Cypress Avenue will not be renamed to Charlie Kirk Lane after a proposal by Mayor Paul Alfrey failed to gain traction with Melbourne City Council at its Sept. 24 meeting.
Days after the assassination of the conservative political activist and media personality, local business owner Kaili Lamb made remarks on social media about Kirk’s shooting death and subsequently apologized. In quick succession, Mayor Paul Alfrey suggested renaming the street where her business is located to Charlie Kirk Lane.
During the council meeting, though, Alfrey proposed having a separate workshop to further look into the matter. Only Councilman David Neuman supported that plan, while the other five members voted against it.
Backlash against the proposal mounted in the council chambers Wednesday night in a tense and at times hectic meeting in which Kirk detractors called his supporters racist while his supporters said Kirk’s words were often taken out of context.
The debate over a street name comes just as national discourse around free speech in the wake of Kirk’s death continues to heat up. Late night host Jimmy Kimmel returned to airwaves this week after threats by the FCC and major ABC affiliate stations to either punish the broadcaster or air other programming instead as a response to a joke Kimmel made touching on Kirk’s killing that many found offensive.
Others were simply concerned about Kirk’s lack of direct ties to the area and the decision to honor him over local heroes.
“Charlie Kirk didn’t even know where Brevard County was. He never even heard of Melbourne. I feel we have other people in this community who could be honored,” councilwoman Mimi Hanley said.
Councilman Mark LaRusso, who also serves as vice chairman of the Melbourne Airport Authroity, said that large companies look at Melbourne and what goes on in the city before decisions about expanding and hiring in the area. He said the decision to rename the street would potentially have negative impacts on business in the area.
“Sorry Paul, I love you like a brother. But this, in my mind, this is wrong,” LaRusso told Alfrey on the dais.
Councilman Marcus Smith said “we need to be honest about the controversy here. Healthy debate can promote democracy, disparaging remarks can hurt it.” Smith, who is Black, said Kirk’s comments about Black pilots and officials like Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson were the kinds of remarks that should not be honored with a street renaming.
“We don’t have to fight over a single slice of pie. We can fight for a bigger pie. We should unite rather than divide. Inspire rather than provoke. We can choose symbols for our city that reflect, unity, abundance and opportunity and values that pull us together rather than push us apart,” Smith said.
Community at odds over renaming of street for Kirk
Many Melbourne and Brevard County residents spoke at Wednesday’s meeting both against and in favor of renaming a street for Kirk.
Anna Held, who served in the U.S. Air Force, suggested naming the road for men alongside whom she had served and who had died overseas, such as Indialantic native William Posch, who died serving in Iraq seven years ago.
“Is Charlie Kirk more important than people who were killed in action? People who served their community, loved their community. When we get through with all our amazing community members, when you get through all of those people, then you can look at naming a road after Mr. Kirk, but don’t put him ahead of those people,” Held said. Not everyone agreed with those comments. Many said that renaming the street for Kirk would be a way to uphold the city’s commitment to the First Amendment, claiming that was what Kirk used his platform to do.
“In renaming this street, we can enshrine these principles in the very fabric of our community. This was a man who died defending our right to disagree peacefully,” said Ricky Diaz at Wednesday’s meeting.
Tyler Vazquez is the Growth and Development Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Vazquez at 321-480-0854 or tvazquez@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @tyler_vazquez.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Proposal to rename Melbourne street for Charlie Kirk fails to gain support at council meeting
Reporting by Tyler Vazquez, Florida Today / Florida Today
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
