Led by Councilman Chris Hinds, Denver City Council read a proclamation at its regular meeting on Monday to support the renaming of Civic Center Station in downtown for a famous local disability advocate.
The council unanimously said the station should be named for Rev. Wade Blank, a leader of the “Gang of 19”. In 1978, the group stopped RTD buses with wheelchairs in an effort to reform accessibility and public transit in Denver.
Blank, who died in a drowning accident in 1993, also helped found ADAPT and Atlantis Community Inc., disability advocacy groups that continue to have a presence today.
“Wade's legacy was much more than just transportation,” said Jaime Lewis, the transit advisor for the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition. “He built platforms so people with disabilities could speak for themselves, and I think that's very important to point out.”
City Council’s proclamation is largely symbolic. The Regional Transportation District is responsible for renaming the station, since it manages the property.
Last February, RTD officials said that there’s no clear procedure for renaming stations after people but that they would explore introducing a policy to do so.
In October, RTD began accepting applications for proposed honorary names for stations. Under the rules, stations like Civic Center Station could have secondary names while keeping the original name.
Jack Kroll, the manager of the RTD’s board office, said the committee in charge of reviewing name changes will soon start looking at the proposal to give Civic Center Station a secondary name.
“We expect them to start their work next week and to have a recommendation for the full board for approval or not by the end of this summer,” he said.
An RTD spokesperson told Denverite that the committee will review materials in support of an honorary name change and ask community members for feedback.
