Tuesday, March 09, 1999
Rose's road in way of progress
Parking could replace pavement
BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Maybe it could be Pete Rose Half-Way. A riverfront development plan being studied by Cincinnati and Hamilton County calls for eliminating part of Pete Rose Way.
The move would make more room for parking spots in garages to be built between new stadiums for the Bengals and Reds.
But some Cincinnatians who support Mr. Rose — and think he ought to be inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame — wish the city and county could do more to preserve the street named for Pete.
“I'd hate to see Pete Rose Way discontinued and make half a road out of it,” said Harry Heskamp, a die-hard Reds fan who plans to attend his 69th Opening Day Reds game next month. “Can't they keep it?”
Cincinnati City Council renamed the old Second Street Pete Rose Way in 1985 at the urging of then-Councilman Ken Blackwell — the same Ken Blackwell who is now Ohio's secretary of state.
Four years later, Mr. Rose was banished for life from baseball after allegations that he had bet on the sport and the Reds.
In 1990, he was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to underpaying his income tax from 1984 to 1987.
City Architect Bob Richardson said the elimination of part of the street named for Mr. Rose has nothing to do with his troubles.
Instead, it would simplify planning for the garages and the rest of the riverfront, Mr. Richardson said. The change is not yet a done deal. The city-county Riverfront Steering Committee will talk about it Friday, he said.
Under the plan, Pete Rose Way would run from Mehring Way past the new Bengals stadium. It would then feed into the garages to be built between Paul Brown Stadium and the new Reds ballpark east of the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge.
Pete Rose Way would pick up again at the new Reds ballpark and run east past the Interstate 471 bridge to Kilgour Street, where it becomes Eastern Avenue.
“It maintains its prominence for those of us on the west side who will be using Pete Rose Way to get us to the parking garages to get us to the ballpark,” said Hamilton County Com missioner Bob Bedinghaus, a west-sider who sits on the riverfront committee.
A new street will be built on top of the garages to run along the same path as Pete Rose Way. That new street has tentatively been called Freedom Way for the National Un derground Railroad Freedom Center being planned for the riverfront.
A new Second Street will be built just south of Fort Washington Way as part of that massive highway project.
Mr. Rose could not be reached for comment.
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