New City Park to Be Named ‘King Promenade’ : City Council: Critic questions motive behind unanimous vote to name 12-acre park near Convention Center after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Hoping to resolve a divisive issue that has aroused charges of racism, the San Diego City Council on Tuesday voted to name a downtown park for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

In the fourth major attempt to establish a memorial to the slain civil rights leader over the past five years, the council voted unanimously to name a 12-acre park directly across from the bayfront San Diego Convention Center “King Promenade.”

In contrast to the controversy engendered by the council’s previous attempts to rename Euclid Avenue-54th Street, Market Street and the Convention Center itself after King, Tuesday’s decision came amid a minimum of public debate and a succession of laudatory comments from the council members themselves.

Councilman Wes Pratt, the council’s only black member, called the proposal to name the park, which stretches along Harbor Drive from 6th Avenue to Seaport Village, “a suitable and appropriate tribute to Dr. King.”

“It’s a symbol, and its time has come in San Diego,” said Pratt, who in the past said he was sometimes embarrassed at out-of-town meetings by questions over San Diego’s repeated failure to approve a fitting King memorial. “But the true legacy of Dr. King will result from how we lead our lives . . . and come together.”

Similarly, Councilman Bob Filner called the park “an appropriate symbol . . . that will inspire our citizens, our children, our residents, our tourists with a reminder of the high ideals of Dr. King.” However, he stressed that the city also needs to aggressively pursue programs designed to achieve King’s goals in areas such as affordable housing, jobs and education.

Although the council’s past efforts to honor King drew loud crowds to City Hall and aroused intense passion on both sides of the issue, only two people spoke in opposition to Tuesday’s proposal.

Calling the plan to name the park after King “too little, too late,” Greg Akili of the African-American Organizing Project said that the council’s decision will not alleviate the disappointment and anger spawned by the past unsuccessful efforts to honor King.

“There is a festering sore that has not had time to heal, nor has it had medication, and this certainly won’t do it,” Akili said.

In 1986, the council rejected the idea of renaming Euclid Avenue-54th Street after King, opting instead to rename Market Street as Martin Luther King Way. Local voters, however, overturned the decision in an emotional referendum the following year. Two years later, the council recommended naming the Convention Center after King, but that proposal was rejected by the San Diego Unified Port District--again touching a sensitive racial nerve in the community.

Describing the timing of Tuesday’s decision as “awfully suspect,” Akili also characterized the proposal as a “small tribute . . . connected to a larger package that people want”--an apparent reference to San Diego’s bid to attract professional football’s 1993 Super Bowl game.

With Phoenix having lost its rights to Super Bowl XXVII and its estimated $200-million windfall because of Arizona voters’ rejection of a proposal to make King’s birthday a state holiday, San Diego officials recognized that their city’s previous failures to honor King could weaken their own bid.

That perception, in turn, prompted some skeptics to suggest that the decision to name the downtown park after King was made as much with an eye on the National Football League’s forthcoming decision as it was on finding a way to properly honor King.

“This is disingenuous, as we can see it,” Akili said.

Proponents of the park plan, however, hailed the decision as one that, perhaps, could finally put the divisive issue to rest.

“It is never too late,” said Harold Brown of the Black Economic Development Task Force, responding specifically to Akili’s remarks. “This has the potential to be a fine tribute.”

“To me, this is a lot better than putting his name on some piece of stone,” the Rev. George Walker Smith, a longtime prominent black leader, said after the meeting. “Everyone who comes to the Convention Center will walk through or see that park, so it will be an everyday reminder of what Dr. King stood for.”

When completed, the park, the first downtown park that the city has developed since the turn of the century, though the Port District has created some, will have jogging and bike paths, fountains and benches. Because the park has not had another formal name, the proposal to name it after King therefore did not violate tradition--an argument used against the Market Street action.