Councilor Linehan Calls For Hearing on East Berkeley Street Name-Change

An effort by South End residents to return East Berkeley Street to its original name has been taken up by City Councilor Bill Linehan who requested a hearing on the issue earlier this month.

Both Linehan and members of the Old Dover Neighborhood Association want to see the street’s name changed from East Berkeley to Dover Street, the original name of the portion of Berkeley Street running from Tremont to Albany Street.

“The Dover Street name remains both historically significant and representative of the unique history of the South End,” Linehan said. “Berkeley Street is really a Back Bay name, it’s not a South End name.”

The city changed the name to East Berkeley in 1967, Linehan said, but the process by which the change was made remains unclear. The city’s Public Improvement Commission currently lists seven requirements under its Street Name Policy, some of which would be nearly impossible to satisfy, Linehan said. At least one recent name change has been approved without completing all seven, he added.

“The present policy is so cumbersome, it’s completely restrictive,” he said. “You need 100 percent of people who live on the street [to approve the change]. If the street’s more than a block that ain’t happening.”

At a City Council meeting earlier this month, Linehan called for a “speedy” public hearing on the issue to “flush out” the name-change process with the commission. The Old Dover Association has already received approval from a vast majority of residents and business owners in the area, he said.

“This is something that I’ve been working on for nearly two years now and have run into the bureaucracy pretty much every step of the way,” he said.