| Updated: 9/02/2011 10:03 pm |
Published: 9/02/2011 9:53 pm
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Tulsa's Brady Heights Neighborhood, one of the many spots that bears the Brady name. Now, some are calling for a new name after a This Land Press article called into question Tate Brady's past and associations with the Ku Klux Klan.
For people living in Brady Heights, even with recent articles painting him as a racist, Tate Brady is out of sight, out of mind.
“Most people don't give a thought to Tate Brady because it is so completely different (now than it was then),” Jenna Brennan said.
“It has no effect on what I think or what I feel as a resident of the neighborhood, because I don't associate with him,” Chas Higgins told FOX23.
For others, the Brady name has lost its luster.
“I think it could really offend some people,” Katie Goodson said.
But one person it doesn't offend is Wess Young. He's 94 years-old and one of the last living survivors of the Tulsa Race Riots. He doesn't want the neighborhood's name to change.
“That's history, why would you try and change what has gone one and not show what progress you have made,” he told FOX23.
He says he doesn't live in Tate Brady’s neighborhood, he lives in his neighborhood. No matter what name it has.
“It doesn't bother me because I have the privilege to live where I can afford.”
He worries about the impact of the article, and whether or not it will stall improvements in race relations he believes are being made everyday, in every neighborhood in Tulsa.
“We should be looking toward the future, and work toward the little stuff that's keeping us separated.”
One of the first distinctions the city of Tulsa gave to Tate Brady was naming this downtown street Brady Street, and if some want to have it removed the city of Tulsa says it will take time and money.
As for getting rid of the Brady name on maps and street signs. Tulsa’s Traffic Operations Manager says citizens would need to get the people they put in City Hall on board.
“It really has to go through the council first. You get a councilman to sponsor it, they have to approve it at a general council meeting, and then it goes to the mayor to be signed,” Mark Brown said.
Once the mayor signs it taxpayers foot the bill, and it's not cheap.
“An average street sign just changed out fully, labor and materials equipment you're probably going to be looking at $70 to $90,” Brown said.
The process takes about six to nine months from start to finish. The Brady name is here to stay for now.
Brown says resolutions to change Tulsa City Streets only happy once in a blue moon, in his ten years in current job he's only seen it happen once.
