Introducing New Name for Convention Center!

Big event next Monday in D.C. The authority that operates the Washington Convention Center is holding an event to rename the place in honor of Walter E. Washington.

Here is the critical line from a press release on the topic: “The Washington Convention Center Authority (WCCA) announced today plans to host an official dedication ceremony to rename the building the Walter E. Washington Convention Center after the District of Columbia’s first elected mayor.”

Grand idea, in all. Washington was a jolly old fellow. Something of a go-along-to-get-along type, but hey, his heart was in the right place. So no objections to naming the place after Walter E. Washington.

My objection is to the name itself: Take a close look. Right now, the place is called the Washington Convention Center. The guy they’re hoping to honor is Walter E. Washington. The new name, if I read the press release right, is “Walter E. Washington Convention Center.”

That’s bullshit. It should be “Walter E. Washington Washington Convention Center.” This is like calling our landing strip across the river the “Ronald Washington National Airport.” Or calling our low-cost landing strip the “Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Airport.”

How dare the authority dishonor our great first mayor by excluding his last name–his dignity!–from our grand convention center.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 29th, 2007 at 5:28 pm and is filed under Downtown, Washington Convention Center. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.