Some call for changing name of George Flagg Parkway
BPC Staff Mar 16, 2022 | 3:36 pm
1 min read time
149 wordsAll Latest News, Arts and Culture, Statewide NewsAxios Des Moines: Several Des Moines residents are calling on the city to rename George Flagg Parkway over concerns about the namesake’s xenophobic stances and actions while serving on City Council, local civil rights advocate Kavya Parsa told Axios. Supporters of the renaming view a $72 million street plan unveiled last week, which includes a proposed realignment of the roadway, as an opportunity for current city leaders to “rectify its error,” Parsa said. The longtime City Council member, who died in 2006, acknowledged to the Des Moines Register in 2001 that he for years voted against liquor licenses of retailers with “ethnic-sounding names.” He also made racist and unfounded comments to the newspaper in October 2001 connecting immigrants to murders in the city and across the country. That same year, Flagg voted against a city ordinance that outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, employment and public accommodations.