Bowling Green resident wants to rename Gypsy Lane Road

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio —

A Bowling Green resident is leading the push to change the name of Gypsy Lane Road, a major stretch of road in the city she says uses an offensive word.

The word “gypsy” can be used as a slur against people of the Roma community, according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

“Knowing that that word is a slur, it’s always kind of bothered me,” said Lindsay Durham. “I make a point not to use that language in my everyday life, so when I do have to refer to that road, it’s kind of uncomfortable.”

Durham added that the word has historically been used alongside stereotypical images of thieves and tricksters and noted the genocide of much of the Roma population during the Holocaust.

“Just because there’s not a large Roma community in Bowling Green doesn’t mean that we don’t owe them respect as a people,” Durham said.

Millie Broka, a member of the Wood County Genealogy Society, says the road is named for the group of people who used the path frequently last century.

Now, it’s home to busy buildings from county offices to shopping centers.

“Gypsy Lane Road was named that because gypsies took that road west half a mile from South Main Street in Bowling Green, then went a quarter of a mile south to their favorite camping site,” Broka said, pointing to information from a book by author Paul Jones.

“I think we can recognize that it is history, but I think we can also acknowledge that we’ve moved past that sort of language as a community,” Durham said.

Durham proposed a name change at a city council meeting earlier in April.

She says she’s only heard back from one council member so far, though, but she’ll keep going to meetings to make her voice heard and would like to see the street named after someone from an underrepresented community.

“I also think that it would be a really wonderful opportunity for Bowling Green to come together and name it as a community,” Durham said.