The town of Springe in Lower Saxony will not get an Olivia Jones Square for the time being. The local council postponed its decision on Wednesday evening, as confirmed by Mayor Christian Springfeld (independent). “Whether and when a new town council after the municipal election revisits the topic remains up in the air.” The next session of the city council won’t take place until November.
Nine of the eleven members of the local council ultimately voted in favor of the postponement, according to the Neue Deister-Zeitung (paywalled). Only Bastian Reinhardt (independent) and Antje Retzlaff (Greens) voted against. Reinhardt called the move “unfathomable,” Retzlaff reminded her colleagues that “we were elected to make decisions.” Other members of the council wanted to wait for the redesign of the square before deciding on the name.
The mayor had pressed for renaming an unnamed square in front of the Old Town Hall. He hoped to honor the drag queen who hails from the city and to create visibility for sexual minorities. Olivia Jones (56) is usually associated with Hamburg, where she lives and runs several venues on the Reeperbahn. Jones is also an honorary ambassador of the city of Springe in the southwest of Hanover.
Jones and the mayor regret the decision
A day before the vote, Jones spoke out for the first time about the possible renaming. In an open letter, she wrote of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to send a potentially historically unprecedented global signal for diversity. She also floated the alternative name “Olivia-Jones-Platz der Vielfalt” as a compromise (TheColu.mn reported).
“I just hope that postponed does not mean canceled,” Jones said in a statement after the postponed vote. She added that the negative decision did not surprise her. Mayor Springfeld said: “The decision not to decide is possible, but pointless. I must respect it, but I do not think it is a good idea.”
In a survey of about 350 people, mostly from Springe, nearly half supported naming the square “Olivia-Jones-Platz” (Olivia Jones Square). More than one in ten votes also went to “Platz der Vielfalt” or “Platz der Gleichstellung.”
