The Woodlawn neighborhood was fortunate to be involved in a visioning process with the city. The result was the Woodlawn Triangle Master Plan [ read more here], a plan created by over 100 engaged neighbors to help guide our neighborhood’s growth.
I think the name of that plan is important, and it was a consciously chosen name. Lately I’ve been hearing our neighborhood’s retail district referred to as the Dekum Triangle, and while that’s an accurate description given that our retail is mainly on Dekum, our vision plan chose a different name. In the planning process, a neighbor (perhaps it was historian Anjala Ehjelebe) brought up the point that it would wonderful to choose a name that honors our neighborhood, more so than honoring only the street that runs through our neighborhood. We weighed the options, Dekum Triangle… Woodlawn Triangle… rolled those names around, had discussion, and collectively the people at that meeting (the two large meeting had around 100 and 50 people, respectively) decided to go with Woodlawn Triangle.
Anjala Ehelebe, neighborhood historian, is inspirational in her motivation to remind us of our neighborhood’s past. In posting this information, I want to follow her lead. A lot of work, thought, care and concern went into our vision process. I really appreciate the dedication and time neighbors contributed, and I think the name was wisely chosen.
So let’s work together, with pride, to spread the Woodlawn love! Refer to our retail district as the Woodlawn Triangle. Correct people when they say Dekum Triangle, and let’s get this name to catch on and honor our vibrant neighborhood.
I was prompted to write this article after some info came my way through Neighborhood Notes, an excellent resource for news on neighborhoods, about Woodlawn being featured on KOIN news yesterday. Congratulations to board member Andree Culpepper who did an excellent job representing our neighborhood in the news interview!
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I was at one of those meetings and voted for Dekum Triangle. I still think it’s a better name. Sorry.
Hi, all. We updated the post on Neighborhood Notes to read “Woodlawn” triangle, and will use this name in all future posts. I say that, because we’ll most certainly be back in Woodlawn to report on all of the great things happening in your neighborhood.
Our thanks to Ayleen Crotty for tweeting us the info.
THANK YOU – Personally I don’t have a preference between the two names, but by principle I think we need to work to keep it that name. You know we had the vision process as a way to say what we want and to help guide the growth not to just be steamrolled by inevitable growth – like OOPS we just grew and didn’t get involved. Well, we GOT involved and planned. we know that we can’t dictate exactly what will happen, but we can influence and together, as a neighborhood, we made these choices through hard work. some neighbors may have wanted slightly different outcomes, but overall people were pleased and MOST IMPORTANTLY, the neighborhood was deciding, not developers!!
I agree that we should honor the process. I was not able to attend thhose meetings because of my work schedule but my neighbor Doug kept me apprised and I liked what I heard. I appreciate that people had a say.