Honorary Street Signs Find Support in Richmond Heights

The effort to name a alley after a beloved neighbor has shifted to honorary street signs.

A group of Yale Avenue residents is interested in .

On Monday, Green's son Philip told City Council he would prefer to see an honorary street sign named after his father, City Manager Amy Hamilton said. The sign would be placed beneath the regular street sign, a practice St. Louis city has adopted.

Doing so would not affect mailing addresses in the area.

If that is what family members want, council representatives said, they will talk with the neighborhood members about pursuing a street sign instead of an alley marker.

Also on Monday, city staff recommended that the following steps be required in this case and others like it:

• Affected neighborhood residents must sign a petition in favor of the naming effort.

• The candidate for naming recognition must be deceased.

• A background check of the candidate will be performed.

• While the city likely can cover the cost of a street sign, larger projects (such as an ornamental sign) might require the financial support of people requesting the name change.

Those steps will be drafted in a formal document. They will guide staff as an internal policy instead of being added to city code, Hamilton said.

City staff will be in touch with Yale Avenue residents about beginning a petition about an honorary street sign for Mike Green.

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