‘People think I’m nuts because I think precinct-walking is the best part of campaigning. But I just love to walk. I could walk all day.’

Early Saturday morning, as the chilly ocean winds whipped the coastline near White Point Park in San Pedro, Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores rallied a group of her staff members, harbor representatives and nearby residents to a brisk 5-mile walk.

“If I lead, will you all follow?” she asked the group as they tried to fight off the cold by rubbing their hands and jogging in place.

“You’re the boss,” someone responded.

“Then let’s go,” she said.

And thus began the trial stroll of a proposed coastal walkway through the Los Angeles Harbor area.

The walkway, which is envisioned to link jogging paths, sidewalks and nature trails between White Point Park and the World Cruise Center, is a pet project proposed by Flores and the 21-member Walkway Community Advisory Committee that accompanied her on the walk.

The coastline walkway, meant only for jogging and walking, would connect such points as Point Fermin Park, Point Fermin Lighthouse, the Sunken City, the Maritime and Cabrillo Marine museums, and Ports O’ Call Village.

Flores, who came up with the idea while walking her precinct, said she hopes the walkway can be funded mostly by private donations. The cost of the walkway and such details as how to pave and mark the path have still not been worked out, she said. One suggestion is to have various community groups and corporate sponsors pay for and design sections of the path, she said.

But before any of that can be considered, the committee, which was formed about a month ago, needed to actually walk the route to get a better idea as how to proceed.

So, sporting white tennis shoes, a pink sweat suit and a white jacket, Flores led the brigade along dirt paths, through parks, across 4-lane streets and, at one point, over a chain-link fence.

“People think I’m nuts because I think precinct-walking is the best part of campaigning,” she said. “But I just love to walk. I could walk all day.”

Most of the committee members were able to keep up with the blistering pace Flores was setting. “I’ll make it, because with me it’s do or die,” said a San Pedro homemaker who trailed along at the end of the pack.

Others, like the group of men who followed along in a car, didn’t even try.

The name of the walkway has not been determined, but Flores said she is suggesting calling it “The Promenade.”

The only other suggestion, which Flores said she rejects, is a name some of her staff members have proposed: The Milke Way.