Gov. Jerry Brown opposes bid to name Bay Bridge after Willie Brown

[alp227]

Source: LA Times

Gov. Jerry Brown weighed in on the latest controversy surrounding the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge this week, but this one had nothing to do with safety concerns or cracking bolts.

The current dust-up is over naming rights, with a group of lawmakers hoping to rechristen the western span of the bridge in honor of former Assembly Speaker and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.

Willie Brown remains a popular figure in the state Assembly, the house he led for nearly 15 years before being forced from office by term limits. Last month, lawmakers there bent a rule prohibiting the naming of roadways after living people, and voted 68-0 to rename the San Francisco side of the bridge after the man who once proclaimed himself as "the Ayatollah of the Assembly."

The move was received less warmly in San Francisco, a city where Willie Brown served as mayor for eight years, but where progressive politics can often become personal.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-jerry-brown-bay-bridge-name-willie-brown-20130911,0,109976.story

[Auggie]

1. I back Jerry Brown 1,000,000% on this

[wordpix]

4. i do, too & i still refuse to call National Airport "Reagan"

Next there will be corporate names like Koch Industries Br, Verizon Tunnel and the Apple Tpk. And the corporations will own all those things including the rights of way.

[tomm2thumbs]

2. 'rule prohibiting the naming of roadways after living people'

seems to me there is a rule in place -- perhaps this will get sorted out

[xfundy]

3. 10-15 years ago, Brown famously said:

"Anyone making less than $50,000/yr shouldn't be in San Francisco."

Today the number's probably close to $100,000.

[mitchtv]

5. the Brown Act 1972

decriminalzed homosexual acts between consenting adults.At least I think it was 1972. He deserves it for that alone

[brooklynite]

6. Here in New York, we have a baseball stadium named for the former Senate Leader...

former as in doing time in the Big House, but fortunately not at the "Bernard Kerik Correctional Facility".

I'll wait for people to die before considering the merits of honoring them.

[LiberalFighter]

7. Too many govt things named after people.

[Comrade Grumpy]

8. I think politicians need to be dead for a hundred years before we start naming stuff after them.

I don't fly out of Ronald Reagan. I still call that airport National.

[RexDart]

9. I'm still hoping

for the Emperor Norton I Bridge. I don't think I'll get it though.

[Brother Buzz]

10. "Now I've met the real Slick Willie." - Bill Clinton

[Sunlei]

11. Sea Otter bridge :P