This madness has got to stop. It was one thing to rename Squaw Peak, but to name the Squaw Peak Parkway the Lori M. Piestewa Freeway is wrong-headed. As I said before, it should be named the Triple-P—Piestewa Peak Parkway—because the highway is named for the mountain it wraps around.
Piestewa Peak is annoying, but I guess it’s got a lot of political currency. To honor a woman dead less than a month (maybe two) whose only accomplishment is being the first Indian woman killed in combat is ludicrous. The mountain and the freeway should have been renamed to honor Barry Goldwater, a true hero who accomplished so much for Arizona over his entire lifetime. Or even Jack Swilling, the Confederate entrepreneur whose Swilling Irrigation Company started the settlement of the Salt River Valley. You certainly don’t see much around Phoenix honoring him.
Of course, we shouldn’t expect much from a town that gives all city workers a paid day off to honor Cesar Chavez, but not for Columbus.