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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBigots Lose It As Florida City Renames ‘Old Dixie Highway’ To ‘Pres. Obama Highway’
Recent events have set off a wave of anti-Confederate iconoclasm that has been sweeping the South, encouraging people to relinquish symbols of the past and reconsider their heritage of treason and racism. In the spirit of moving forward instead of clinging to what once was, the Riveria Beach City Council has voted to rename Old Dixie Highway to the President Barack Obama Highway.
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Reactions have been mixed, to say the least, and depending on who you ask. There might soon be a place where Barack Obama and Martin Luther King Jr. meet and it wont be just in the hearts of Americans who revere both men gushed the Palm Beach Post. I think that the name should stay Old Dixie cause thats a landmark, its history. It was there when we came, it has been here for years and I think we should leave it there remarked one woman who chose to remain unidentified.
http://www.occupydemocrats.com/bigots-lose-it-as-florida-city-renames-old-dixie-highway-to-pres-obama-highway/
SummerSnow
(12,608 posts)MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)perhaps it is time to rename the south to something else
perhaps something like Snowbird Land
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)I can certainly see how renaming a street may seem "out of hand..."
However, as I'm not melodramatic, I see it as little more than the constant change that goes on around every day.
randys1
(16,286 posts)LonePirate
(13,431 posts)Thank you for posting this truly awesome story.
Nay
(12,051 posts)city council is full of Democrats. They're likely a bunch of Republicans who want to get the maximum rise out of their wingnut populace and they know just how to do it.
FlaGranny
(8,361 posts)I doubt Riviera beach has a Republican living there or anywhere near. It is mostly African American.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riviera_Beach,_Florida
Nay
(12,051 posts)CTyankee
(63,914 posts)Period.
I await the day when the periodical showing of Gone with the Wind is on TV, there is a disclaimer that it presents a very skewed view of slavery as it actually existed and was experienced by enslaved black people.
Omaha Steve
(99,817 posts)K&R!
OS
tanyev
(42,644 posts)tularetom
(23,664 posts)Things named after Ronald Raygun - 3,766
Things named after President Obama - 1
Nay
(12,051 posts)is to find stuff, from airports to fishing ponds, to name after that bastard Reagan. And they get their knickers in a twist because a road is named after Obama? OOOOOOOOOKAY. This is soooo just the same old shit.
katmondoo
(6,457 posts)I still give the salute when I see the signs with his name. He never did anything for Florida. I think it is a little early to name a street after Obama. Wait until he leaves office.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)The just have to put those names in our faces. The younger generation reverates these abominations because they see it everywhere - as if those two were heroes or normal as Presidents, but they weren't normal by any stretch of the imagination.
The GOP broke the rules of not naming things for living people as memorials, they had to put the stink of Bush and Reagan everywhere. Every time I see their names in a public place, I feel nauseous.
lpbk2713
(42,770 posts)after asshole GOP presidents.
RayGun, Bush 41 and Ford.
1939
(1,683 posts)Ford and Bush 41 were the only naval aviators ever to be president. They also named a submarine after the living Jimmy Carter because he was a submariner.
Two southern politicians had carriers named after them (Vinson and Stennis) because of the amount of money they shoveled into the navy. I believe that Reagan falls into the Vinson and Stennis category.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)I refuse to set foot in an airport named after that dickhead.
There are a lot of dumb characters down here in Ala-Dam-a, but compared to what nice sane people have to deal with in Texas........
boy howdy.
snooper2
(30,151 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)to pick up my little angel. It irked me to no end that I had to drive on Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway (I-20)
pangaia
(24,324 posts)That one was really rubbing our noses in it.
InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,123 posts)ancianita
(36,184 posts)Commission.
Pretty cool, though!
mcar
(42,426 posts)Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)Lawn flamingos! And dripping spigots!
Wearing grey! Wearing grey! Wearing grey! Bigot land!
Remember eighteen fifty eight! huzzah! huzzah!
