Port to Again Review King Tribute at Mayor’s Bid

The San Diego Board of Port Commissioners, acceding to a demand from Mayor Maureen O’Connor, will again consider the racially charged issue of whether to name the San Diego Convention Center for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., board Chairman Louis Wolfsheimer said Tuesday night.

Wolfsheimer, part of the three-member executive committee that sets the commissioners’ agenda, said he will ask that the matter be scheduled for the commission’s May 16 meeting. He said approval of that request is virtually automatic.

The surprise twist in the long-running controversy over a tribute to King came after O’Connor telephoned Wolfsheimer on Tuesday afternoon to ask for a port board vote on the City Council’s proposal to name the convention center for King. Later in the evening, O’Connor announced to colleagues that she will make the request in writing.

Never Addressed Issue

The council voted 7 to 2 on Jan. 10 to rename the facility the San Diego Martin Luther King Convention Center, and sent the issue to the port commissioners, who are responsible for its construction and must also approve any name change.

But the commissioners never addressed the issue, deciding instead to create an “Avenue of Honors” on the center’s bayfront terrace and induct King as its first honoree. With no consensus between the two agencies, the matter was sent back to the council.

O’Connor tossed the politically and racially sensitive issue back to the commissioners Tuesday night, saying they had not fulfilled their obligation to review the council’s proposal.

“We just want them to say, yes, they support the naming, or no, they don’t,” O’Connor said in an interview. “They’re going to have to vote on it, yes or no.”

Reached Tuesday night, Port Director Don Nay said: “The board has an executive committee which sets the agenda on Thursday afternoons; it’s up to the committee to do it. But Wolfshei mer is the chairman, so I’m sure they would go along with his wishes.”

Wolfsheimer’s announcement comes more than two months after the commissioners’ Feb. 21 vote. Although O’Connor has kept the issue off the council’s public agenda, apparently to allow tensions over the King tribute to cool, Councilman Wes Pratt has continued behind-the-scenes lobbying of his colleagues in favor of naming the center for King.

The proposal has again highlighted strong feelings in the city over a proper tribute to King. In a 1987 referendum, voters overwhelmingly chose to strip the name Martin Luther King Way from a downtown thoroughfare and return its original name, Market Street.

This time, a new organization, Citizens to Keep the Name San Diego Convention Center, has promised to press for a referendum if the council and the port commissioners name the $160-million edifice for King.

At the same time, a coalition of groups favoring the name change has gathered thousands of signatures in support of the council’s actions, and the Rev. George Stevens, a black activist, has been attempting to enlist support for a nationwide boycott of the convention center.