Yolie Capin doesn't believe the City of Tampa embraces its rich Latin history, and she's willing to change that any way she can.
Capin said the city did little to observe the fact that Florida turned 500 years old back in April. She proposed last week to rename Nebraska Avenue in honor of Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, the Spanish explorer who founded St. Augustine in 1565, and Florida's first governor. But he's also gone down in history books as leading a slaughter of French settlers, though Capin said she has information indicating otherwise.
"I will not compromise on the name," Capin insisted in an interview with CL late Monday afternoon. But she said she is willing to to look at renaming Palm Avenue instead of Nebraska, because of the intense feedback she's received.
"I don't know that the enthusiasm for that would be there," said Tampa Mayor Bob Buckborn, who added that there would be considerable costs for all of the businesses to rebrand their logo and their stationary. "I think it would be problematic, and I don't know that there is a compelling reason as to why would we to do it."
This article appears in Jun 20-26, 2013.