Mosby Woods Resident Opposes 'Cockamamie' Street Name Changes: Opinion

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — At its Tuesday night meeting, the Fairfax City Council voted to approve the proposed timeline for choosing new names for 14 city streets identified as having links to the Confederacy.

Starting in January 2021, the "Connecting Fairfax City For All" initiative hosted listening sessions and public discussions to examine the way the Civil War was represented in Fairfax. The Stakeholder Advisory Group published its final report last September, recommending the city rename the following streets:

• Mosby Woods Community: Confederate Lane, Mosby Woods Drive, Plantation Parkway, Raider Lane, Ranger Road, Reb Street, Scarlet Circle, Singleton Circle, and Traveler Street
• Major Arterial Roads: Lee Highway, Old Lee Highway
• Additional Roads in the City: Lee Street, Mosby Road, Stonewall Avenue

On Tuesday night, the council also hosted a courtesy public hearing on the renaming process. Only one of the two people who signed up to speak at the meeting addressed the council.

When Mosby Woods resident Sue Ellen Brown came to the meeting, she thought she would have 10 minutes to speak, but was informed that speakers were allowed only 3 minutes to speak on a single topic. Brown ended up summarizing her written statement.

Following Brown's appearance before the council, a Patch reporter offered to publish the full statement as an opinion piece on its website:

"My name is Sue Ellen Brown. This morning, I opened my "plantation shutters" in my "master bedroom." As I've done for many years, I have entered my "Jack and Jill" bathroom to brush my teeth. Then I noticed the postcard from you welcoming citizen input back on the following streets and whether they should be renamed.

Scarlet Circle #7

"My name is Sue Ellen Brown. My mother named me after Scarlett O'Hara's sister. Now, do I have to change my name? Even worse, is my mother a racist? Will the residents of Scarlet Circle, all seven houses, shun me? Cockamamie.

Ranger Road #5

"Upon googling 'ranger,' the first listing is a Ford Ranger pickup truck. Who does that offend? Other examples: the Texas Rangers baseball team, forest rangers, United States Army Rangers, park rangers. I asked you again, who is offended by Ranger Road? More cockamamie.

Traveler Street # 10

"Traveler, a person who is traveling or who often travels. Example: 'Thousands of air travelers were left stranded.' Then there's Travelers Insurance Company and Traveler Magazine, a nomad a tourist, an explorer. More cockamamie.

"The Civil War is part of our makeup. We are a historic city with good and bad. You want to erase history? The surest way not to repeat history is to not erase it.

"These are troubled times. The city has problems. The county had problems. The country has problems. We the people are struggling. Inflation, raised assessments, gas prices, food prices, possible recession, crime — just read NextDoor. Catalytic converters, airbags stolen, homelessness, potholes, flooding, pandemic and you spent the past two years fussing about nine innocuous street name changes?

"Now, let's talk about the cost to us taxpayers. I wish I could talk about the cost. But strangely, I was unable to obtain that information from the city. I called the city on May 26, asking two simple questions:

• What is the cost to date spent on street name changes?
• How much has been budgeted?

"Sounds fair, sounds simple. My call was transferred to [City Clerk] Melanie Crowder. Not surprised. I got her machine. I left my name, phone message, etc. Melanie did not call back.

"I proceeded to call Melanie every day or for a week. Melanie never called back, nor did Susan Gray [curator at the City of Fairfax's Office of Historic Resources] nor did [U.S. Rep.] Gerry Connelly. So, by day eight, I was very frustrated.

"Nancy [Tingen], the admin assistant, said Melanie was selling her house and would be out an additional week. Even worse, Melanie was the only person who could tell me how much was spent and the budget. Very fishy, I'd say. I told Nancy I plan to speak tonight and I needed this information. A few days later, Nancy called and gave me all she could scrounge up.

"Five staff employees have been working on this full-time for two years, but none has billed overtime; $40,800 was the only invoice and that was to a consulting firm. What did they do? And shockingly, $100,000 has been budgeted for these nine, street name changes.

"Question: Was a consulting firm responsible for this postcard? I was a graphic designer. This is a good example of a mailing that will end up in the trash. It looks too much like the junk mail that we get daily.

"To you City Council people, please don't think that because there are only two speakers tonight, the rest of the population does not care. So many of my neighbors said they never received the postcard. It was more than likely tossed into the trash.

"Now, let's talk about the Old Lee Highway and Lee Highway name changes. This one really hurts. Lee Highway, in 1920, was a national auto trail connecting New York City to San Francisco, an important part of the Lincoln Highway. Just a few weeks ago, we were so lucky to have [Amor Towles], the author of "The Lincoln Highway: A Novel," speak at the Sherwood Center. Lee Highway is a part of the Lincoln Highway and has been for 102 years and now you're going to call it Cardinal Road or some other name. Let's just erase history some more?

"And by the way, whatever happened to the cannon that was in front of the courthouse? It seemed to disappear one dark night. Who was offended by a cannon?

"I learned that a survey was sent out and a majority 58 percent of respondents supported keeping the street names the same. But wait! You claimed the survey was invalid because it was not set up to prevent people from filling it out more than once. Huh? What? Can you do that? In my book, 58 percent is a majority or maybe not.

"Am I correct in reading that there are 150 names of parks, streets and other public places that are up for renaming, as they currently "memorialize the Confederacy?" There're so many more urgent concerns to deal with.

"By the way, what about less than a mile down the road? George Mason University? Any plans to rename that? Mason had more than 100 slaves, more than Washington, and unlike Washington, he refused to have the slaves freed after his death. I find it hypocritical to change Traveler Road and Scarlet Circle but pass over George Mason.

"In summary, when I decided to speak, I was hopeful that my concerns would be heard. Now I know I was wrong. You've already made up your mind. I've seen evidence all along the past two weeks you've made up your mind. Sadly, I was duped. This is a fait accompli.

"Here's the final proof. I saw an announcement from the Old Lee Hills Civic Association newsletter: 'In anticipation of a potential name change to Old Lee Highway, we are proposing to amend the bylaws. This new article would establish a process to decide on changing the name of Old Lee Hills neighborhood.'

"By the way, this is the mayor's neighborhood. It's a fait accompli.

"My name is Sue Ellen Brown. Please don't make me change it."