Let Dr. King Cross Myrtle Avenue

Odds are, you work very hard to make life better for other people. If you work in the Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza or the New York State Capitol, your workplace is bracketed by Washington Avenue and Madison Avenue. The Plaza includes Erastus Corning Tower, the tallest building for many miles.

Rockefeller, Corning, Madison, and Washington were very rich men, some of whom maintained their wealth by loathsome means. I’m not asking anyone to stop admiring any of these men. I’m saying that by failing to counterbalance the honor we show the wealthy, we foster cynicism, and we promote a reluctance to say No! when rich folk overreach.

We do the rich no favors when we fail to rein them in. They have souls, just as we do. We really should help them preserve those souls by gently but firmly reminding them to guard against excess. Ultimately, humanity and moderation are good for business, too.

Meanwhile, a statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stands in Lincoln Park, gazing eastward across the Hudson Valley at the sunrise each morning, seeing a better future in the promised land. Dr. King’s statue also faces the Empire State Plaza, but Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, which runs past the memorial featuring the statue, is confined to Lincoln Park, ending at Myrtle Avenue, where it becomes South Swan Street. At Madison Avenue, South Swan Street becomes Swan Street, which forms the western boundary of the Empire State Plaza.

I’m sure that when South Swan Street within Lincoln Park was renamed for Dr. King, there were reasons for limiting the name change to the park. Perhaps there was deep feeling on the side of preserving the street name to mark the historical significance of swans. What that significance could be, I leave to your judgment.

Perhaps the intent was to reflect the truth that Dr. King’s message had not yet spread everywhere. I respect that aesthetic choice, but I suggest instead that we help the message spread. We have the opportunity to balance the symbolism of the names associated with the seat of New York State government by renaming all of Swan Street, including the western boundary of the Empire State Plaza and of West Capitol Park, for Dr. King, who sought both racial justice and economic justice. In 1957, Dr. King “condemned ‘the tragic inequalities of an economic system which takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes.'”

Dr. King was trying to save civilization, not just souls and bodies. Here is an excerpt from his "Beyond Vietnam" speech, delivered a year to the day before he was assassinated.

Let Dr. King cross Myrtle Avenue and cross Madison Avenue and cross Washington Avenue. Let’s rename all of Swan Street for Dr. King.

Please contact Mayor Sheehan and the Albany Common Council.