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)have you anymore lyrics?
notemason
(299 posts)Here I am in the land of cotton
Wishing folks had not forgotten
Look away, look away, look away
From slavery
Response to liberal N proud (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
Iggo
(47,581 posts)lpbk2713
(42,770 posts)Some intolerant RW asshole will promise to change it back.
1939
(1,683 posts)Contrary1
(12,629 posts)Parkway
Business Park
Strip Mall
Housing Addition
Municipal Park
There's probably more, but I don't care to put any more thought into it.
IDemo
(16,926 posts)It will always be 'Washington National Airport' as far as I'm concerned.
Sophiegirl
(2,338 posts)gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Don't they want public works named for the Commander-in-Chief, rather than some vanquished enemy of the United States?
1939
(1,683 posts)Riviera Beach will change the street signs on a couple of miles of it. Every locale along the route would have to change the name.
A lot of cities like Louisville named the highway heading south out of town as "The Dixie Highway" indicating a direction rather than an honor for the fallen Confederacy.
Dixie Highway south out of Detroit is called that because it is US-10 (French dix)
In England a ten gallon pot is called a dixie.
alphafemale
(18,497 posts)Long State and US Highways often have a local name.
US-1 south of DC is called the Richmond Highway. North of Richmond, it is called the Washington Highway
DBoon
(22,414 posts)in honor of the disposable drink cup
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)We have one running through Pinellas and Pasco counties.
Mainly just out-of-the-way backroads.
DesertFlower
(11,649 posts)lame54
(35,339 posts)Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)tavernier
(12,410 posts)but not particularly Florida's Dixie Highway. It is the "old road" in many areas, and runs through the worst part of most of the towns. I'd prefer to see his name on an airport or a beautiful park.
blackspade
(10,056 posts)KKKonservatives have a sad...
wolfie001
(2,286 posts)ismnotwasm
(42,022 posts)I hope many more to come. A name to be proud of!
(Especially after all that disgusting and undeserved "Ronald Reagan" renaming of everything from highways and airports and god knows what)
oberliner
(58,724 posts)For what that is worth.
MerryBlooms
(11,773 posts)Awesome.
muntrv
(14,505 posts)TSIAS
(14,689 posts)The Palm Beach County Commission still has to give final approval. Quite frankly, I live near where this road is located, and it's not a particularly great stretch of land. I don't like the name Old Dixie Highway, but I think President Obama deserves a better road than this.
But this does bring the bigots out. Right-wingers I know are ready to attend the County Commission meeting to oppose this change (or to support "Old Dixie" . There is a George Bush Boulevard (named for 41, before 43 was ever president) in Delray Beach. And of course the Ronald Reagan Turnpike. I hope supporters of Obama's legacy will take a route similar to Reagan and make sure things are named for him in all 50 states.
1939
(1,683 posts)Need some control of Congress and state legislatures first.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Highway 99 that runs through the Central Valley. I like Barack Obama Highway much better.
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)csziggy
(34,139 posts)It was a program pushed through by land developers from up North that wanted to be able to sell vacation property to people from the Midwest. The name was chosen by the Northern supporters of the project because part of their selling of the South to vacationers and tourists was to promote the "heritage" of the Old South.
The Dixie Highway started in the Mid-West and by various routes (there was really no "one" Dixie Highway) and took people through the South to dump them into Florida, preferably near Miami Beach since one of the people pushing the project owned a lot of land there.
Pam S. Ecker
The Dixie Highway is significant nationally as the first highway to link the rural American South to the urban North. The construction of this interstate highway (taking place from about 1915 to 1926) is associated with the modernization of the American South, as well as the general growth in U.S. transportation and automobile tourism in the first half of the twentieth century.
