On Tuesday night, the Antioch City Council approved the idea of changing the street names of both “A” and “L” Street, however, they want to give the community an opportunity to chime in.
The idea behind the renaming of the streets is to better market and brand Antioch.
For example, there is a push to change “L” Street to “Marina” to identify with the Marina and train downtown. According to the staff report, Marina Way, Marina Parkway, Marina Drive and Marina Boulevard are all names that have been floated.
The name floated for “A” Street is something that contains “Rivertown” so as to let people know that there is an historic downtown called Rivertown, which is situated on a beautiful river. Rivertown Drive is the name most often mentioned.
During public comments, Lori Cook stated Antioch first should consider cleaning up the neighborhoods before renaming them. She submitted photographs taken Monday showing graffiti, illegal dumping, panhandling, garbage, and homeless.
“Some of these problems would be easily fixed if we had more code enforcement officers and a team that would take care of the items on a daily basis,” explained Cook. “Two measures have been passed in the last two years to help with items like this. Measure C in 2015, and Measure O in 2013, these were primarily for police and staffing to restore blighted properties. I haven’t seen any of these improvements.”
Cook went onto explain how she conducted a survey on her Facebook Page Cleaning Up Antioch and how people discussed how important code enforcement was.
Former councilman Allen Payton said this idea has been going on for 19-years with the idea to show the community things were progressing.
“This concept is not about what the street looks like now or its current condition, it is to get permanent marketing for downtown. Let people know getting off the freeway oh there is a river down there, oh there is a marina, it’s really that simple,” explained Payton.
He encouraged the name changes to occur.
Councilwoman Mary Rocha stated that in the past the timing was not there, but now it may be.
“We are so close to the change and what is happening to us as a city that the timing is now to change the name. My concern is the businesses on A Street from 6th Street to the water and on L Street. There is no reason not to change it,” explained Rocha highlighting her concerns of a timeline and including the community in the decision.
Councilwoman Monica Wilson stated this made sense to her but wanted to reach out to the businesses for the City to get more information.
Councilwoman Rocha suggested a delay to at least the following meeting allow the community the opportunity to know a name change will occur and see if anyone wanted to provide input.
Mayor Wade Harper agreed that the community should have an opportunity to provide input.
“We have to make sure we reach out to the community, we need to reach out to our constituents, go to the senior centers the schools the neighborhoods, the neighborhood waters and churches and say did you know this was happening instead of us sitting here making a decision,” explained Harper. “I think we need to do better than that.”
Councilman Tony Tiscareno said he did not have a problem with this saying its time for he city to move forward with the marketing aspect.
“We do need to give the residents and businesses a good amount of time to prepare so we need a window of time,” said Tiscareno. “I like the names, but I am not sold on one over the other so possibly get a list of top 3 or 4 of each that we can discuss and have public input on favorite names of the street so we can make that decisions. But we do want to stay in that structure of Marina or Rivertown to promote the areas.”
Councilwoman Rocha suggested a 30-day window of time to get the word out and come back in 60-days so a decision could be made.
The council approved the motion approved 5-0. In the next several weeks, City Staff will be providing information for the public to provide input.
28 comments
This is the best Antioch can come up with in terms of being productive? Street name changes? You have got to be kidding me. What a waste of time and effort. Leave them the same and go focus on more important things like cleaning up the streets.
Anyone paying attention can see this is Allen Payton pushing his own agenda onto the council through Lori Ogorchock. Shame on both of them. Lori, be your own person please instead of Paytons puppet.
another stupid idea wasting taxpayer money. Who wants to come to Antioch when it smells like an open sewer? The homeless have taken over the downtown and all along the water front and that is why there is no business. Antioch residents avoid those locations because we have the worst city council ever elected and they just don’t get it….
Have to agree with Antioch Insider! Lori Cook is correct also. BEFORE we do one more thing we have to clean this city up! I was just in Vallejo and American Canyon for 4 hours this morning and did not see trash all over NOR did I see graffiti in one single place. Both cities make Antioch look like just what it has become, a third world city.
Changing street names is expensive and a major event with changes to maps, computer, GPS devices not counting all the individual addresses on the streets. BESIDES, if you did, you would be directing traffic to an area that needs a lot of attention. When Antioch was founded, the streets were named for individuals but renamed later to make it easier to locate the streets, B is after A, etc. with cross streets using numbers. Changing names to a description, like A to Riverview or L to Marina, how about Sycamore to Scary for example? Probably not a good idea, money should be spent elsewhere!
Sycamore= Garbage Dump.
The city needs to use that money and ramp up the police department.
