Councilwoman Comments On Seattle's Decision To Name Park After JIMI HENDRIX

May 23, 2006

Kery Murakami of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer is reporting that On Monday (May 22) the City Council recommended that a new park being built alongside the future home of an African American museum in the Central Area bear Jimi Hendrix's name.

The final decision rests with Seattle Parks and Recreation Superintendent Ken Bounds, who will act on the recommendations of a park-naming committee. David Della, the chairman of the council's park committee, said the council resolution should carry much weight.

If Jimi Hendrix's lasting popularity was not indication enough, the council's vote illustrated how attitudes toward Hendrix have changed over the years.

Hendrix ended up being memorialized by a rock after Parks and Recreation in the early 1980s refused to allow a Jimi Hendrix memorial in a public park. Councilwoman Jean Godden, who pushed for Monday's move to name the park after Hendrix, covered the 1980s controversy as a columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. She said attitudes toward Hendrix were different then.

"There were those who were concerned at the time of what kind of a role model he was, given his problems with substance abuse," Godden recalled. "But if you think about it, there's hardly anyone who's a genius and has contributed to culture who hadn't had some personal flaws."

Read more at Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).