MIAMI: It’s OFFICIAL! City commissioners have put an end to a divisive battle over three Hollywood streets in a Florida city that has the names of Confederate generals.
In a landmark decision, the city commission voted 6-0 to change the names of three Hollywood streets named for Confederate commanders, reports Miami Herald.
The street names that were previously named John Bell Hood, Robert E. Lee and Nathan Bedford Forrest, will now be known as Hope, Liberty and Freedom streets.
The city’s engineer will now find a company to replace the signs and notify the county and agencies of the change.
More than 140 people signed up to speak at a public hearing. Most of the people wanted the city commission to take down the street signs and rename them.
Linda Anderson, who has lived in the city for more than 60 years and was one of the petitioners for the name changing, noted, “Thank you for moving this forward, it’s been over 15 years trying to make this change, and I would hope today would be the last day that I will come in front of you to ask for this change.”
The commission came without discussion.
Commissioner Peter Hernandez left the room for the vote but he did express displeasure with the public having been left out of the debate over what the streets would be named.