‘T-Pain Lane’ coming to Tallahassee: City commission aims to rename part of Pasco Street

The City of Tallahassee is putting their new road renaming powers to good use as they voted unanimously to move forward with renaming a stretch of Pasco Street to "T-Pain Lane" in honor of the Tallahassee native.

As part of Wednesday's city commission meeting, underneath an agenda item that saw other local streets be renamed, Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox brought back the idea of the renaming, which was first discussed earlier in the year.

The road dedication was supposed to happen at the beginning of the year, but was delayed amid bureaucratic hoops that the city has now eliminated as of an ordinance that came about from the Althea Gibson Way renaming.

The renaming comes as T-Pain plans to return home in November to play a sold-out concert on Nov. 10 as part of Leon County's bicentennial celebration at the Adderley Amphitheater in Cascades Park.

New renaming powers make the process faster

Back during March and April of this year, the city brought forth the idea to rename what was Wahnish Way to Althea Gibson Way in honor of the 11-time Grand Slam champion who was an alumni of Florida A&M University making her a Rattler.

What the city thought would be a celebrated and supported dedication was met with resistance from Leon County Commissioner Bill Proctor, who wrote a letter on why a portion of the road should retain the name Wahnish Way.

To move ahead with the renaming, the city voted on an ordinance that changed the Tallahassee Land Development code in their favor. The ordinance makes it so the city directs road name changes within the incorporated areas of Leon County to the city manager, instead of the county administrator.

'T-Pain Lane' coming to Tallahassee

Williams-Cox asked that a section of Pasco Street, which stretches from near FAMU’s Bragg Stadium to behind Bond Elementary, be renamed in honor of the Grammy award-winning recording artist. The southern end of Pasco would remain unchanged.

The stretch of Pasco Street set for the renaming is significant in that it also includes the entrance to the Walker-Ford Community Center, 2301 Pasco St., where the entertainer got an early start performing as part of the teen rap group Nappy Headz, initially managed by his father, Shaheed Najm, a retired city of Tallahassee employee.

After gaining national recognition in the entertainment world, T-Pain financed the creation of an entertainment room at Walker-Ford, as an extended amenity for youth at the center.

"I think it will be a proud moment for our kids... perhaps they will reach the height that (T-Pain) reached for our community," Williams-Cox said.

Mayor John Dailey, who supported the idea, offered to bring back the road renaming for formal ratification at the upcoming city commission meeting in September.

"I would love to invite his family to be present when we make the formal vote and even if T-Pain can join us telephonically... I think that would be wonderful," Dailey said.

Earlier attempts to name a road for T-Pain focused on Ridge Road, the road that inspired a song where T-Pain grew up.

According to Williams-Cox the change to Pasco Street was made because Ridge Road is a county road, meaning the city has no naming jurisdiction over it, so instead they landed on the city street for the dedication.

Other road renamings

The city commission also voted unanimously to rename three local roads:

• Automotive Way in its entirety to Weems Road

• Professional Park Circle in its entirety to Wellness Way

• Municipal Way in its entirety to Major James Morgan Jr. Way

Arianna Otero is the City Solutions Reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact her via email at [email protected] or on Twitter/X: @ari_v_otero.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: 'T-Pain Lane': Tallahassee City Commission to name road for artist