In a remote neighborhood in Herriman, Utah, there is a charming subdivision with streets named only for past Boston Red Sox stars. Ipswitch Way and Yawkey Way—named after streets around Fenway Park—surround Fisk Drive, Remy Road, Pesky Lane, Eovaldi Avenue, Pedroia Street, Xander Lane, Varitek Drive and Boggs Way. Never mind if you don’t recognize those names: I do, but it’s likely that very few residents know their Boston Red Sox lore.
The project manager is a man named Brandon Parr who has lived in Utah his entire life, started following the Red Sox when he was 7, and now, in his forties, carries a Red Sox water bottle and wears a Red Sox cap every day. Developing the subdivision in Herriman was his first assignment as a project manager in 2021. Apparently the builder gets to name any new streets in any proposed project—I did not know that!—and when Parr was told about the honor, he said, “I’m doing Red Sox!” He submitted ten street names for approval, all well-known to Sox aficionados.
Ethics issue #1: Is it fair and responsible to use the naming power to satisfy a personal passion when it is completely divorced from the region and the community as well as the likely future residents? Utah doesn’t even have a Major League baseball team. Maybe the Miami Marlins are further away that the Red Sox , but not by much (don’t check that: I won’t, and if I’m wrong, I don’t care). My verdict? A mild “unethical.” I don’t know the origins of most of the streets in my Alexandria neighborhood except the section where all the streets are named after Presidents (Tyler intersects Taylor). Still, turning a Utah neighborhood into a Boston Red Sox fan display seems a bit excessive.
Ethics issue #2 struck me immediately, however: If a Sox fan is going to do this, there is an obligation to do some research and due diligence. With 10 streets to name for Red Sox favorites, where is the homage to Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, David Ortiz, and Pedro Martinez? OK, I’ll forgive Roger Clemens: I wouldn’t name a street after that asshole either.
Parr has his excuses lined up: “Williams,” “Ortiz” and “Martinez” streets are too common, and “Yastrzemski Road” is too hard to spell. He also claimed that alternatives to “Williams” like “Splendid Splinter Street” were too long. I’m not buying it. “Big Papi Drive” would cover David Ortiz. “Yaz Ave” is an easy call. What’s the matter with “Ted Williams Way”? Meanwhile, as a Red Sox fan, I respectfully object to some of his choices. “Eovaldi Ave.” is named for a Sox pitcher whose fame is based on a single game performance in relief during the 2018 World Series. Does this alleged Sox fan recall Curt Schilling and the “bloody sock” games in 2004? He admits to being a big Xander Bogaerts fan, hence “Xander Lane.” Bogaerts abandoned Boston as a free agent choosing money over team (so did Nathan Eovaldi). There are too many superior Sox players who did not place cash over loyalty, and leaving Tony Conigliaro out of the street names (Tony C. Court) while honoring sex-addicted, Yankee traitor Wade Boggs is deeply offensive.
RE: Ethics Issue #1:
I have a “rule of life” that has come in handy many times: When you have a decision to make, and you don’t have a good reason to choose one thing over another, then a BAD reason will do just as well.
In practice, someone here had a decision to make about street names and wisely chose to unify the area by having all the names follow a theme. But what theme? Can anyone justify some compelling reason (other than simple preference) to choose something else, something that would have a measurable, tangible, positive effect versus some other choice?
I don’t think so.
In this case, the Red Sox is as valid a theme as race drivers, types of snakes, characters from Star Wars, U.S. Presidents, Disney movie titles, names of battlefields, types of trees, or . . . really anything.
The ethical and leadership issue, from my point of view, that the rule addresses is preventing decision-making paralysis, particularly when there are many options to choose from. Making arbitrary decisions all the time isn’t a good thing by any means, but it’s better than nothing.
–Dwayne
P.S. That last one was indeed the theme of the streets in the neighborhood where Mrs. Zechman grew up.
I first heard about developers naming roads was nearly sixty years ago when my father worked in Kayeleen Place, named after the developer combining his wife and daughters names. I like it when roads are named on a theme. If I am looking for Nickleby Place, I just drive to Charles Dickens Drive. The oldest area in my suburb settled over one hundred and fifty years ago is named after British generals and admirals, and further south is some Australian sounding words so presumably the developer was Australian.
I would argue, and I know that my late wife, an English Lit fanatic, would argue that naming streets after Dickens and his works is appropriate everywhere, as every human being should be aware of the author and his works, and such a neighborhood might even advance the cause of cultural literature. Red Sox fan that I am, I cannot claim similar benefits from inflicting the names of Boston local heroes on a Utah subdivision.