A winding journey to East Bde Maka Ska and a new logo

Lake Calhoun was, of course, a landmark for generations of Minneapolitans. Most likely had only a vague notion of its namesake, John C. Calhoun, an American politician active in the first half of the 19th century. Calhoun was, however, a notorious racist who pursued cruel policies towards Black and Indigenous people, and in recent years efforts were made to change the lake name. These culminated in 2017, when the park board voted unanimously to change the name back to Bde Maka Ska and then the Minnesota DNR made it the official name, although legal disputes didn’t fully establish it until 2020.
Beginning in 2018, several residents of the neighborhood formerly known both as East Calhoun and ECCO launched a community conversation to discuss whether East Calhoun was an appropriate name for that neighborhood. The formerly-named East Calhoun Community Organization (ECCO) in 2019 then engaged in an extensive, consultative process to change the neighborhood name. This effort involved significant community outreach and three rounds of voting, resulting in a narrow majority for the non-acronym ECCO over East Bde Maka Ska.
Since that vote in late 2019, much took place. The state Supreme Court ruled that the name Bde Maka Ska could indeed replace Lake Calhoun. Many area businesses and organizations removed Calhoun from their names. Perhaps most importantly, the murder of George Floyd occasioned a national and local reckoning over the issue of racial inequality. Many neighbors and board members felt that ECCO still contained an implicit reference to Calhoun, and thus the neighborhood board began a new name change process that included another round of neighborhood outreach and discussion in early 2021. This resulted in a new vote on the neighborhood name in the spring of 2021, where three-quarters of residents voted yes to change the neighborhood name, with East Bde Maka Ska receiving a large plurality of the votes as the replacement. For more information, please see eastbdemakaska.org/neighborhood-name.
East Bde Maka Ska is now voting on a new logo for the neighborhood as the final step in celebrating the new name. The two options are depicted at right. Residents can vote for their preferred option until Feb. 25 at eastbdemakaska.org/logo.