We, the undersigned members of the Southwest Detroit community, respectfully request that the City of Detroit redesignate the portion of Scotten Street bordering Clark Park as Jack White Way.

Scotten Street currently honors Daniel Scotten, a 19th-century tobacco industrialist whose legacy is limited to extracting wealth from an industry known for addiction, illness, and environmental smoke pollution, and who left behind no philanthropic record, no civic institutions, no community improvements, and no meaningful ties to the Southwest Detroit families who live here today.

His name survives on the map purely by inertia, a remnant of an era when industrialists received public recognition simply for owning factories—not for contributing to the well-being of the neighborhoods around them.

Clark Park, by contrast, stands as the beating heart of Southwest Detroit’s youth programs, sports, culture, and community identity. Renaming the street to Jack White Way would replace an outdated tribute to an absentee industrial figure with a name that reflects Detroit’s creative power, celebrates a globally recognized artist who came from these neighborhoods, and invites cultural tourism that supports local businesses and enhances neighborhood pride.

This change would finally align the street’s identity with the community it actually serves—one built on creativity, resilience, and cultural contribution rather than forgotten industrial profit.