City changes Woodland Square’s name

What’s in a name?  A very famous question that Shakespeare answered by saying that it didn’t make any difference and that a rose by any name would smell as sweet.

Don’t tell that to the City of Lacey.  They have just changed one of the famous names of Lacey to a name of no consequence.

Woodland Square – the heart of Lacey’s downtown, had been renamed Midtown, in all official city utterances. and documents.  According to my conversation with Mayor Andy Ryder, some time ago, when they were talking about changing the name – the mayor said the name Woodland Square didn’t have the pulling power it needed to become the city center.  And, it didn’t represent the larger area which encompasses St. Martin’s and other adjacent properties.

In case you aren’t aware, the city is trying to tie the geographical areas of the city together.  Not only have they come up with the name Midtown to denote the primary area of Lacey, but they’ve also created an Historical District which encompasses Lacey Boulevard and Pacific Avenue as it runs along the section of city containing the Train Depot replica and the site of the new Lacey Historical Museum.

Woodland has a major significance to Lacey.  It was the original name of the city before it became Lacey.  And, the land which encompasses Woodland Square has carried that name for more than 50 years.

The mayor said the area needed a new name to represent the greater community surrounding it.  Don’t tell that to the hundreds of major cities in the United States which have an area called “Square”.  Like Harvard Square, Hearld’s Square, Ghirardelli Square and Union Square (both in San Francisco), McPhersons Square in Washington DC and Freedom Square in Boston.  Many of these squares also have an historical component just like Woodland Square.

The City of Lacey is now 50 years old and has 60,000 residents.  Changing an historical name for the purpose of promoting city identification seems wrong.  I don’t sense a lot of citizen outrage, but then again, many people aren’t aware of the city’s history nor the city’s effort to negate some of its history.

Lets bring a stop to the city’s efforts to erase part of the city’s history in an effort to create a sense of community before too many more city documents contain that name and its too late.