I lived in Antioch it was so nice but that was 1969 seems to me the city conciliatory and planning department did not do a good job just collect the paycheck. So name it trash alley
Instead of renaming and replacing signs along A and L, which the city can’t afford, why not just one sign apiece at the L and A street exits saying “Antioch Marina” and “Historic Rivertown District”. It will save dough and I won’t have to look at that fake, prefab “Rivertown” moniker whenever I drive on A street..
forget the damn name changes and get some police out walking the beat in certain neighborhoods that need cleaned up. get to know the residents who want to have the streets back and will work with the police to get back control. forget the rolling in guns blazing way of doing things, have the police already there and i bet that the b.s will slow way down and the thugs will start getting busted. if residents see the city and police are serious about changes being made to help get the streets back and and the police and city have there backs the respect and trust will come for both sides. get your butts out of the patrol cars and get some good walking shoes and beat the streets. nothing worse than seeing cops parked across from antioch high or behind cvs by the resivoir gate doing paper work and crap. do that at the station at your desk. and im not talking about once a month or week but every night and day. .its not rocket science here man. i dont want to hear about funding or manpower, none of that crap, just do it,and not years from now but now.be what a city council is supossed to be. do what it takes to make the town safe and clean. make it a community again. street name changes, wtf is wrong with you people,wake the f… up man!why would you council members want to be remembered as the worse stinking council antioch has ever had? and that my friends i think takes alot of effort because there were some bad councils in the past.move forward?you need to put the brakes on and stop this train wreck first.then put it in gear, look left, right ,and left again and proceed.how much did it cost the city to purchase all the property down L st. to build one of the most,i dont even know the word to describe the way L st. was built. some side streets can make a left turn some cant because medians are in the way, wtf kind of thinking was that? the stop light at 10th and L st dont have green arrows for left turns onto L st. four lanes down L st. two lanes down 10th, the busiest street during commute hours. wtf? so people use 11th and 9th as a bypass. there is nothing downtown for anyone to go to. no jamboree,no nothing. all these years nothing but talk,arguments, council fueds,money as in millions blown on a single plan. i mean can anyone think of a reason right now to want to head downtown and spend some time and money there?years of absolutely nothing to improve ,add to or clean up downtown. but the city did take away river acces down there. sherrifs come and arrest people if there on the water side of the tracks. so i guess that big ass river is just a view to the majority of us. have the trains slow the f… down or have them use the set of tracks not being used anymore. dont make us not have river access. you know it all boils down to this, it sucks being born and raised here and watch this town that is full of potential to be awesome again just be ran into the dirt . bring the cruise back or have something like pittsburg has downtown. something. how about the guardian angels comeing back. something people.i for one would walk the streets with a group to help get the town back on track. start getting the punks and thugs under control and out of our town.but the punks and thugs have more rights to be assholes than we do to get them out of here right? well f… that s…! white,black,brown yellow i dont give a s… just lets do what it takes as a community to get rid of the thugs that are controlling our way of life. f… living in fear, not being able to leave the front door open or take a walk down by the river. it wasnt that long ago we was able to do that people. lets get medeval on there asses!
Excellent, couldn’t said it better!
How about Sycamore= Garbage Dump. Why don’t they use the money to ramp up the police department? That might be better than attracting people to areas that are full off crime and homelessness. Wake up Antioch!
Taxpayers dollars at work. Antioch is horrible, crime is high, homeless is huge problem, schools suck, not to mention the trash/vandalism but our city council thinks wasting time and money on changing names is the way to go. Let’s market Antioch with fancy names so criminals can have new victims visit their streets thinking they are visiting a beautiful river lol what a joke!!
The council would not be spending any money on this, now and maybe won’t have to. Plus, the city can give it a year before implementing and it can be paid for later with either private funds or included in the budget for the L Street widening improvement, when that project gets funded, eventually. It’s part of the city’s 1996 Economic Development Plan and now part of the city’s Downtown Specific Plan, which was recently updated. The downtown business and property owners and managers voted unanimously at their meeting in June to support renaming A & West 2nd Streets to Rivertown Drive and L Street to Marina Way, Blvd. or Parkway. The Rivertown Preservation Society supports the renaming, as well. I’d like to know when they were changed to letters and numbers. Funny how the streets in the rest of the city don’t have letters and numbers but have actual names. If any money is spent, it would be one-time money for permanent marketing of Antioch’s historic downtown Rivertown and waterfront, where people can enjoy boating on the river, shop in the stores and eat at the restaurants. It would be directing people to an area that has been improving with a variety of new businesses. When was the last time you were downtown? There are some homeless around. But, it does NOT smell like a sewer. As for cleaning up the city we can do that at the same time we rename the streets. Are you saying we don’t want to promote to and have people going downtown until things are better? That’s ridiculous. The businesses are down there, now. The city is trying to improve downtown, now. The citizens are working to put in a park and event center on the old lumber company, now. That could have the address of something like 201 Rivertown Drive. Then when Humphrey’s restaurant is reopened as something new it could have the address of 1 Marina Way, Parkway or Blvd. instead of 1 Marina Plaza, which isn’t promoted on the freeway. You have to think ahead. Plan and approve the street renaming, now and always implement it later, once the funds are determined. This is a good idea and needs to finally be approved.
