UPDATE: City Council approved the honorary street name at its meeting Monday.
ORIGINAL STORY: A portion of a northwest Atlanta street will be renamed for late Atlanta councilman Ivory Lee Young.
Councilmembers unanimously approved the change in the city’s utilities committee meeting Tuesday following a public hearing where a few residents and Young’s widow Shalise Steele-Young signaled their support of the honorary street name.
“Ivory, as he would state several times in the meetings, was a practicing architect,” Steele-Young said during the hearing. “Ivory could’ve made a whole lot of money doing architecture, but he instead decided that he wanted to work to make a difference and to elevate the people and the businesses of the community.”
The full council will vote on the honorary street sign at its meeting Monday.
Last month, Councilman Antonio Brown introduced legislation that would rename a section of Griffin Street NW between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Jefferson Street after Young.
Under the proposal, the public works department would install honorary signs at each intersection identifying the street as Ivory Lee Young Jr. Way. Brown filled Young’s vacant seat in a runoff election in April.
The street name would be the latest honor for Young, who died in November 2018. Earlier this year, the city unveiled a mural dedicated to Young, the late Rev. Joseph E. Boone and residents of Brown’s District 3.
The mural, titled "The Seeds that are Planted," spans more than 5,000 square feet at Joseph E. Boone Boulevard, and is one of the city's largest pieces of public art, according to the Westside Future Fund.
A plaque honoring Young will also be installed at Kathryn Johnston Memorial Park in the English Avenue neighborhood.
Young served four terms on City Council and represented District 3.
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