The vain quest to rename buildings, roads, and ports after primarily dead (but in some cases living) politicians strikes me as a waste of time, effort, and money. There can be no objection to naming something before it is built because at that point it is new and there is nothing to unlearn and no needless expense to change signs, maps, and more. Why change the name of something that already has a familiar functioning name that we already know?
Does anybody know where the Walter J. Hickel Parkway begins and ends as opposed to Minnesota Drive? Has anybody ever used the Bill Sheffield Alaska Railroad Depot? Why is the road to the airport named West International Airport Road instead of Ted Stevens Road?
I will continue to refer to the International Airport or ANC when buying a ticket to travel, tell people I’m riding my bicycle on the Coastal Trail, and refer to the school my children attended as East High School.
Maybe we should name each $500,000 public restroom facility for deserving politicians before they are built, so we won’t have the expense of renaming them afterward.
— Peter DeLoria
Anchorage
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