BY TANYA BRICKING
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A proposal to change the name of one block of Ezzard Charles Drive -- which honors a local boxing legend -- to Police Memorial Drive already has both sides of the issue sparring.
Cincinnati Councilman Todd Portune circulated a memo Tuesday in City Hall asking whether council supported a proposal to change the name of the block in front of police headquarters to honor fallen officers.
City Safety Director Kent Ryan made a formal request in March to rename the block between Central Avenue and Central Parkway in the West End. The public works department's committee of names -- which reviews such requests -- recommended the city deny it.
Critics are prepared to fight changing the street name that honors a prominent black sports figure.
Ezzard Charles grew up in Cincinnati's West End. He won the heavyweight boxing championship in 1949 and defended his title eight times -- including a victory over Joe Louis. He died in 1975 from Lou Gehrig's disease, and the city renamed Lincoln Park Drive for him in 1977. "It's something for the black community, and no one wants to see that changed," said Cecil Thomas, president of the Sentinel Police Association, which represents 230 of the Cincinnati Police Division's 260 black officers. "If someone wanted to change the name of Martin Luther King Drive, or part of it, we would be against that, too."
The city's committee of names reviewed the request and decided it would create two problems, committee chairman Ron Meyer said. Not only would some people view it negatively, he said, but it would cause confusion to motorists.
The committee came up with alternatives, such as posting signs directing people to the memorial or designating the grounds of the memorial as Police Memorial Square or Police Memorial Plaza. Someone would have to make another proposal for anything else to happen or for the alternatives to be used, Mr. Meyer said.
The name-change idea is not dead with the recommendation to deny it. Council could still bring it up. And it has some supporters. Dave Ashley, 73, of Woodlawn, has a balanced view as a retired Lockland police officer who once fought Ezzard Charles. (He knocked Charles down twice in a 1958 fight but lost in the seventh round when he suffered heat exhaustion and couldn't continue.)
"I have no objection to renaming that one block," he said. "The police are great and Ezzard Charles was great. Renaming one block would not hurt anything."
