DC streets could be symbolically named after Khashoggi, RBG, and John Lewis

Councilmember Brooke Pinto introduced legislation in January to symbolically rename streets in DC after the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Congressman John Lewis, and journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The symbolic designations wouldn’t change any postal addresses. But Pinto said in a press release that the acts would honor the work Lewis and Ginsburg did for racial justice and women’s rights before their deaths in 2020 — and, in the case of Khashoggi, send a sharp message supporting the free press.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and Saudi Arabian dissident, was assassinated inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, a move the CIA concluded was ordered directly by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Post reported. According to Pinto, Khashoggi was a District resident.

The legislation would designate a portion of New Hampshire Avenue NW, between Virginia Avenue and F Street NW, as Jamal Khashoggi Way. That block is the site of the Saudi embassy.

“Everyone who visits the Saudi embassy will be reminded of Mr. Khashoggi’s courage,” Pinto said in a statement.

The Saudi embassy would not be the first to face a rebuke from DC Council in the form of municipal street signs. In 2018, the council symbolically designated the stretch of Wisconsin Avenue NW outside the Russian Embassy as “Boris Nemtsov Plaza,” after the Russian dissident who was assassinated at the foot of the Kremlin in Moscow in 2015.

Naming a street after Khashoggi is not a new idea. In 2018, ANC 2A voted to change the street to “Jamal Khashoggi Way,” and a political action committee placed an unofficial sign outside the Saudi embassy. But DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson declined to put it on the agenda, citing a law that requires DC to wait two years after someone’s death before naming a street after them.

That two year rule has some carve-outs — presidents, vice presidents, members of Congress, DC Council members, and DC mayors — but to name a street in honor of Ginsburg, Council will have to add Supreme Court justices to that category.

Pinto’s filed legislation would designate a portion of Virginia Avenue NW, between Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway and New Hampshire Avenue, as “Ruth Bader Ginsburg Way. The site was chosen due to its proximity to Ginsburg’s home at the Watergate complex.

Pinto’s third piece of legislation would designate H Street between 15th and 17th Streets NW, along Lafayette Square, as “John Lewis Way” after the civil rights icon, who died in 2020. Pinto’s team said in a statement that the site was chosen due to its proximity to the White House as well as the fact that the road intersects with Black Lives Matter Plaza — another symbolically designated street. All three bills have been referred to the Committee of the Whole.

According to DC law, symbolic street names should be designated as “Way” or “Plaza.” The original street name and address remain, and the symbolic signage has to be different from official street names.