San Diego

Bowing to complaints from senior citizens, a San Diego City Council committee decided Monday to investigate whether changing the name of Market Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Way would disrupt the direct deposit of Social Security checks for senior citizens living on the street.

The committee also voted to ask the city manager’s office to look into charges that some business owners along Market Street were not officially notified of a City Council hearing last month about the potential name change.

But members of the council’s Transportation and Land Use Committee didn’t budge from their strong support for changing the name of Market Street, and they balked at requests that they reconsider picking a street to honor King.

Councilman William Jones, whose district includes predominantly black Southeast San Diego, said he remained firm in his vote to rename Market Street for King. He said any reconsideration would disappoint many schoolchildren.

“I would hate for them to read or go to school tomorrow and their teachers tell them that Dr. King was not accepted in this community and that the City Council backed down again in naming a street for him,” Jones said.

Jones and his colleagues heard complaints from a representative for senior citizens living along Market Street, who contended that the name change would create a two- to three-month delay in the direct deposit of their Social Security checks. When the federal government changes addresses on checks sent to banks, it takes several months to update the government computers and reissue the checks, the representative said.

Council members also heard from businessmen, who said they would have to pay as much as $45,000 each to reprint catalogues and stationery with the new street name.

The council approved the name change with the provision that it not become effective for at least a year and a half. New signs for King Way won’t be posted for six months and then will share the poles with the old signs for at least a year so merchants and residents can get used to the switch.