not to long ago, i wrote a somewhat tongue-in-cheek post about the renaming of simpson road to joseph e. boone boulevard*.

nothing tounge and cheek about this recent article about “boone avenue” in the ajc though. according to the article the 1300 block of simpson road is the deadliest block in the city of atlanta.

Three killings occurred in a recent 31-day span. Demetrius Holt, 25, was killed and four others were shot Dec. 7 when an unidentified man opened fire in the American Legion hall. Ronnie Hill, 46, was shot to death Nov. 28 after an altercation that began at the Tasty Dog. Paul Martin, 19, was shot to death Nov. 6 while in his car outside Ruby’s. No one has been arrested in connection with any of the slayings.

i’d like to sit here and rant about how the city and law enforcement should get serious about cleanig place like this up. the article says they have tried and failed and many things.

beats me what the answer is, though in the us in 2009 there ought to be one. at least better than just changing the name.

anyone got any thoughts? nothing our leaders come up with seems to be working.

on thanksgiving i was headed over to my buddy’s place for thanksgiving. he lives in grove park, just past the intersection of bankhead highway and west lake drive. as i was driving up west lake to his place i noticed that the city of atlanta had renamed simpson road to something silly like joseph boone avenue.

is atlanta the only place that does this thing? i wonder if they really think that by renaming street with a reputation for crime and decay that anyone is going to get fooled.

how many of you are now willing to roll down bankhead just because it is now called donald lee hollowell parkway?

a short list just off the top of my head –

stewart ave becomes metropolitan parkway
lakewood freeway becomes langford parkway
bankhead highway becomes hollowell parkway
hightower road becomes james jackson parkway
simpson road apparently becomes boone ave

any i am missing?

oh and do you ever wonder who the poor saps are that are having these streets renamed after them?

the other thing this got me to thinking about is this: if they keeping renaming all of these streets over on the westside, how is poor t.i. going to be able to find his way around atlanta? if you have no idea what i am talking about check out this map of t.i.’s classic ‘ride wit’ me’ that i made in google maps whilst bored one night.