Troost Avenue won't change to Truth — maybe ever — as road still divides KC
Troost Avenue won't become Truth Avenue anytime soon – if ever.
Three years after Troost Avenue business owner Chris Goode proposed the name change to rid the 11-mile arterial street of its association to 19th Century slaveholder Benoist Troost, Goode once again left City Hall disappointed on Tuesday.
For the second year in a row, Mayor Quinton Lucas blocked the measure to change the infamous street's name, proposing that the measure be placed on indefinite hold so officials can study the issue more and consider other possible names.
Goode called the move 'political mumbo jumbo' after a meeting of the City Council's Special Committee for Legal Review. It came after Lucas and two other committee members heard a half hour of testimony from residents who were both for and against the change.
'He won't engage with me,' Goode said when asked by a reporter why Lucas continues to resist changing the street name. 'Something has our mayor bound, and it's not our collective beliefs.'
Chris Goode, owner of Ruby Jean's Juicery, awaits a vote from the city council regarding the renaming of Troost Avenue, at City Hall on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. Goode has been working to get the street renamed for the last three years.
Lucas has maintained all along that street name changes are problematic. The people who live or conduct business on Troost Avenue would be inconvenienced by a name change. They'd have to change the addresses they use to pay bills and correspond with others through the postal service.
Then there are the many different viewpoints people have in the community about whether a name change is wise or not.
Could be revived
Removing the name of a slaveholder on a street sign might seems like an act of social justice to some. To others, it's an attempt to erase history, as Troost Avenue is as much a reminder of the country's advances in civil rights as it is a reminder of the nation's Jim Crow past.
Lucas and Councilwoman Andrea Bough voted to put the issue on hold after hearing a mix of those opinions from more than a dozen residents at Tuesday's meeting. The only committee member in favor of pushing the name change forward was Councilwoman Melissa Robinson.
The corner of E. 30th Street and Troost Avenue on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. A measure to rename Troost Avenue to 'Truth' Avenue was voted to be placed on hold in a city council meeting on Tuesday.
Since 2023, Robinson has been trying to gain support from her colleagues for changing the name of Troost Avenue, which during the decades of segregation was known for being a dividing line between predominantly white and Black neighborhoods. She began by gaining council support of an effort to gauge public opinion by conducting an online poll that year.
But then a year ago in committee, Lucas and Bough sunk her attempt to make the name change official by amending her proposal. Instead of changing the official street name, their substitute ordinance supported a compromise measure that would have made Truth Avenue an 'honorary' street name.
That would have meant two sets of signs, but Troost Avenue would remain the official designation. Robinson opposed that half step, and the full council took no action by placing it 'off docket.'
3rd Dist. Councilwoman Melissa Robinson speaks to media at City Hall on Tuesday, May 6, 2025 following the city's vote to hold on the renaming of Troost Avenue. Robinson was in support of the renaming.
The ordinance held in committee on Tuesday would have changed Troost to Truth Avenue, effective six months after passed. Separately, it set out a process for changing North Troost Avenue in the Northland and for preserving the history of Troost Avenue in some way.
Lucas suggested that the council reconsider the honorary name change proposal from 2024. But for now, no actions are pending.
Speaking with reporters after the meeting, Robinson said, however, that the issue is not dead.
'The committee voted it off docket, but that doesn't mean that we can't, as the majority of the council, address this issue,' she said. 'So now it really is about taking it to the full floor and working with other council members who would potentially want to see the name change.'
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