CLINTON HILL — Community Board 2’s street naming committee is revising its standards for selecting candidates after it received backlash from some residents who said the board has ignored prominent African Americans.
The new criteria would clarify the language for supporting documentation to show how a candidate for street co-naming is historically or culturally significant.
The new street naming protocol would require a series of documents, including “biography and supporting documentation, such as news articles or letter(s) from prominent member(s) of the community, evidencing why the candidate(s) is/are historically or culturally significant, or how they have made an enduring or lasting impact on the community,” the board wrote.
Board member Juliet Cullen-Cheung, who drafted the new language, said at Tuesday night’s committee meeting that some recent co-naming applications didn’t pass because board members felt they didn’t have enough information on the candidates.
“Unfortunately, a lot of abstention votes means no,” she said.
The new wording would require applicants to submit further background information to assist board members who are unfamiliar with the candidates.
The review comes at the request of Board Chair Shirley McRae, who asked the committee to take another look at the street co-naming criteria after its initial vote to amend the protocol in December.
McRae asked the committee to clarify what kind of supporting documentation would be acceptable, acknowledging that not everyone may have had a news article written about them, and suggested the example of letters from local community figures outlining the applicant’s contributions to the community.
McRae also recommended aligning the street naming criteria more closely with the city’s.
The City Council has the final say in street co-namings, and some applications don’t even go before the community board, which serves an advisory role. Some community boards across the city don’t vote on street co-namings at all.
While the new language may help board members select street naming candidates, some argued semantics wouldn’t change what’s become a highly politicized process.
“It doesn’t matter what you put down here, it’s going to come down to human beings voting on it,” board member Kenn Lowy said.
CB2 voted in December to approve a street co-naming petition in honor of a politically connected white woman who died of a drug overdose in 2011, sparking criticism from some residents who say the board has rejected similar requests for influential African Americans.
Yet, CB2 records show twice as many streets in the area have been named after people of color than after white people since 2003. District manager Rob Perris has said the votes haven’t fallen along racial lines either, with a mix of members voting for white and black candidates.
Cullen-Cheung said the new language wouldn’t change the way City Council members would vote, but it would give community board members who hadn’t personally spoken with or felt the grief of candidates’ family members more to work with.
“People are going to vote the way they’re going to vote, they’re going to vote their heart,” Cullen-Cheung said. “What this gives our colleagues at the community board… is more background information.”
