Housing
What the Hell: Why Not Rename Austin?
A report about city-owned streets named after the Confederacy has sparked a broader (and misleading) conversation about Austin’s history.
Austin, the liberal-leaning capital of Texas and live music, passed a resolution last fall to rethink, remove, or rename its monuments and memorials honoring the Confederacy. The move came late in a year in which Baltimore, Memphis, New Orleans, and other cities with roots below the Mason-Dixon Line reevaluated their Confederate heritage, in some cases by sending Rebel statues tumbling.
On Friday, Austin’s Equity Office answered its City Council’s October resolution with a report. For just shy of $6,000, the city of Austin could resolve some of its most egregious markers of the Confederacy simply by renaming several streets—hardly a huge lift for the city, which has already booted Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee from local signage.