Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Patricia Walkup Memorial Green?

(I just received the message below from an anonymous source. This is a ridiculous idea. Those of us opposed to renaming Hayes Green need to let Ross know right away.)

Rob:


There is a major movement afoot to rename Hayes Green after Patricia Walkup. Robin Levitt is personally handing his clipboard w/petition to people and standing there and waiting until they sign. Of course most do sign rather than offend. So he has a stack of these now and is schlepping them around City Hall. 

Don't be surprised if Mirkarimi sponsors legislation soon. My bet is that Robin, an HVNA board member, and Paul Olsen, current president of HVNA, will falsely claim that the HVNA supports changing the name. I don't think they always check with the membership before proceeding with claims about what the members do or do not support. 

Patricia, who moved from Texas to San Francisco in the 70s, did a lot of good and since she didn't have a job she had a lot of time to follow up with pushing her agenda. At the same time she was a bully who could wrestle with the best of them. She not only had the resources(Southern charm, lots of free time, political skills and connections) to steamroll her agenda but she was also skilled enough to block anyone who dared oppose her. She wasn't exactly well liked. 

Naming Hayes Green after Patricia Walkup is a bad idea. "Hayes Green" is a great and well liked name.

Thought you'd like to know.

Thanks for all your hard work.

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