The Macomb Daily story today on the decision to rename Metro Beach the Lake St. Clair Metropark has generated a barrage of comments – some nostalgic, most intensely negative. 
It seems that a polluted beach by any other name still smells not too sweet.
Here’s a sampling of the comments received online:
·       * “Most appropriate rename: “Oakland County Raw Sewage Dump.”
·       * “The politicians have now found way to make contamination disappear. Rename park.
Next they will change the name of the Asian carp to Asian pike and yet another big problem is solved! Gotta love it!”
·       * “Oh, come on … surely you have more important issues than this? Everyone knows what Metro Beach is, and now people will be confused thinking there is a new park. Leave it alone.”
·       * “One can only remember the huge difference a name change made for East Detroit!”
·       * “As a young boy I watched the dredging being done on the Black River to fill in the park and make the river larger and deeper. As I grew older I used Metro Beach for swimming and in later years I would walk the trails in the swamp area and ride my bike out to the point and back many times over, in my mind it will always be Metro Beach no matter what some buffoon who has nothing better to do then change the name of the park which always be Metro Beach.”
·       * “Even after 70 percent of the people that filled out surveys said they didn’t want a change, it looks like the (HCMA) board does what it wants. It’s only $20,000 … “
·       * “A cesspool by any other name is still a cesspool.”
·       * “Metro Beach will always be Metro Beach to those that are about 10 years old and older. I still refer to Pine Knob instead of that company name — whatever it is. Waste of time, waste of money.”
·       * “No no no!”
·       * “It’s a frivolous waste of taxpayer money. And to what end? Sheesh, where do these people come up with these stupid ways in which to spend our tax dollars?”
·       * “My family moved to the Gratiot and 16 Mile Road area when I was in the 8th grade. That was around 1956. It was named Metro Park then and for all the years since. One of the reasons my parents decided to move there was because it was so close to the beach. It worked for all these years, so why do we need to change the name now? … I am absolutely opposed to this change. Doesn’t the Huron-Clinton Metro Authority have better things to do?”
·       * “Keep it Frenchie for the old (St. Clair definitely French, not English) … and a little more properly descriptive for the new century … as in … ‘Lac des Eaux Usées Parc.’ Or, literally, ‘Lake Sewage Park.’
·       * “They can call it whatever they like. The lake is polluted and and it kinda smells. “
·       * “About time they changed the name to more accurately reflect the access to one of the best sport and recreational lakes in the world. Now they need to promote it worldwide. Major problem is that Lake St. Clair is lacking in actual shore and beach access. Develop beaches and they will come. Oh yeah, I forgot the upper tributary rivers and streams are still being dumped with sewage. Fix it, Mr. Executive Hackel!”