a neighborhood much like the proposed Pettigrew Heights. It was an area just north of Omaha’s downtown.
What I remember most about living there is the people. Many were hard-working moms and dads living from paycheck to paycheck. Some were seniors proudly holding onto the property they managed to buy years ago. Many were families – like my own – renting homes and looking for ways to gain their economic footing.
An all-too-common connecting point, however, was that eerie feeling of disenfranchisement. There was a constant fight in my neighborhood against the grip of powerlessness.
During whatever the raging debate of the moment was, I often would hear adults express sentiments that their opinions didn’t matter. The powers-that-be would do what they want.
That neighborhood was not unlike the proposed Pettigrew Heights. Sioux Falls’ near west-side neighborhood is a community that needs a sense of identity – one that rises from within because those are the best kind. Not a third-place choice.
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