Marvin Butts walked down East 13th Street in Pendleton for the last time Monday morning, wearing a white cowboy hat and holding a cigar longer than most men’s forearms.
Standing 6 feet, 10 inches tall, Butts seemed to have his own gravitational pull as he stepped into the swelling crowd that had gathered in the street to honor him. Young women and old men embraced him. Teenagers posed for selfies with him. At least three members of Cincinnati City Council encircled him, taking turns shaking his hand. So did a judge. And a state representative. And the sheriff.
“All right,” Butts said, arms outstretched, smile widening. “Let’s get this party started.”
Anyone who knows Butts, knows his words carry weight on East 13th Street. This day was no different. When he made his way to the center of the crowd, everyone drew close. They were here for him. If he was ready to start the party, so were they.
Butts runs a business down the street, the Mr. Bubbles car detailing shop, and he’s spent years cajoling, nagging, begging and brow-beating friends and strangers to make the neighborhood around this stretch of asphalt a better place to live and work.
After listening to him for more than three decades, city officials made sure on Monday that he’d never again come to them with ideas or complaints about this part of East 13th Street between Liberty and Reading.
From now on, the street will have a new name: Marvin Butts Way.
Renaming a city street can be complicated business. Not everyone is thrilled to have a new address. Not everyone thinks naming a street after a living person is a smart move. Remember when Pete Rose Way felt like a no brainer?
But those who celebrated the new street name Monday expressed no hesitation. Butts has been the informal Mayor of East 13th Street for longer than most could remember. He’s more than a businessman or a neighbor, they said. He’s a presence in their lives.
He helped run off drug dealers. He persuaded neighbors to pick up litter. He gave away toys at Christmas and free dinners at Thanksgiving.
When high school seniors couldn’t get their diplomas because they still owed school fees, Butts organized a fundraiser that collected more than $50,000 to pay off the debt.
When residents along East 13th complained that traffic barriers made their neighborhood feel like a fortress instead of a community, Butts led a campaign to take them down.
“He doesn’t just talk about it, he is about it,” said Scotty Johnson, a city council member who’s known Butts for 40 years. “That’s something we need more of in this country.”
Councilman Seth Walsh, who sponsored the ordinance renaming the street, said the main criteria for making such a move is confirming the person “is an actual pillar of the community.”
“That’s never been more true,” he said of Butts.
Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey cheered Butts for his work on a gun violence prevention program for young people. Tom Conlan Jr. praised him for helping with the Toys for Tots program.
Hamilton County Commissioner Alicia Reece recalled getting into a limousine for her prom and finding Butts was the driver. Her dad had asked him to keep an eye on her.
“I thought I was free,” she said, laughing. “He’s kept that commitment every step of the way. He’s a protector of the community.”
When it was his turn to speak, Butts, 68, held the microphone close to his graying beard and stared into a crowd filled with familiar faces. His wife, Tabatha, was there, along with many of his 13 children and stepchildren.
Squinting into the sun, he pointed and began calling out names, one after another, as if genuinely surprised so many had come to see him. He spotted the elected officials, of course, but also a restaurant owner, a pastor, the leader of a local charity.
“You all showing up made me smile,” he said.
Butts thanked them for coming and credited his mother for inspiring the charitable work he’d done over the years. She died when he was just 16, but she’s the one who made him who he is, he said, the one worthy of praise.
Then Butts put down the mic, took a puff of his cigar and made his way across East 13th for the final time. Someone handed him a rope. The crowd counted down and Butts gave it a tug, revealing a new sign bearing his name.
“That’s what you call legacy,” his wife said.
Butts lingered there, beneath the sign, for most of the next hour, talking and laughing with neighbors on the street he’d made his own.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati honors activist Marvin Butts by naming street after him
Reporting by Dan Horn, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Dan Horn, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