In Northwest Ohio (specifically, Wood County and Lucas County) many portions of the original Dixie Highway remain in use as Ohio Route 25, which passes through a number of small towns and forms Main Street in the county seat, Bowling Green. Other portions of the historic Dixie Highway are city streets in Toledo. Some sections of the Dixie Highway in Wood County have been replaced by Interstate 75, and in those locations, portions of the original Dixie remain as low-traffic access roads.
The Dixie Highway is significant in Northwest Ohio as part of a local road system that has been important to transportation and economic development of the region since the 1820s, when settlers began to look for a path across the "Great Black Swamp" that covered much of the area. The period of significance identified begins in 1915, when the Dixie Highway designation began to be applied to the local road that bisected Wood County in a north-south direction, and road improvements associated with the "Good Roads Movement" began to be carried out in order to change local paths into progressive "tourist highways." The period of significance ends with the completion of Interstate 75 in this region, in 1968. Within the period of significance, roadside business thrived, associated with a mobile American population that traveled for commerce as well as for the sheer pleasure associated with automobile tourism. Roadside opportunities for eating, lodging, and entertainment (drive-in theaters, miniature golf courses, etc.) were numerous, and communities along the highway prospered at least in part because of the highway-oriented activity.
Although the route of the Dixie continues to be used by regional travelers, the current highway is no longer a major thoroughfare for national road travel, having been superseded by the four-lane, high-speed Interstate 75. The historic Dixie Highway survives to remind us of the early days of automobile transportation in the nation, and of an exciting era of economic growth and development in the region.
More: http://www.us-highways.com/tzimm/ecker.htm
liberal N proud
(60,349 posts)I never realized that the Dixie Highway in Ohio was the same one as in the south.
csziggy
(34,139 posts)It's confusing, but apparently as road projects needed funding, the developers would declare some stretch of road part of the Dixie Highway to let people promote highway improvement. And yes, it extended from the Midwest to South Florida.
I'd heard the name but didn't realize this history until we went to a "Lunch & Learn" program at the Polk County History Center with my sister and Mom in July. The speaker, Rick Kilby, studies Florida history and gave a really nice talk about the development of the Dixie Highway and it's connection with Florida tourism and land development.
CBGLuthier
(12,723 posts)My parents used it a lot shuttling back and forth from southern Ohio to SE Kentucky in the 60s.
CBGLuthier
(12,723 posts)No idea how that worked.
InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,123 posts)Renew Deal
(81,889 posts):patrobertson:
Facility Inspector
(615 posts)Precursor National Auto Trail to the Interstate Highway System.
DirkGently
(12,151 posts)maybe we can get rid of all the crap named after Ronald Reagan down here.
valerief
(53,235 posts)greiner3
(5,214 posts)Males had a median income of $27,232 versus $22,410 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,159. About 29.6% of families and 32.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 35.1% of those under age 18 and 21.4% of those age 65 or over. As of 2000, those who solely spoke English at home accounted for 90.30% of all residents, while speakers of Spanish were 4.71%, French Creole 2.42%, and French speakers 0.95%.[12] In the 1930s, Riviera Beach was also known as the home of many Bahamian immigrants, known as "Conchs".[citation needed]
Riviera Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida which was incorporated September 29, 1922. Because of where its eastern boundary lies, it is also the easternmost municipality in the South Florida metropolitan area. The population was 29,884 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population was estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau to be 32,522.[3] Riviera Beach is predominantly an African American city and it is on the List of U.S. cities with African American majority populations. It is home to the Port of Palm Beach and a United States Coast Guard station, and has its own marina.[4][5] Riviera Beach is also home to the Blue Heron Bridge, one of the country's top rated beach dive sites.[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riviera_Beach,_Florida
So it's a very poor, mostly black population; wonder why a street hadn't been changed sometime before now.
Joe Chi Minh
(15,229 posts)Dresden, Harristown, or renaming Coventry after Goering or the Luftwaffe. Or the good Baroness Cardboard, if it comes to that. Little Ronnie's partner in terminal, global larceny. Apparently, they used to call him Little Ronnie in Hollywood.