Opposition to Naming Center for Dr. King Launches Drive

A group that wants to keep the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s. name off the San Diego Convention Center kicked off its campaign Thursday in the face of a stiff challenge from black leaders.

The opposition group will attempt to put the issue before the voters if the center is named for King. A black community leader, the Rev. George Stevens, said that, if the drive is successful, he will start a nationwide boycott of the convention center in an attempt to shame the city that has already stripped King’s name from a major thoroughfare.

There are still several stages to go through before the proposed convention center name change becomes official.

The seven-member board of the San Diego Unified Port District must approve the name change because the uncompleted $160-million convention center is on Port District land.

If the port commissioners approve the change as expected when they vote next month, the proposal will go back to the San Diego City Council for approval. That surprised council members, who thought their role ended with the council’s Jan. 10 vote to add King’s name to the convention center’s title.

However, City Atty. John Witt and Port District attorney Joe Patello both said Thursday that, if the Port District commissioners vote to approve the name change, the matter must return to the City Council before it becomes official.

Passed a Resolution

“The basic document which constitutes the lease agreement between the city and the Port District cannot be amended except by way of an ordinance,” Witt said. “When the council took action the last time, it merely passed a resolution telling the Port District what its feelings were on the subject, but it did not pass an ordinance.

“The port has to pass an ordinance to make the name effective, but the City Council also has to pass an ordinance (to) . . . change the document.”

Councilman Wes Pratt, a leader in the drive to honor King, said he was unaware that the council might have to vote on the name again. He said he had thought that the council’s role ended with the resolution. “If it comes back, it comes back. We passed it once. I don’t expect the second vote to be any different.”

Paul Downey, spokesman for Mayor Maureen O’Connor, said he was surprised to hear that the convention center name could come back before the council, but said he did not know if the mayor was aware of it.

At a Thursday press conference, a newly formed group calling itself “Citizens to Keep the Name San Diego Convention Center,” claimed it has gathered more than 2,000 signatures on a petition opposing the name change. The conference was held at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park, 6401 Skyline Drive in Southeast San Diego,

A dozen or so members of the group, all white and most older, attended the press conference but, with the exception of an occasional shouted reply to reporters’ questions, none spoke.

Doing all the talking for the group was Allan Giesen, a hired public relations man. He defended the choice of location for the press conference. “Everybody has been claiming this park doesn’t have a high enough profile. We wanted to let people know the park is here,” he said.

“We have this park and an elementary school (named after King). This city is not opposed to honoring the man.”

To counter opposition, the forces who support the name change are mounting petition drives in an effort to persuade the Port District commissioners to approve the “San Diego Martin Luther King Convention Center.” One petition was circulated Saturday along the route of a parade marking King’s birthday, Stevens said.

“I will lead the drive to name the convention center after Dr. King,” said Stevens, who was on a committee appointed by the City Council to find a fitting memorial for King after voters in 1987 rejected a council decision to rename Market Street for King.

“If they circulate an initiative petition, we can take out an initiative too, “ he said, and noted that an opposition initiative “will be very cumbersome and more difficult than people expect” because a recall of a Port District action would have to go before voters in all five cities in the district--San Diego, National City, Chula Vista, Coronado and Imperial Beach.

Would Request a Boycott

Giesen said the opposition group’s motives were not racist but Stevens said the issue could be defined in terms of black and white. If the opposition succeeds in keeping King’s name off the center, black groups will put pressure on conventioneers not to use it, Stevens said.

“We would request a national boycott. We believe we can have a lot of effect, because of the embarrassment San Diego suffered” after Martin Luther King Way was changed back to Market Street by voters, Stevens said.

“Remember that most of the large cities now have a large black constituency. Blacks are a very large consumer in America.”

Councilman Pratt said he could not oppose the use of the political process by a group with an opposing point of view. “I think Martin Luther King would have appreciated the fact that someone has a difference of opinion,” he said.

But Pratt added that he believes the choice for Thursday’s press conference was designed to inflame an already-sensitive issue.

Giesen said the committee is willing to negotiate a solution short of bringing the matter to a public vote, but would not say what the terms of negotiation might be. He said it makes sense to keep the convention center’s name short because of the “sound bite nature” of modern society.

“The television media dominates, and the sound bite is important,” he said. “We are dealing in the media age . . . in the media mentality we’re talking about the eighth-grade mentality.”

The ‘American Mind’

Giesen also argued that San Diego “doesn’t have enough presence in the American mind” and that potential conventioneers elsewhere in the nation would not associate Martin Luther King’s name with the city.

“We are saying that the voters of the city have a right to make a decision,” Giesen said. “If deciding that the people have a right to vote is somehow construed as evil, I reject that.”

Members of the opposition group who attended the press conference indicated the organization has about 45 members. One of those at the conference was Robert L. Pruett, a retired Orange County businessman who now lives in San Diego and who is reportedly the organizer of the group.