I like this concept--giving the current citizens of a place the power to rename these public spaces gives them a certain power--because names have power. I think this speaks to appropriate representation of the community because only these people know the lived experience of their own spaces.

This reminds me of some other changes--not necessarily name changes--that are finally happening today, for example when we see the overdue removal of Confederate statues, renaming places named after Confederate figures, and the redesign of the $20 bill to feature Harriet Tubman instead of Jackson. I think these changes, though they don't actually change the overall spaces or worth of these object/places, have significant impact on the associated meanings and values. These examples, like the name changes discussed in this article, represent a wave of changing culture that more accurately represents a changing demographic of citizens.