In 1978, Robert L. Wright wanted to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. So as a city councilman he persuaded his colleagues to rename Brookhaven Boulevard in King’s memory.
The road now runs from 10th Avenue to Buena Vista Road in a neighborhood marked by poverty and blight.
“I wasn’t dealing with aesthetics. I was dealing with honoring Dr. King,” Wright said Friday. “That road was chosen because it came through the black community and was in my council district.”
Now as the nation prepares to commemorate the 50th anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” on Wednesday, Columbus is still looking for the best way to honor the civil rights leader’s legacy. This time the focus is on sprucing up the 2.2-mile roadway, but not everybody is in agreement on how that should be done.
Last week, City Manager Isaiah Hugley and Planning Director Rick Jones held two public meetings to unveil a concept for revitalizing the boulevard and to get input from the public. They presented the community with two options: Maintain the current four lanes along the roadway or reduce the lanes to three — two going in either direction and a turning lane in the middle.
They said the city already has $850,000 to $1 million to resurface and restripe the road and will have to seek another $12 million from grants to fund other improvements. About 6,700 vehicles travel daily on the boulevard. A three-lane road can accommodate up to 20,000 vehicles a day and four lanes up to 40,000, Jones said.
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