Makes perfect sense.

Once upon a time, the Birmingham Library Board had a policy that prohibited naming branches after people.

Simple.

Because people are complex, and prone to frailty, and almost certain to have a skeleton rattling around in a closet somewhere. Because, even more than that, it was the belief of that board that libraries served the neighborhoods and communities, and all the people represented there.

It is why, I am told, the Parke Memorial Branch of the library system ultimately became the Southside Branch.

There is wisdom there. I mean, the name actually told people where the library was.

Naming public property after people goes badly so often. Not just because of all the roads and bridges and public buildings named after confederate generals and exalted cyclopses of the Ku Klux Klan. It goes badly almost inevitably.

Just last month the city of Auburn finally decided to change the name of Mike Hubbard Boulevard – named for the former speaker of the Alabama House when he was the most powerful politician in Alabama. He was convicted of multiple felony ethics charges and sentenced to four years in prison, though he still hasn’t gone to jail.

But Mike Hubbard Boulevard is gone. At last. It is now known as a continuation of Bent Creek Road, and that tells drivers in Auburn a lot more about where they need to go.

Naming public spaces after people, particularly living people, is rife with danger.