Atlanta’s Spring Street Could Be Renamed Ted Turner Drive

The proposed route for Ted Turner Drive is on a portion of Spring Street between West Peachtree and Whitehall streets. The plan was proposed by a group called Friends of Ted Turner and City Councilman C.T. Martin.

If approved, Ted Turner Drive would run near CNN Center and in front of one of the properties still owned by Turner.

Former Atlanta Mayor and U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young says naming a street in Turner’s honor is appropriate.

“Almost anything he’s tackled he’s been a winner, and to have a street in our city that reminds people of that would be very significant,” he says. 

Young considers Turner a longtime friend. He says the media mogul helped make Atlanta into the international city it is today.

“He was one of the first people who understood that and decided this could be the broadcast base from which America could impact and influence the whole world,” he says. 

So what do locals think about Spring Street?  

Most people WABE spoke with didn’t know much about the street’s history. The street wasn’t named after a person, but an actual spring that used to flow through the property of Anderson Walton, one of Atlanta’s first city councilmembers.  

Recently, the Atlanta Downtown Neighborhood Association voted against changing Spring Street to Ted Turner Drive. Association President Kyle Kessler says renaming streets is problematic because it’s expensive and confusing.

“There’s still maps and signs and GPS systems that still shows the old name and still causes confusion for folks when you’re giving directions or your coming from out of town and you need to know where to go,” Kessler says. “There’s a lot of hardship and cost borne by MARTA, the state, GDOT, or private residences or private businesses that have to change all their letterhead and all the services they provide.”

Kessler says he likes Turner personally. He just thinks the city should find another way to honor people who’ve made great contributions.

“There’s plenty of other locations in the city, whether it’s a park, whether it’s a school, a plaza, or an intersection, pieces of the BeltLine,” he says. “There’s all sorts of things that we have out there as public infrastructure that we could choose to honor somebody with rather than choosing to take something that already has a name and taking somebody else’s name and putting somebody else’s name on top of it.”

Jennifer Dickey is a history professor and serves as coordinator of public history at Kennesaw State University.

“As a historian I’m really opposed to this notion of renaming streets because I feel we’re wiping away our history,” Dickey says.

She says Atlanta has a long habit of replacing street names.

“For instance what used to be Ivy Street, what’s now Peachtree Center Avenue, was named after Hardy Ivy, who was the first settler of European descent in the area,” Dickey says. “We’re always so busy looking forward that we don’t a good job of preserving our history here.”

In recent years, one of the most contentious fights was over whether to rename Harris Street after architect John Portman. Preservationists took the city to court, but in end the street name was still changed.

Those moves bother residents like Wesley Hood.

“Why change it? If they’ve been that way for years, they should just leave them the way they are,” Hood says. 

But several local residents WABE spoke with were OK with naming a street after Turner, including Patrick Dunn.

“I think it’s OK because Atlanta is known for cleaning the slate so … it’s expected,” Dunn says. “Any other city I would be kind of distraught. I mean Boston, New York or something like that, but Atlanta is a every 40 years start over again, and you know being resurgence and the phoenix and all, so I see no problems with it honestly.”

The city’s utilities committee is expected to vote on the proposed name change by mid-May. Committee members say the earliest the plan could be considered by the full council is May 18.