Rose Pak and the race card

Photo: Jim Herd

From a recent edition of the SF Chronicle:

Over the objections of hundreds of Chinatown residents, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency narrowly voted Tuesday night to name the city’s newest Muni station after the late Rose Pak — a heroic role model to supporters, but a “morally corrupt bully” and “liar” to many others.

The cliffhanger 4-3 vote will establish the “Chinatown Rose Pak Station.” The naming issue has long divided the city’s Chinatown community, and the vote capped five-and-a-half hours of testimony in a sweltering hearing room where the air conditioning was broken and the polarization was complete.

Opponents — dozens of whom spoke in Mandarin with translators, or by video from their Grant Avenue shops — urged the seven transportation directors not to “shame” the community by naming the not-yet-finished station after Pak. 

They accused the brassy, cigar-chomping community organizer of being a Communist spy, of failing to pay for her meals, and of masquerading as low-income even though she had wealth. They said she opposed practitioners of Falun Gong.

“I cannot deny that there are people who love Rose Pak,” said resident Adam Zing. “But you can see that so many people do not love her. Why force this on us? This is a public station. Take your love private. Don’t bring this upon us”...

Rob's comment:

The Central Subway might not have been built without a deal between Rose Pak and Willie Brown. 

Just as important, Pak degraded the city's political culture by playing the race card against critics of the Central Subway project.

See also The folly of playing the race card in San Francisco.