This is the most ridiculous nonsensical waste of time, effort, and energy. Can I get a damped street light by my house where the city has admitted to us they goofed in planning and a street light should be installed? Make Antioch better, nobody is going to go to these areas of town until it is made safer and cleaned up. Wake up already!
The renaming West Pittsburg to Bay Point didn’t make the place a darn bit better. This won’t help Antioch either.
I can’t believe that this is what our city Council is wasting time discussing. This is absolutely nuts ! Why don’t you spend your time trying to figure out how to clean up the city including A & L streets instead of trying to change the names, when residents and businesses are strongly opposed. It’s not going to draw anyone downtown and if it does one time, no one is ever going to come back when they see there’s nothing there to go to. I love downtown to but I am as frustrated as everyone that they can’t seem to hold any businesses. None of these council members live on these streets, I think it’s completely unfair for them to be so in favor of this change, it doesn’t impact them at all.
I don’t care so much about L street, but since A street south of Hwy 4 becomes LoneTree, if you want to change A street to something else, wouldn’t it be more logical to change it to LoneTree?
Both of these proposed changes seem strange, in my opinion, as the city has so completely turned its back on its history as a “river town” (and focusing so much attention and energy away from north Antioch to the southern edges). It will take a lot more than naming a street after the river to bring a renewed energy and focus to supporting the residents and businesses of north Antioch. Having said that, both of these proposed changes make a lot more sense than changing Somerville to Auto Center Drive, which had nothing to do with our history or the real issues of Antioch residents.
it seems that our council feel the name change will magically make a difference. Well it won’t the city needs to make an effort to clean up downtown “L” street is nothing but a getto I fear for myself driving down “L” street it not safe for the high school where I have two grandkids going “A” is not much better homeless with garbage ever where a name change will not resolve the problems that our city council seems to turn a blind eye to I have spend all my life here watching the deteroation of my community and continued lame decisions by the city council we are leaderless
Why do all you people complain about the Council? You are the very same people that voted for good-for-nothing Harper and lame-brain Rocha.
The only person up there with half a wit is Ogorchock. The rest are the very same bafoons you voted for.
Rename the entire city of Antioch for what it is, “Hand Out City” or “Section 8 Haven” and be done with it. Investors are smart and know that Antioch is not worth a dime to open their stores.
Come on, can anyone really imagine an Apple store opening anywhere in Antioch? What a joke.
The most ridiculous thing I’ve heard! Let history be what it is! Let’s concentrate on that history and bring back the town that used to be made from hard working ethical people!
Do you really have to rename the streets to let people know there is a Marina or a place called Rivertown at the end of the street? People who live here already know what’s there. Wouldn’t it be more effective but a lot less costly to put signage at the freeway where traffic is? If they are looking for a Marina or Rivertown, the freeway location should be sufficient if you do the signage right.
I to believe that we must get our priorities correct and in order. I would like to see an audit of all the funds collected for measures O and C. Is the money getting directed where it was intended to go? I also believe that I am not against the street name changes, but we must clean up the downtown. There is way too much graffiti, and homeless people. They have their encampments just west of the Riverview Lodge on the waterfront. I see homeless people laying under bridges and at freeway entrance, and panhandling through out the city. The downtown has burned out buildings, and even some women have been confronted by undesired men who have made threats to them, spraypaint tags on buildings and broken windows. I dont want to hear a lot of lip service from our city council, but results!! The downtown is a diamond in the rough, but no one will visit it no matter what the street names are. Clean up the downtown and then change the street names so when we do have visitors they come back, and out city will once again be a vibrant AND SAFE place to come too.
Now if all of you would show up at the meetings and voice these opinions we might get somewhere. If you don’t they won’t listen.
You have got to be kidding. How is changing L street going to help our town? People don’t want to go down there now no matter what street they take. Have you people WALKED around town? Pick a street, any street. Garbage, all over. Forget about walking down Sycamore. I don’t even drive down there. Allen Payton said they can clean up the town the same time they rename the streets. Wouldn’t it be smarter for us to clean up our town, get the garbage out. Then worry about renaming a street. I think I.M. dunn said it all.
If the leadership and citizens of Antioch want to better “market Antioch” then that is a good goal. However, on the priority list there are many things that should come first. Why not change the entire name of the city if “marketing” is that important. I joke and say why not change the name to Candyland, Smiley City or another name that would imply safety, clean streets and well maintained property? And I mean imply. Just remember when people get off the exit and onto the streets of Antioch, they might be a bit disappointed and call it a bait and switch in what we represented. Change is needed in Antioch, not in names, but in actions.
Why change the street names how much money is that going to cost and dont you think if you were to change any street name it would be Sycamore and change it to do not enter
First St in Benicia is still called “First St.” and attracts thousands of people a year with it’s stores, restaurants, bars, many festivals, art galleries, wine bars, and vibrant waterfront. Just sayin’….
I have no objection to the names of any streets in Antioch. I love the history of this city so leave it alone and clean it up. Folks we could start with the next election. NO INCUMBENTS . NONE. The three up there have done nothing but ruin our lovely city.
Comments are closed.