View Larger Map
I was at City Hall this afternoon, where I ran into City Plan Commission Neil Emmons, who reminded me, yet again, that there is no such thing as a slam dunk at City Hall. As it happens, that small street name-change I mentioned this morning -- turning Shepherd Road into Robert E. Price Drive -- turned into a pretty big deal during the Plan Commission's morning meeting. That's because the Shepherds, Wileene and son Carl, showed up to protest the name change.
Wileene Shepherd is in her 80s now, and there was no way she or her family were about to let the city take their name -- especially not after she and her husband, Woodrow Wilson High School graduate and World War II veteran Ernest, build the road ("by hand") in 1947 on six acres of land they purchased shortly after the war. After the jump, Carl Shepherd's impassioned plea to the City Plan Commission, which voted not to change the name after all. I am reminded now of the old saying, "Every street tells a story." You should read this one. --Robert Wilonsky
