Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway (Jacksonville)

The Martin Luther King Jr. pathway is a limited access road running along the eastern and northern edges of downtown Jacksonville, Florida. Despite its name, it is not a parkway in the conventional sense, as it has no limits on truck use and is not located near parks or other beautified areas.

Upon its completion in the early 1960s, the road was actually known by two names. The eastern portion, running due north from the base of the Matthews Bridge, was known as the Haines St. Expressway. The northern portion, running due west from the northern terminus of the Haines Expressway, was known as the 20th Street Expressway. (Both sections took their respective names from the actual city streets that they either replaced or ran parallel to.) The two roads were, in actual operation, a single road, providing a rapid, limited-access route from the Gator Bowl in the southeastern corner of downtown Jacksonville, to the northwestern residential reaches of downtown.

In 2000, the Jacksonville City Council voted to honor the late civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., by naming this route after him, and the change was effected on January 15, 2001, the 72nd anniversary of the slain leader's birth.^[1] Jacksonville was one of the last major cities in the country to rename a road for Dr. King; by choosing this route, the city was able to provide homage and yet because the entire route is without any addresses, either residential or business, the council was able to avoid irritating constituents, as often happens with such name changes.^[2]

There is no single numbered state road nor U.S. route that runs the entire length of the MLK Parkway, but one that runs for at least part of its length includes Florida State Road 115.

References

1. ^ http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/011601/met_5137156.html
2. ^ http://www.cfpmidweek.com/weeks/IssuePDFs/v01i01_121003.pdf