News Reporter
For 120 years, North Avenue has been the stretch of street that runs from 1st Street to 29 Road and was originally named for being the northern limit of town. However, Grand Junction resident and former chairman of City Planning Commission Levi Lucero is currently collecting signatures of approval from business owners to change North Avenue to University Boulevard.
Lucero has been involved with CMU since the 1960’s, when it first was a junior college and he was a student taking night courses.
“Houston Hall was the only building, and Ted Albers was president at the time,” Lucero said.
He now resides on many planning committees and has an ever-present voice on the campus as well as in Grand Junction. Lucero has been a resident and active businessman in Grand Junction for 55 years.
“The university will triple in size by 2014, is the third largest employer in Grand Junction and may soon become the city’s largest employer in a few years,” Lucero wrote in a ‘statement of support’ renaming petition.
According to Lucero’s petition, in 2010 the City of Grand Junction received a $1.19 million Federal grant to re-design a three-mile corridor of North Avenue from 1st Street to 29 Road and renovate the section between 12th Street and 23rd Street.
CMU senior biology major and Grand Junction native Alicia Crespin recently heard news of Lucero’s efforts, but cannot imagine the change.
“I like the idea that it would draw more attention to the fact this is a college town, but I also can’t really imagine telling people, ‘take University Boulevard to 12th,’” Crespin said. “North Ave. is such a long road, and it leads to a lot more than Mesa. To me, it would make much more sense to call 12th Street ‘University Boulevard.’”
Lucero believes it would be a no-brainer to revamp the well-known street name to University Boulevard.
“I can see a theme here: University Park, University Shopping Center, University Boulevard,” Lucero said.
Lucero has been traveling to every business on North Avenue to collect support in this name change.
“My belief is that North Avenue should be renamed to reflect a 21st century identity anchored in its highest profile resident, Colorado Mesa University,” Lucero said in his petition.
Lucero wants every business’s support so that all of North Ave. can become University Boulevard, unlike the sometimes confusing Patterson and F Road. Lucero has received much support from business owners as well as local radio stations. He is very optimistic in the street’s future and what it can provide for the community.
“I believe a key element of ‘re-branding’ the North Avenue corridor is to name it in such a way that conveys its status as a world-class place for commerce, education and recreation,” Lucero said in his petition.
lstroman@mavs.coloradomesa.edu
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