Sly James is late but not wrong on renaming a KC street for Martin Luther King Jr.

Mayor Sly James might have spoken up sooner about his 11th-hour brainstorm to form a citizens’ commission that will lead a community-wide conversation on how best to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Even if unintentionally, his last-minute plan comes off as disrespectful to Congressman Emanuel Cleaver and to the group of African-American ministers who have already put a lot of time and effort into their plan to rename The Paseo for King.

But though his timing is unfortunate, the process he’s proposing is solid.

There’s a lot to be said for engaging the whole city in this decision through an exercise that will hopefully pay tribute to King, too.

We still like the idea of renaming The Paseo, which runs north-south through the city’s African-American community, for the slain civil rights leader, who was assassinated in Memphis 50 years ago.

But there’s also a good case for getting the widest possible buy-in for renaming either The Paseo or some other appropriate thoroughfare.

As always, process matters, and an electoral fight over the question would not honor a man who died for his non-violent commitment to peace as well as racial and economic justice.

And of course, as is always the case in a community that’s not a monolith, support for The Paseo option isn’t universal among African Americans in Kansas City.

The mayor himself does not favor that option, which he sees as “just automatically renaming a street in a segregated part of town and creating yet another dividing line. … I just don’t know how that honors Dr Martin Luther King. I don’t say that having a street named after him isn’t an honor.

“But I’ve been to other cities where there are MLK streets. None of them are in any parts of town that have any economic activity or anything going on that I’ve been able to see. And I just don’t know how that honors the man.”

Point taken.

And his more important point is this one:

“If that’s what the city wants, fine,” he told The Star. “But I think there ought to be some discussion about whether or not that’s a good idea or whether there’s a better idea. I wanted to give the opportunity for the discussion to be held in a broader way.”

The renaming effort from Cleaver and the ministers has been in the works for some time.

In fact, they were to have begun collecting signatures to put the matter on the ballot at a rally on Friday — an event that was rescheduled for April 13 because there was snow in the forecast.

In an interview on Friday afternoon, Cleaver didn’t criticize James over the surprise course correction.

Asked about the new commission, he said, “Yes,” then paused for a few seconds before adding, “There’s a tradition in Kansas City that mayors never criticize mayors. So I’m going to practice that.”

This story was originally published April 6, 2018 at 6:34 PM with the headline "Sly James is late but not wrong on renaming a KC street for Martin Luther King Jr.."