A proposal to rename San Francisco International Airport after assassinated Supervisor Harvey Milk is being dropped by its author, who said today that the idea had become too divisive.
Supervisor David Campos, who introduced the proposal in January, said today that he will seek only to rename a terminal at the airport instead.
Milk, 48, who was openly gay and championed gay rights while on the Board of Supervisors, was fatally shot along with Mayor George Moscone by former Supervisor Dan White at City Hall in 1978.
Elsewhere
Elsewhere: Terminal, not airport, to be named for Harvey Milk [BAR]
“Gay icon Harvey Milk won’t be getting all of San Francisco International Airport named after him” (second item) [Chron]
San Francisco airport won’t be renamed for Harvey Milk [AP via Ex]
Campos said he met with hundreds of people to discuss the legislation.
“People did believe we should honor Harvey … and they wanted it done following a process that was unifying and brought people together. I believe this proposal does that,” Campos said of the scaled-back terminal idea.
The initial proposal had drawn opposition from the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, which said it would be too costly to rename the entire airport and would dilute the airport’s brand recognition.
Campos said he plans to introduce new legislation next week that would create a committee appointed by the board and Mayor Ed Lee to recommend which of the airport’s terminals should be named after Milk.
The committee would also consider whether other sites at the airport should be renamed after other people, and would have three months to return its recommendations to the board, he said.
Campos told the board that the new ordinance is “consistent with what Harvey Milk was all about,” saying “he worked to make sure members of other communities were represented as well.”
Dan McMenamin, Bay City News
