Update: The Dallas Morning News' Robert Wilonsky reports that Caraway has pulled the Mandela renaming plan and is now calling for Lancaster to be renamed for legendary Booker T. Washington and Roosevelt High School football coach Raymond Hollie.
Earlier in the week Dallas City Council member Dwaine Caraway told The Dallas Morning News that he had the votes necessary to secure the three-quarters majority of the City Council to override the City Plan Commission, which voted 13-1 against his proposal to rename South Lancaster Road after Nelson Mandela.
Wednesday afternoon, it quickly became apparent that he did not.
Public speakers on the issue -- many of them veterans -- spoke against the potential change for the trouble it might cause the VA Hospital and costs it might impose. Multiple council members backed away from the plan.
Perhaps Caraway should've picked a street shorter than six miles, one that would cause less of an infrastructure headache, but that's not why we're here. We're here because, in the midst of a tirade against fellow council members Vonciel Jones Hill and Tennell Atkins -- both of whom apparently changed their minds on the renaming -- Caraway broke out one of the best Vonciel impressions we've ever heard. After critiquing Atkins' and Hill's leadership, showing photos of trash near the portions of Lancaster that run through their districts and calling out the duo for "betraying" him and "stabbing him in the back" for holding a meeting about the renaming without him, Caraway nails Hill's particular cadence and enunciation. If you've got about an hour, the whole rant is awesome. If you don't, the video below is cued to the best bit.
Caraway's proposed name switch may die when it receives its rescheduled November 12 vote, but this impression will live forever:
