15254: Hermantin: Miami Herald- Mayor: Don't name street after me (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Miami Herald, Saturday April 6, 2002
NORTH MIAMI

Mayor: Don't name street after me

Mayor Josaphat ''Joe'' Celestin said Friday that he would withdraw his name
from a Senate bill asking that Northwest 125th Street be renamed ``Joe
Celestin Boulevard.''

In recent days, Celestin has drawn criticism from some Haitian Americans and
state Rep. Phillip Brutus, D-North Miami, who wants the street named after
Toussaint L'Ouverture, the Haitian general who led Haiti's 1804 slave
revolt.

''It's not worth it to have all this commotion,'' said Celestin, the first
Haitian-American elected mayor of a large Miami-Dade city. ``It's not
productive.''

Brutus, in a letter to the mayor, thanked him for the gesture, saying it
will avoid ``an acrimonious fight that could only hurt our community.''


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