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Tomorrow, the council will consider renaming Balboa Island Park after Ralph Rodheim, and Ensign View Park after the famed actor and activist John Wayne.
Do most people in this city know and love John Wayne? Yes. So I can see why tomorrow, there is a proposal to name a park after him.
Have most people in this city even heard of Ralph Rodheim? No. So why should we slap his name on taxpayer-owned property? The obvious real answer is that people in power were personal friends with him and want to promote his name post-mortem, using taxpayer dollars to do so. That ain’t right.
As a decent human being, I understand the urge to make your personal friends live forever through a tribute to them after they pass.
However, that should be done with private funds, not public funds.
Tomorrow, the city council will be voting on whether or not to rename two parks in the city: One for John Wayne and the other for Ralph Rodheim. However, Rodheim just died 2 months ago, and while nobody likes to speak ill of the dead– let’s not alter history here: Rodheim was hated just as much as he was loved– perhaps more. Rodheim was the only person in my life who upon his passing, I received emails remarking on it in ways that made me feel uncomfortable. Rodheim and I didn’t get along well before I got involved with politics. I don’t know if I reminded him of someone he didn’t like in the past or if he was just a jerk to everyone at first, but it never got any better between us. So you can imagine the kinds of things said in emails that would make me uncomfortable– and many of these were from people he worked with for years.
As a general rule, cities should not name parks after people until they have been gone for at least 5 years. If their name doesn’t have staying power after a mere half-decade, then perhaps they don’t need a park named after them (Rodheim has been gone only since February– just two months ago).
However, I’ll take it one step further: I don’t think the council should be renaming parks to begin with. The Council should put these options on the ballot and let the voters decide next November (or, if Peotter gets recalled, whenever that ballot is). This will allow taxpayers to have a say with what happens with their own land, rather than having it renamed depending on who the most beloved person is to the elected council at that time.
The council has the ability to change this policy at tomorrow’s meeting, and I hope they do the right thing.
