Posted on 06/26/2021 11:59:50 AM PDT by Libloather
The Chicago City Council on Friday voted to rename its Lake Shore Drive expressway in honor of Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable, the first non-Indigenous settler in the area who has been recognized as one of the city's founders.
In a 33-15 vote, the council approved renaming the road, "Jean Baptiste Point DuSable Lake Shore Drive," keeping the original label in the new name as part of a compromise among council members.
Council member David Moore, one of the leading aldermen pushing for the name change, said this week, "None of us would be here, including Lake Shore Drive, if this city wasn't founded by Jean Baptiste Point du Sable," according to local NBC affiliate WMAQ.
After the change passed Friday, Moore told ABC affiliate WLS, "It's not so much the weight off my shoulders. It's these babies that I fight for."
"That's what it's all about. These babies and giving them hope when they take a drive down: hope. When they take a drive down: unity," he added.
Among those who opposed the change was Ald. Brian Hopkins, who said some residents in the state support preserving "the tradition, the legacy, the attractiveness of the name."
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) had also initially opposed the plan, arguing that the Lake Shore Drive name was too well-known and associated with the city to be changed.
According to WLS, Lightfoot had originally pushed to instead invest $40 million to build a park, rename part of the Riverwalk and put in place statues honoring DuSable.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Oh Pulease - I am sure Chicago would be sitting there undiscovered to this day if not for Jean....
I think a lot of people— including me — will continue to call it Lake Shore Drive, just as we continue to use Sears Tower and Comiskey. It wasn’t an easy transition from Marshall Field’s to Macy’s, either.
The new name includes Lake Shore Drive, so we can just say we’re saving our breath by using it.
If they had to change it to honor someone, I guess duSable is as good as anyone and better than most. MLK Drive is already use. They could have named it after a certain former president.
“None of us would be here.” Yeah, right. Just the next fur trapper a couple weeks later.
That's a good point. If given those two options, the one they chose is the better of the two.
But the modern-day cultural Taliban will continue to remove monuments of the past and add statues and change names to honor their cultural jihadi heroes.
If he founded the city, why didn’t he name it Point DuSable?
Yep.
Wikipedia has a pretty interesting (and lengthy) biography entry on him:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Baptiste_Point_du_Sable?wprov=sfti1
Actually worth reading. Certainly much more self-sufficient and responsible than the crowd of politicians trading upon his reputation today.
Monsieur du Sable already has several places in Chicago dedicated to his memory. Given recent behavior of Chicago “yutes,” this renamed drive will provide an entirely new name for their nightly activities to defile.
Back in the day when the major street renaming was for "Dr Martin Luther King Jr" (Street/Boulevard etc), an unexpected and expensive consequence was the Post Office insistence (political) that the name be fully spelled out, especially in business and metered mail.
What happened in those 'old tech' days was that lots of the software had limited space on their stored name fields, oops. Thus mail got returned as mis-addressed and other such shenanigans!
Quick flood of complaints by political donors to their Congress-critters got a quick but grudging acceptance to using the 'MLK' or "ML King" abbreviations in that place.
Thus I think someone was smart in retaining "Lake Shore" in the name keeps the natives from getting on the warpath!
Borrowed/stole this from ‘somewhere’...
“The Republic Has Fallen…our once great republic is no more. It failed with the bogus election which installed an interloper with the deliberate help of both political parties and, of course, the media. There is law no more. Only men.”
They’d probably hate him if he were alive today?
As a native Chicagoan, I just can’t get bent out of shape of over this. People will still call it Lake Shore Drive (or LSD), just like nobody (besides tourists) refers to the Sears Tower as the Willis Tower or refers to The Hancock as 875 North Michigan.
It’s like all those stupid honorary “ways” and “lanes” that city leaders attach to streets that nobody pays any attention to.
They really don’t have anything more important to do, I guess.
This is pure bunk.
DuSable already had a bridge, a high school, an Afrocentric museum, a public park, and a sculpture named for him. Anyone who claims that Chicago overlooked this nomadic fur trader is lying.
DuSable lived in the vicinity of Chicago for a time, but he was a man on the move who also spent time in other areas that would become Detroit, Peoria and St. Louis.
DuSable died and was presumably buried in Missouri long before Illinois achieved statehood in 1818 and Chicago was organized as a town in 1833.
Black supremacists in charge.
But the modern-day cultural Taliban will continue to remove monuments of the past and add statues and change names to honor their cultural jihadi heroes.
++++++
Exactly. All things considered, this was a remarkably responsible choice.
Of course we will. It will always be Lake Shore Drive, one of the most beautiful streets anywhere.
Of course we will. It will always be Lake Shore Drive, one of the most beautiful streets anywhere.
Reminds me of a Seinfeld bit about famous explorers. One mentioned is DeSoto who found the mouth of the Mississippi River. George dismisses it with, “Like it wouldn’t have been found eventually anyway.”
Aren’t all non indigenous settlers colonialists?
I just took the Chicago Architectural boat tour and it is woke - the guide referred to the European explorers as “invaders.”
“Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable Lake Shore Drive”
I love when posts lead me down a rabbit hole of trivia.
They should try to fit this name on a street sign:
“Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorffwelchevoralternwarengewissenhaftschaferswessenschafewarenwohlgepflegeundsorgfaltigkeitbeschutzenvorangreifendurchihrraubgierigfeindewelchevoralternzwolfhunderttausendjahresvorandieerscheinenvonderersteerdemenschderraumschiffgenachtmittungsteinundsiebeniridiumelektrischmotorsgebrauchlichtalsseinursprungvonkraftgestartseinlangefahrthinzwischensternartigraumaufdersuchennachbarschaftdersternwelchegehabtbewohnbarplanetenkreisedrehensichundwohinderneuerassevonverstandigmenschlichkeitkonntefortpflanzenundsicherfreuenanlebenslanglichfreudeundruhemitnichteinfurchtvorangreifenvorandererintelligentgeschopfsvonhinzwischensternartigraum, Senior.”
https://www.rd.com/article/26-first-names-longest-last-name-world/
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