By David Endicott
As the construction on Aurora Avenue North in Shoreline continues, Forward Shoreline wishes to encourage the community to begin a conversation about an opportunity presenting itself to us all.
Like it or not, the construction will result in a significantly altered primary thoroughfare in our community. And like it or not, the reputation of Aurora Avenue North in Seattle and Shoreline carries with it a mixed heritage of good and bad. As long as the name Aurora is used in our city, we will continue to suffer from its questionable reputation.
Forward Shoreline suggests that our community have a conversation about the idea of changing the name of this street and start to develop a new heritage for it. We have considered a number of ideas, but the one that seems best to us so far is to rename Aurora Avenue North from 145th to 205th as Shoreline Boulevard.
This idea is not unprecedented: Everett calls it Evergreen Way and Sea-Tac calls it International Boulevard. Whether Shoreline Boulevard or some other name is ultimately agreed on, our purpose is to help transform the negative perception of this street into something positive for Shoreline.
Aurora Avenue North suggests Seattle. There’s nothing wrong with that, but now we’re Shoreline – and proud of it. We can easily envision radio traffic reports about the flow of traffic on the new Shoreline Boulevard. The change is something about which we all could justifiably be very proud.
To be sure, there may be some problems. Businesses located on Aurora Avenue North have letterhead, business cards and all manner of other practical changes they would have to make. This can be accommodated by having street signs appear with both names for a period of two or three years in which Shoreline Boulevard appears on top in large lettering and Aurora Avenue North below that in smaller lettering. For a while, there would be some confusion, but we’re also certain that publicity about the change will take care of most of that issue. Changing the street signs will be a budget issue, but given the benefits, entirely worth the cost.
What are some other concerns? Let’s have a community discussion and come up with a great idea, whether Shoreline Boulevard or other-wise, to re-brand the name of our main north-south street. Once we’ve decided as a community what that new name should be, the City Council and other government representatives can make it official. Then, we can all enjoy the benefits.
David Endicott is executive director of Forward Shoreline.
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