T-Pain – “A change is coming”
The singer showed off his impressive voice without autotune in an exclusive acoustic session for NPR.
USA TODAY Life
The City of Tallahassee is making good use of its newfound street renaming power and has voted unanimously to move forward with renaming Pasco Street to “T-Pain Lane” in honor of the Tallahassee native.
During Wednesday’s City Commission meeting, Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox revived the idea of renaming, which was first discussed earlier this year, during an agenda item about renaming other streets in the area.
The inauguration of the street was supposed to have taken place at the beginning of the year, but was delayed due to bureaucratic hurdles that the city has now eliminated by means of an ordinance in the course of renaming Althea Gibson Way.
The name change comes as T-Pain plans to return home in November to play a sold-out concert at Adderley Amphitheater in Cascades Park on November 10 as part of the Leon County Bicentennial celebration.
New renaming powers speed up the process
In March and April of this year, the city floated the idea of renaming the former Wahnish Way to Althea Gibson Way in honor of the 11-time Grand Slam champion who was a graduate of Florida A&M University and thus a Rattler.
The city thought the dedication would be celebrated and supported, but Leon County Commissioner Bill Proctor encountered opposition. He wrote a letter outlining why part of the street should retain the name Wahnish Way.
To move forward with the renaming, the city approved an ordinance amending the Tallahassee Land Development Code in its favor. The ordinance requires the city to refer street name changes within incorporated areas of Leon County to the city manager, rather than the county administrator.
“T-Pain Lane” comes to Tallahassee
Williams-Cox asked that Pasco Street, which stretches from Orange Avenue to behind Bond Elementary, be renamed in honor of the Grammy-winning musician. Previous attempts to name a street after T-Pain focused on Ridge Road, the Southside street where he grew up.
“I think it will be a proud moment for our children … maybe they will reach the heights that (T-Pain) has reached for our community,” Williams-Cox said.
Mayor John Dailey, who supported the idea, offered to propose the street renaming again for formal ratification at the upcoming City Commission meeting in September.
“I would love to invite his family to be part of the official voting, and even if T-Pain could join us by phone… I think that would be wonderful,” Dailey said.
Other street renamings
The city commission also voted unanimously to rename three local streets:
- Automotive Way in its entirety to Weems Road
- Professional Park Circle in its entirety to Wellness Way
- Municipal Way in its entirety to Major James Morgan Jr. Way
Arianna Otero is City Solutions Reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat. Reach her via email at [email protected] or via Twitter/X: @ari_v_otero.
