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Paseo Academy students celebrate MLK day after new street name

Posted at 3:24 PM, Jan 25, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-25 19:34:08-05

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A day after city leaders changed the name of The Paseo to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, students at Paseo Academy celebrated the life of the civil rights icon.

“I think it is important that we bring focus to the reality of blood, sweat and tears, and lives were shed for our children to sit in an educational institution such as this,” said Paseo Academy Principal Dr. Debra Powell.

The renaming took months of sometimes contentious debate.

“Since we are having our Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration today and they will go out and see the new naming of the street, I think it is so significant and important and I think they will remember when they sit in those seats, to take advantage of the education and opportunities that they have now, so I think it was perfect timing,” said Powell.

While it can be time consuming, changing your billing address is free. The post office says on they will merge the two street names on internal systems.

“For our customers, there is essentially zero impact," said Stacy Hopwood with the United States Postal Service.

Hopwood says mail using The Paseo will still get to the correct address.

The DMV says you can wait until your license expires to change your address, and when you do, it will cost $20.

Principal Powell hopes the name change will encourage others to life every voice.

“If you are still living the dream that Dr. Martin Luther King dreamt, wake up, because we are doing some of the things that he wanted done. The question now is what are you doing in the fight of inequality,” said Powell.

It will take 3-6 months to change all of the street signs. The cost to the city will be about $60,000.