Bridging viewpoints on name changes for public places

For some reason, driving over the Gaglardi Bridge almost always brings politics to my mind, especially the folly of politicians who mess with things that should be left well enough alone.

Don’t know why.

Anyway, as I crossed the Gaglardi Bridge yesterday morning, the proposal to rename a part of town “Sagebrush” was tumbling through my brain like spilled ball bearings. There was something familiar about it.

The neighbours in the area above Sagebrush Theatre have been kicking the tires on the idea. City councillors didn’t fall all over themselves in support this week. Not a one, not even Donovan Cavers, sprang from his chair to shout “Hear hear! Let it be so!”

Indeed, Coun. Nancy Bepple advised caution, noting that a previous council — some members of which sit in chambers to this day — once tried to change the name of the bridge that connects the North Shore to the South, and met with a storm of protest the likes of which hadn’t been seen since Marie Antoinette got in trouble for serving cake for dessert.

That earlier council was near-unanimous in the decision (one member who shall remain nameless but now has the title “B.C. Environment Minister” in front of his name, was the lone dissenter, saying council should think about it for awhile. “If we rename the bridge after him we’ll have to raise the speed limit,” he said.)

The name change lasted about a week as the masses rose up, egged on by the local daily newspaper, which whipped them into a frenzy of indignation.

It was sort of interesting how it all came about. The long-forgotten mayor of the day, thinking that the late Phil Gaglardi, who built most of the highways and bridges in the province, deserved to have a significant structure named after him in the city he served for three and a half decades as a preacher and a politician.

Without Gaglardi, we’d still be crossing the Thompson River in rowboats. Wouldn’t it be a nice gesture to put his name on his bridge?

So, he presented a notice of motion to his fellow councilors. A couple of them liked the idea so much they said, “Why wait a week?! Let’s do it now!”

So they did.

It was, in some people’s books, one of the most bone-headed decisions ever made in those chambers. Today, of course, it would have carried through as a notice of motion and council could have taken into account whether residents had an appetite for the change.

What they wanted, it turned out, was a public lynching.

Is this a lesson for the Sagebrush group? Maybe, but since the neighbourhood is not currently called Overlanders, or anything else, and a thousand vehicles don’t drive through it every hour, it’s not the same as renaming a bridge.

The most controversial thing about the Sagebrush neighbourhood movement is the name of its new newsletter — The Artemisia Tridentata — probably because it sounds more like a surgical procedure than an information sheet.

Council had some good advice for the group this week — common usage is often the most important consideration in what we name local landmarks and areas. So wait until “Sagebrush” comes into common usage for the neighbourhood, then come back and see us.

That’s my strategy with Gaglardi Bridge.