Street Hero

President Clinton won’t find himself with a major role in next week’s Democratic Convention, but he will have a place of honor if he can find his way to West Hollywood.

And he can get there by taking Bill Clinton Avenue.

City leaders temporarily added the name Bill to the street named Clinton Avenue on Monday and extended an invitation to the president to dedicate the new name next week.

Clinton has been very good to gay people during his eight years in office and the street renaming is a way of paying him back, said Steve Martin, a councilman in the heavily gay city.

“We’re proud to be the first city in the country to name a street in his honor,” he said as workmen bolted the new sign in place at the corner of Bill Clinton and Melrose avenues.

City officials say the street was originally named after W. A. Clinton, a Los Angeles property owner who created it in 1887. Called Clinton Street in Los Angeles where it begins in Silver Lake, it is designated an avenue in West Hollywood.

The new name may only last a month or so. That’s because the West Hollywood City Council balked at making the name permanent without checking first with residents of the street.

Officials had five signs produced. They plan to put up four and give the other one to the president if he shows up for the dedication ceremony.

Martin said a permanent name change would cause few headaches. “We would have no problem with mail delivery--the mailmen are all good Democrats,” he said.

Martin said the city has extended its sign-ceremony invitation to Clinton directly through the White House. It bypassed the Democratic National Committee--which has assigned the scandal-tinged Clinton a relatively minor role in the convention.

The five new street signs cost about $500.

“They’re aluminum. They can be recycled,” pointed out Andrew McComb, a street maintenance worker for the city.

City staff member Sarah Bradshaw said the name change has already been joked about by late-night television talk-show host Jay Leno. “That alone is worth the $500 cost,” she said.

Others said Monday they don’t mind adding “Bill” to the name because the bill for the signs was so low.

“I’d like for the street name to stay ‘Bill Clinton.’ I’d happily change the address in my driver’s license to ‘Bill Clinton Avenue,’ ” said Marty Kopulsky, a hairstylist.

At Rosewood Elementary School next to Bill Clinton Avenue, the new name drew a shrug from school bus driver Pogos Salakhorian. “It’s fine with me whatever they call it. I’ve all the directions I need right here on my route sheet,” he said, displaying printed driving instructions.

Parent Gene Moffit smiled at the new sign.

“Does this mean we’re going to have to have an Al Gore Street and a Bush Boulevard too? It wouldn’t surprise me,” he said.

Moffit’s 6-year-old son, Brandon, interrupted to ask whether he could pick some yellow gazania blossoms from the parkway at the corner of Bill Clinton and Croft avenues to take home. Moffit said no.

“Those are Gennifer Flowers,” Moffit joked. “Don’t you dare touch them.”