Columbus, Ohio, To Get A New Name? Petition For Guy Fieri's Catchphrase 'Flavortown' Nears 30,000 Signatures

An online petition to rename Columbus, Ohio, to Flavortown has been signed by over 27,000 people as of Monday.

Columbus resident Tyler Woodbridge said the new name is in honor of one of the city’s most notable natives, celebrity chef Guy Fieri.

“Why not rename the city Flavortown? The new name is twofold. For one, it honors Central Ohio's proud heritage as a culinary crossroads and one of the nation's largest test markets for the food industry,” Woodbridge said in his Change.org petition. “Secondly, cheflebrity Guy Fieri was born in Columbus, so naming the city in honor of him (he's such a good dude, really) would be superior to its current nomenclature.”

Woodbridge expanded further with CNN, saying Fieri’s charity work and inclusive beliefs reflect the best of Columbus. He cited how Fieri has officiated over 100 LGBTQ weddings and raised $20 million to help restaurant employees during the coronavirus pandemic as examples.

“That kind of optimism and charitable work embodies more of what Columbus, Ohio, is about rather than the tarnished legacy of Christopher Columbus,” Woodbridge said.

Woodbridge’s own idea came about in the wake of cities and towns across the U.S. choosing to remove statues, memorial, and other historical iconography considered racist. Some of the most notable have been the removal of Confederate statues across the U.S. South, including the five statues of Confederate leaders lining Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, set to come down over the summer.

This sentiment has since spread to include memorials of Columbus, who found the Americas while searching for a faster route from Europe to India. This would lead to a wave of new colonies being setup in the Americas and lay the foundation for what North and South America look like today.

However, Columbus’ own legacy has been tarnished in recent years as more evidence painted a dark picture for the life of Indigenous peoples living under the explorer. The Taino, the most prominent Indigenous group Columbus interacted with, have gone all but extinct after being decimated by enslavement and disease brought on by Columbus.

This history, along with the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement, has inspired several cities to order the removal of Columbus statues, including the statue outside Columbus City Hall.

“For many people in our community, the statue represents patriarchy, oppression and divisiveness. That does not represent our great city, and we will no longer live in the shadow of our ugly past,” Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said in a statement. “Now is the right time to replace this statue with artwork that demonstrates our enduring fight to end racism and celebrate the themes of diversity and inclusion.”