However, if you only look at street names as data that needs to be standardized, it is very easy to come up with mechanical solutions, overlapping then changing. But street names are not just addresses, they are also history, memories and feelings of people for the place they are attached to.
Almost everyone cannot forget the name of the road associated with the land where they were born and grew up. Just mentioning the familiar streets, people can remember the old school, the familiar corner of the shop with memories, "the small alley, the small street, my house is there" (Hanoi and I - Le Vinh).
Therefore, changing street names is not simply changing a sign, but also touching the emotions of people on each street.
Before the merger, Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, and Ba Ria - Vung Tau all chose celebrities and national heroes to name streets according to tradition and history, which is the result of the formation and development of each locality.
Therefore, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture and Sports proposes to maintain the names of streets that are duplicated but belong to different wards and communes as a reasonable approach. After all, the goal of urban management is to serve people's lives, not to create unnecessary disruptions.
If renaming in series, procedures related to personal papers, land use rights, business registration, business signs and other legal documents will arise, and social costs will be significant.
More importantly, there are roads that not only appear on the map but also enter cultural life, becoming an identifying sign of a community of residents. Deleting a familiar street name is sometimes also erasing a part of the memory of that land.
What needs to be done is not to chase after absolute uniformity, but to build a more scientific identification system. In the digital age, distinguishing by ward and commune names, geographical coordinates or identification codes is completely feasible.
In addition, the review of street names is also an opportunity for Ho Chi Minh City to enrich its urban cultural values. Each street name can be supplemented with information about celebrities, history of formation or the meaning of the name. Street names are not only for traffic indications but also contribute to educating history, culture and preserving community memories.
There are roads with the same name, but each road tells a different story about the land where it exists, "I wistfully walk back and forth on the roads. Where bamboo trees keep turning yellow around the way of memory" (Words of Remain - Phong Lan).
