If you drive around any major city, you’re going to see streets named after famous people. And sometimes the name is so famous that you don’t have to look it up. Bob Hope Drive in Burbank, California. Sam Cooke Way in Chicago, Illinois (thank you, Mental Floss, for both of those examples). And more streets in the country named after U.S. presidents than we can count. And Las Vegas has its share of streets named after the rich and famous. But some of our most-used streets have names that aren’t so well known.
How To Get A Street Named After You
It’s not that hard, logistically speaking, to get a street named after you. For info on that, we turn to one of the states notorious for its famous street names: New York. The West Side Rag reports that the process starts with a petition of multiple signatures of people who advocate for the name. In Manhattan the required signature count is 100. The next step is to provide compelling evidence that the person contributed to that block or community in some significant way.
Sounds easy enough. At least so far. The next steps are a little more difficult. After the petition and supporting evidence, the proposal has to go through the political hoops of getting approved by city council members. And then, finally, signed off by the mayor.
But the really hard part of getting your name on the street sign comes even before the petition. You have to have done something pretty remarkable in your city. Something that makes other people want to commemorate you.
Names We See On Las Vegas Street Signs
Las Vegas has been home to some very famous entertainers. Elvis Presley, Sammy Davis Jr, Frank Sinatra and more all have their own streets here. But less famous people actually contributed just as much to building Sin City. So what did people like Bruce Woodbury or Rafael Rivera ever do for Las Vegas? A lot, it turns out. Here are some of the lesser-known people named on our street signs, and why they deserve to be there.
