Now it's Taylor Berry Park? Hey Metro Council, South Central Park wants its name back.

Metro Councilman Phillip Baker may have had good intentions when he asked the city council to change the name of South Central Park. But what he didn't have was the community's support.

So when the new name Taylor Berry Park showed up on the sign in front of the beloved gathering spot, residents saw it as a slap in the face. And rightfully so.

Had Baker surveyed the community, he would have known that something like a name change to a park that means so much to so many should not have been done without community input.

He would have heard from people like Rachel Brown, a longtime resident and community volunteer who said it was "very sneaky and untrustworthy" how the name change happened.

Did anyone even ask to change the name of South Central Park?

But what exactly did happen? Everyone I spoke to had a different answer.

Baker is the one who introduced the ordinance that Metro Council approved to officially change the park's name. He told me on the phone that it was the Taylor Berry Neighborhood Association that wanted to change the name. “I didn’t change it to Phillip Baker Park,” he said.

I called the neighborhood association president, Christine Schneider. She said Baker’s legislative assistant, Tony Hardin, came to a neighborhood association meeting and asked her what she thought of changing the park name to match the neighborhood. She told him she liked the idea because it would further differentiate South Central Park from Central Park. But instead of taking that idea and polling the community, Schneider said, “he ran with it.”

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So, I called Tony Hardin. He said they’ve been working on this name change since before Christmas. “I couldn't tell you whose original idea it was; it's been so long now.”

What Hardin did say is that the name change was “a conscious choice as part of a bigger identity project” and is “helping the neighborhood gain its own identity.” That tracks with the language on the ordinance, which says the name was changed to “increase neighborhood recognition and identity among its citizens.”

But how does Metro Council designate a community’s identity without taking time to hear from the people who live there?

Hardin also pointed to the new banners going up in each District 6 neighborhood and said Taylor Berry will have one soon. He said the neighborhood has had the Taylor Berry name since the 1970s, but community members aren’t aware of it. “A lot of people identify with the very nondescript South Central,” he said, “versus the actual neighborhood name.”

That part everyone can agree on. Residents have deep affection for South Central Park and its name. The community wasn’t lacking an identity. Metro Council just failed to recognize it.

Both of Rachel Brown’s grandmothers raised their families near South Central Park. In 2023 when she was named a Kentucky Colonel, Brown asked for the award to be presented to her at South Central Park because “that's where my start in the community evolved.”

Leah Dillard's family has lived in the neighborhood since 1949, and she wrote in an email that she can walk out her front door and be in the park in less than a minute. “Metro calls us ‘Taylor Berry’ but us closest to the park don’t claim that,” she said.

Kevin Combs agrees. He sent me a Facebook message saying, “I grew up two blocks from the park and returned to the neighborhood, by choice, 14 years ago.” He remembers breaking in the new basketball courts in the late 1970s. “That park was a big part of my youth,” he said.

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Name change undermines efforts to update the park

Metro Parks completed long-awaited updates and maintenance to South Central Park. Then, the city council gave it a name change nobody asked for. On May 24, the South Central Park sign was unceremoniously swapped out for one that read Taylor Berry Park. The change undermines all of the other good work.

Metro Parks spokesperson Jon Reiter told me via email that they have completed approximately $450,000 worth of deferred maintenance projects at South Central Park since 2021. They installed new playground equipment and new field lighting. They repaved the asphalt walking trail and the parking lot. The basketball courts also got new polycarbonate backboards and rims.

Like Dillard said, “Do the repairs… but why change the name?”

Instead of celebrating the improvements, the community lost something in the process.

Hardin was quick to note that the South Central Park sign was scheduled to be replaced anyway, so no funding was wasted in the name change. But on June 18 Councilman Baker posted a survey link on his Facebook page and in the Taylor Berry Neighborhood group that said, “Based on feedback, we have created a survey for Taylor Berry residents to determine which name the park should have going forward.”

If the community decides it wants the name South Central Park then yeah, it did waste resources.

Baker said he is hoping he can settle this before his term in office is finished at the end of the year. “I just want to do right by the community,” he said.

It's good to see Baker asking the community to weigh in, but he should have done that from the get-go. The survey is a good idea. Let's hope it's not too little too late.

Bonnie Jean Feldkamp is the community engagement and opinion editor for The Louisville Courier Journal. She can be reached via email at BFeldkamp@Gannett.com or on social media @WriterBonnie.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Hey Louisville Metro Council, South Central Park wants its name back