Time to tell the world: We’re a Fort!

Like many Americans, I had never heard of Vancouver, Wash., until the prospect of moving here presented itself. And like many newcomers, I never knew how much life could be enriched until I moved here from Texas in 2003. It seems like yesterday.

One year later, while attending an annual golf/poker reunion in California, I was waiting on the tee box when a friend leaned over and whispered, “So, how’re things in Canada?” Most of you can share similar stories, right?

Until recently, I had opposed changing our beloved Vancouver to Fort Vancouver. After all, we were Vancouver first (1857), 29 years before The Other Vancouver. Also, I had been swept up in Mayor Royce Pollard’s boisterous “America’s Vancouver!” crusade. And I remembered the way Texans look down their noses at “Fort” cities in their state, five of them according to Rand McNally. Most of those cities are God-forsaken outposts. Even Fort Worth, 17th-largest city in the nation, languishes as “Cowtown” in the shadow of its more sophisticated neighbor, Dallas. (Tourist tips for visitors in Fort Worth: Check out the Stockyards and the NASCAR track.)

My aversion to changing our city to Fort Vancouver seemed immutable, until I applied two key concepts that can shatter any bold ideology: research and reason. And now, my greater enlightenment has caused me to do a 180 on this subject. I hereby reverse my stance in a couple of earlier columns and fully support changing the city’s name to Fort Vancouver. Here’s why, plus a few trivia notes:

The name-change process would be a pride-builder and kind of fun, for most of us.

Drawing positive attention to our city would be a refreshing reversal of the undeserved geo-confusion that has bedeviled us for more than a century.

That snarky “Let The Other Vancouver change its name!” line probably impresses no one but us. Let’s face it, the identity problem is real. It’s our problem, and we should solve it.

‘An easy change’

In 1989, residents of Baker City, Ore., (formerly Baker) eagerly adopted that name. I’m sure their own Hounds of Whinerville howled in protest, but 60 percent of voters thought differently. “It really was an easy change,” interim City Manager Tim Collins said in a recent Columbian story.

We would become the only Fort city in Washington or Oregon. (Wikipedia.org lists 16 historical fort sites in our state and eight in Oregon, but Rand McNally lists no cities named Fort.)

Most of the complaints about a name change aren’t very convincing. Mailing address confusion? No, not when ZIP codes are used. Dozens of businesses would have to change names? Not at all. Vancouver Sign Company, for example, would stay the same. In fact, these businesses might even benefit from the extra attention during the name-change process. Voters have repeatedly nixed the change? Yes, three times, but not in the past 34 years, and by decreasing percentages each time (86 percent in 1960, 80 percent in 1967, 61 percent in 1975.) I suspect the 2010 Winter Olympics in The Other Vancouver will persuade many more voters to support the Fort march.

A name change would make us America’s fourth-largest Fort city (current population about 163,000, according to U.S. Census data), behind Fort Worth (703,073), Fort Wayne, Ind. (251,191), and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (183,126). If Vancouver annexes East Minnehaha and Orchards (it should; those areas receive Vancouver city water, sewer service and fire protection), Vancouver would become the second-largest city in the state. And if the city’s name is changed, Fort Vancouver would become the third-largest Fort city in the nation and — get this — the largest one with a fort! Or at least a replica. (Worth’s and Wayne’s forts exist only in history books).

Fort cities are common, but not abundant, in America. There are 72, with Florida’s eight leading the way and five each in Texas and New York. Nineteen states have no Fort cities.

Finally, consider this precedent: Vancouver High School became Fort Vancouver High School in the 1955-56 school year. The name wasn’t changed so much as it was strengthened. The city should do the same thing.