Bike shop owner recycles Calhoun's name to dustbin of history

The first Minneapolis business owner to declare he was dropping the name of John C, Calhoun from his enterprise made good on that promise Thursday night.

The bike shop known for 20 years as Calhoun Cycle is now Perennial Cycle.

The switch is something that owner Luke Breen first disclosed last July during a Star Tribune survey of businesses named Calhoun after debate renewed over whether the lake itself should be renamed due to the South Carolina politician's controversial views and actions on racial issues.

It just took Breen this long to work through a list he estimated to be at least 50 items long to prepare for the change, ranging from changing the URL for the shop to switching social media accounts to changing business accounts.

He, his staff and customers brainstormed probably 200 new names, he said. But he liked the connotation of sustainability embodied in the new name, which he said also represents how the state's cycling community springs to life each spring.

It wasn't a step he took lightly after the longevity of the previous name for the store at 3342 Hennepin Av. S. "You work so hard to protect your brand," Breen said.

But his moral compass also told him he couldn't hold onto a business named after an apologist for slavery who also engineered the removal of southeastern tribes notorious as the Trail of Tears.

"We cannot go back and change our past, but we can learn from it and from our mistakes, and attempt to right our wrongs," Breen said in a statement about the change.

The letters of the old store were given a mock burial in a black plastic bin that served as the coffin. To mark the racial attitudes of the man he's leaving in the dust of history, Breen read this Calhoun quote cited by author Ta-Nehisi Coates: "The two great divisions of history are not the rich and poor, but white and black."

As far as Breen knows, no other merchant has joined him in shedding the Calhoun name.

But plenty of supporters showed up for the party, which included food and entertainment, including singer-songwriter Ann Reed, a store customer. "Congratulations, brother," said Jeremy Little, who runs Little's bike delivery service. "We've got lot of symbolism going on."

Citywide, the topic of renaming Lake Calhoun remains a topic of intense debate. Opponents say it's too late to rewrite history now that the name has been used since the early 19th century. An advisory committee of citizens convened to advise the Minneapolis Park and Recreation board on a new master plan for the Harriet-Calhoun lakes area last week went on record favoring restoration of the Dakota name Bde Maka Ska. The Park Board can't rename the lake under state law, but it can request state and federal action to do so, a process that would also involve the Hennepin County Board. If it addresses the recommendation, the board is likely to take additional public comment specifically on that issue. However, last year it added the Dakota name to signs that still bear Calhoun's name.

(Photos: Top: The letters from Calhoun Cycle's old name were given a mok burial Thursday night. Above right: The new sign for Perennial Cycle. Right: Perennial owner Like Breen.)