KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The advisory group's votes are in, but the city is deciding what happens next with the recommendations to name either the airport terminal or 63rd St. after Martin Luther King, Jr.
On Monday at 3:30 p.m., Mayor Sly James and members of the committee he appointed held a news conference at the Kansas City Public Library's Plaza Branch. Together they presented the recommendations and discussed the next steps in the process.
"Commenters used words like big, bold to describe the prospect of the airport being renamed after Dr. King," MLK Group Co-Chair Roger Williams said.
.@MayorSlyJames talking next steps. For street change: Would need 75% of residents to sign off. For @KCIAirport: would not take away MCI, but might name it the “MLK Terminal at MCI” @41actionnews
— Cat Reid (@catreidtv) May 21, 2018
But Mayor Sly James added a very important revision to group members' comments on Monday afternoon.
"Substitute the word 'terminal' for 'airport,'' James said at the news conference.
While members of the advisory group voted Sunday to name the airport after MLK, Mayor James made it very clear that only the new terminal's name is up for debate. Instead of MLK International Airport, he said we could end up with the "Martin Luther King, Jr. Terminal at MCI."
"We have other people to satisfy, and one of the groups of people we need to satisfy are the people who operate and market the airport," James said.
In a letter to the MLK Advisory Group sent on May 10, Director of Aviation Patrick Klein strongly discouraged the idea of renaming the airport, as it could cause confusion among travelers and hinder the department's marketing ability.
While a name for the new terminal could be decided by City Council, the process for renaming 63rd Street is much more complicated. The change would need to be approved by 75 percent of the home/business owners along the street.
Sloane Simmons is the co-owner of A Store Named Stuff, located at 63rd St. and Brookside Blvd. She has no problem with the renaming.
"To have to do a little bit of paperwork is probably the least we can do for a man and a city that have given me so much," she said.
Others have concerns. Rosalind Scroggins has lived on 63rd Street for more than 42 years.
"It would just change too many different things as far as mailing and everything else," she said.
Committee co-chair still using “new airport,” and “renaming” @41actionnews
— Cat Reid (@catreidtv) May 21, 2018
For the name change, someone would have to pay for switching and maintaining all of the signs. According to the KCMO Public Works Dept., the average cost for one street sign and its installation is around $200. Replacing LED signs, like the ones at 63rd St. and Swope Parkway, costs around $4,100.
According to Mayor Sly James, the next steps in the process involve studying the feasibility of each option. He plans to reach out to the King family to see if they're even interested in the new terminal being named after MLK. Once some of the logistics are ironed out over the next few weeks, more information will be presented at a council business session.
In the meantime, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Kansas City plans to continue its initiative to rename The Paseo after MLK. The estimated cost of that renaming is $150,000.
