Where the streets have new names: the airbrush politics of renaming roads

3665674351_bf9bf1eefc_mLeaders rise and leaders fall. Communities that try to keep up with these vicissitudes may soon find themselves in a real political and financial bind, when it comes to the names that adorn their streets, alleys, rivers, highways, and byways. What is a legislature to do? Should it keep the toponymic reminders of leaders gone-by as valuable sociohistorical signposts of days-gone-by? Or should it try to go with the times and periodically replace public toponyms, particularly those once inspired by leaders who have since fallen into disrepute. In this UK Guardian article, reporter, Nick Van Mead, explores this question and how it has been answered in several major US and European cities.