Street Names

My sister came to visit, and you know what a queen diva she is, so she insisted that I take her shopping in the ritziest part of town. I’ve never actually been to the ritziest part of town, so I told her to look up the stores she wanted to go to on Google Maps. When she arrived she had a list of stores she wanted to shop at, Tiffany, Coach, BeBe, Saks, and a host of other small high-end boutiques.

“It looks like most of these are all on the same street, one long strip of shopping delight!” My sister said with an ear to ear grin on her face as she peered at my computer while simultaneously fastening her diamond tennis bracelet.

“Okay,” I said, with a deep sigh as I plowed through my closet to find something that my sister would deem appropriate to wear to such places. “How do we get there?”

“Well, from what it seems like on the map, Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. goes right to that area of town.”

“That’s funny Kamesha, try again.”

“No, I’m not kidding. Look at the map. MLK Blvd. goes right there.”

“You are just being foolish.” I pushed my sis aside and had a look at the map myself. Sure enough, there was MLK Blvd running through the entire city directly to the wealthy area of town. I followed it a bit further beyond the shopping district, to where the houses are and it was crossed by Rosa Parks Avenue and Cesar Chavez Way. I nearly fell off the couch.

“I told you,” Kamesha cooed. “See our people lead the way to exactly where I want to go. Let’s hit the stores!”

We hopped in the car and as I was driving I was amazed to see MLK Blvd. There was no trash, no ugly uplifting murals of people rising out of poverty that had been chipped and graffitied, Instead there were clean, well-kept bronze statues of each person the streets were named after. People of all shades were milling in and out of beautiful houses, fancy stores, and carrying bags filled with treasures. I felt like I was in the Emerald City.