Politics & Government

E-MAIL TO THE EDITOR: Changing University Place's Name Not Worth The Trouble

University Place City Councilman Javier Figueroa writes that the city does not have an identity issue and should not consider changing its name to Chambers Bay.

(Editor's note: This e-mail comes from University Place City Councilman Javier Figueroa)

A lot of buzz is going on regarding .  The idea came up at a recent council study session. Please understand that all ideas are encouraged during these meetings. This idea is not proposed by city staff nor is it a majority council directive to seek such a proposal from anyone. When the idea came up at the study session, I opposed changing our city’s name. The mere cost of a name change for every citizen and business can be substantial.  We should seriously consider the return on the investment for changing our name. We need to consider the impact on all legal documents, banking, website changes, correspondence, billing, and other unknown related issues the name change would affect.

The council has many times voted down ideas to be vetted and brought forth for council consideration. This idea is certainly one that should be dead on arrival. I am not for spending countless hours with community meetings, studies, or spend any tax dollars doing so.

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The negative consequences for changing our name may far exceed any good that may come out of a new name.  At the incorporation of University Place, the incorporation steering committee and other community members vetted changing our name that resulted in keeping University Place as the city’s name.

We had our city’s name for approximately 100 years. We need to apply common sense—I do not believe we have a name identity issue (at least not at the degree we need to change our name).

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I am proud of our name “University Place”. However, the decision is in your hands as a community.


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