Market Street or King Way? Voters to Get the Final Say

Setting the stage for what could be a racially divisive campaign, the San Diego City Council on Monday decided to let voters choose in November whether to reverse the city’s action to name Market Street for slain civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.

Voting, 6-1, to place the question on the ballot, the council members rejected a call by some downtown merchants to simply scrub the name of Martin Luther King Jr. Way themselves, rather than throw the issue open to a general election that several speakers warned could besmirch San Diego’s national reputation and bring tempers to a boil.

“I have to believe that this community is, when all is said and done, going to make the right decision,” Mayor Maureen O’Connor said. “And that decision is to let it stand.”

Yet both sides left the council chambers Monday saying that the public vote could lead to boiling tempers, despite the best efforts by everyone to drain the issue of racial hard feelings.

Asked if he thought the November vote could engender strife in San Diego, Michel Anderson, a local businessman who is chairman of the state’s Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Commission said: “Potentially. Potentially. But hopefully we won’t.”

Renamed a Year Ago

A year ago, council members voted to rename Market Street--a 6.5-mile stretch that begins at the bay and extends east through the city--as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The change was made to coincide with the first national holiday honoring the civil rights leader, and council members settled on Market Street as a compromise choice when discussion of other potential streets inspired protests from residents.

But merchants along Market Street complained that they had not been notified about the potential change, and they countered the council decision with an initiative petition drive seeking to roll back the name. The effort culminated last month when the Keep Market Street Committee turned in 79,175 signatures, the majority of which were ruled valid.

That effort forced council members to make a choice: Either they could change the name back themselves with a simple council vote or they could place the measure on the November ballot.

Merchants urged council members to act Monday and avoid the election.

Stressing a low-key approach, Tod Firotto, whose San Diego Restaurant Supply firm is at 12th Avenue and King Way, urged council members to “put political interests aside and try to discount the racial implications of the issue” in making their decision.

Firotto, who said he has done business for 19 years at that Market Street address, added that he wanted the name changed back because of insufficient notification and the historic value of the name Market Street.

“The name was changed,” said Firotto. “I wasn’t notified,” adding that when he learned of the change the “hairs at the back of my neck stood up.”

Another backer of the initiative, George Burger, said the council should act to avoid an ugly campaign.

“There will be a long, divisive period between now and the election, and it will be a bitter election,” said Burger, who added that he gathered signatures for the Keep Market Street initiative.

“From the remarks made to me when I was gathering signatures, I have no doubt about that. They made their feelings known to me.”

A ‘Costly’ Decision

That position was supported by Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer, who cast the dissenting vote Monday. Council members Ed Struiksma and Celia Ballesteros were absent for the vote. Wolfsheimer, who also was the lone vote against changing the name of Market Street a year ago, said that decision was a compromise that ended up being “costly in terms of human relations.”

“And it’s going to get worse, I’m afraid,” she said. “And I don’t want it to happen, because that was not Dr. Martin Luther King’s way. His way was to avoid controversy, and all we’ve had is controversy.”

Wolfsheimer said she wanted to restore the name of Market Street and search for a more suitable thoroughfare to dedicate to King, preferably California 94.

However, council members opted to put the issue to a vote in November--the position advocated by those who wanted to keep the name of the street King Way.

Anderson urged the vote, telling council members he had met with Coretta Scott King earlier this month. King’s widow was happy to hear about the renaming of Market Street, he said, but saddened when informed that there was a fight brewing to change it back.

“I saw Mrs. King going from a feeling of complete joy to utter sadness because she didn’t understand about the city,” said Anderson.

“The point is this--this issue is much, much larger than any of us. It is larger than Market Street. We’re dealing with perceptions, whether they are true or false. The fact of the matter is that the entire country will be watching what our city--America’s Finest City--is going to do on this issue.”

Anderson asked council members to provide the “political leadership” needed to defeat the measure. “I urge you to put it on the ballot and let’s show America that we can do what’s right,” he said.

Councilman William Jones, whose 4th District is predominantly minority, also spoke out for the November vote. Jones said there had been several public meetings before the Market Street name was changed last year, contending that there was adequate public notice.

“To suggest that we’re here at this point because there was not adequate public input last year is a misstatement of fact,” he said.

If the ensuing campaign will be one where “bitter feelings rise to the top, it will be that way because the powers that be in this town, the business and political leaders, allow it to happen,” Jones said.

“It will not happen if the media, Chamber of Commerce and others do not allow it to happen. If we keep it positive, the facts will come out.”

Jones also disagreed with Wolfsheimer’s statements that King was a man who shunned controversy. He said that many of the civil rights gains in the 1950s and 1960s were made because of controversy.

After the meeting, Firotto complained that King’s name has been used to “obscure” the feelings that merchants like himself were denied their civil rights in deciding the name change.

“I feel my civil rights were denied and I’m only doing what Dr. King would want me to do,” he said about pushing for the name of Market Street to be restored.