Council Urged to Develop Policy for Naming Facilities

What’s in a name? Plenty, if you ask Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs. And that’s the problem.

Wachs asked his council colleagues Tuesday to create a policy for naming city properties. Among his first proposals: that the person be dead before a building, park or pool is named after them. And that properties be renamed if that person’s reputation becomes discredited.

Several City Council members supported creating a policy but they warned that communities should have input. The city was criticized last year when the library commission first denied a request to name a new Watts library after one of its biggest community boosters. The commission ultimately relented.

But Wachs says facilities shouldn’t be named after people, anyway, but after their locations.

The council agreed Tuesday to a proposal by Nate Holden to name the Rancho Cienega Recreation Center gymnasium after the late Lonnie Wilson Jr., a community activist. The council also voted to name the Rancho Cienega swimming pool after Celes King III, a rights activist.