Los Angeles has a long tradition of naming parks, streets and buildings after politicians.
The crowded Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport bears the name of the city’s first African-American mayor. A downtown plaza, a room in City Hall and a school are also named after Tom Bradley.
A new four-story office complex in Van Nuys that houses the city departments of planning and transportation and the city attorney’s San Fernando Valley office was recently named after Marvin Braude, who was a member of the Los Angeles City Council for 32 years until 1997.
The City Hall’s council chambers are named in honor of John Ferraro, a former City Council president, and so is the L.A. Department of Water and Power building. Similarly, recreation centers are named after former city council members Ernani Bernardi and Robert Wilkinson.
“Things have to be named anyway, in one respect or another,” said Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University. “We try to recognize people who provided public service and we have things named for presidents, members of Congress, council members, school board members and superintendents.”
Los Angeles has about 8,845 public streets, 450 city parks and thousands of buildings so there’s no shortage of venues and places to be named.
“There are so many unsung heroes in the city, and so many times there are so many collaborators on (such) projects,” said Lisa Hart, the executive director of the Neighborhood Council Sustainability Alliance, a nonprofit organization that promotes sustainability and resilience in L.A. “So many times it’s people in the community living in the community who bring projects to life.”
Hart asks, “Why aren’t the projects named after them?
In September, the Los Angeles City Council voted to rename two sites in North Hollywood after City Councilmember and former Council President Paul Krekorian who will be termed out of office in December following 15 years representing East San Fernando Valley neighborhoods.
On a unanimous vote, L.A. City Council members approved a motion to rename the Victory Valley Childcare Center at 6451 St Clair Avenue as the “Council President Paul Krekorian Child Care Center,” and to rename the Valley Plaza Sports Fields at 6980 Whitsett Avenue as the “Council President Paul Krekorian Soccer Fields.” The new signs will be added later.
A representative for Krekorian’s office declined to comment for the story.
Los Angeles has a tradition of naming parks and buildings after retiring elected officials. Recently, L.A. City Council President Paul Krekorian’s name was added to two locations in his Valley district. One of the locations is Valley Plaza Sports Complex in North Hollywood seen on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
“When city or county politicians leave it to themselves to make these decisions and name things after themselves, it has a little bit of a communist Russia feel,” said Tom Hogen-Esch, director of policy studies at the Center for Southern California Studies at California State University, Northridge.
He said it would make sense if the City Council came up with a policy and procedure that would indicate whether a retiring or former elected official could have a park or street or building named after them.
Naming places after elected officials can be controversial.
The naming of a massive park in Porter Ranch turned into a long saga after luxury home builder Toll Brothers proposed to name the park after former City Councilmember Mitch Eglander’s family members, and the park’s pavilion was proposed to be named for Englander himself.
But Englander stepped down from office amid an FBI investigation and was convicted for attempting to obstruct a corruption investigation. He spent 14 months in prison. Englander had represented District 12 in the San Fernando Valley from July 2011 to December 2018 when he resigned with nearly two years left on his term.
Before Englander made headlines for corruption, residents in his district tried to persuade city officials to abandon the proposal to name the Porter Ranch park after Englander’s family members.
Joel Fox, an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Public Policy, explained that one reason politicians name parks and venues after themselves is because they have the power to make those decisions.
“They want to help their buddies, and they have the power to do that,” Fox said. “The politicians say they are in public service, but so are the people that help other people.”
He added: “Why do politicians get their name on things? Many people deserve it as well — such as a top surgeon, scientist, or even someone in the business community who has improved the lives of people. Why don’t they have parks named after them?”
One problem with naming venues after local politicians, Fox added, is that when time passes people forget who they are.
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“Once the politician is not on the scene anymore for a while, people say: ‘Who is that? Why is that name on the park?’”
Los Angeles has a tradition of naming parks and buildings after retiring elected officials. Recently, L.A. City Council President Paul Krekorian’s name was added to two locations in his Valley district. One of the locations is Victory Valley Child Care in North Hollywood seen on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Some urban experts think that honoring former officeholders can go too far.
“What did Krekorian do? What did Englander do?” asked Joel Kotkin, the R.C. Hobbs Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University in Orange. “Did they make anything better? Did they leave a legacy that anyone other than their mothers might remember?”
Kotkin argued that in a previous era, before term limits, it made more sense if an elected official stayed in his or her position for decades “and managed to make a difference in their districts.”
He criticized local elected officials and legislators whose names are on buildings and other municipal locales. “They run for Congress, they run for state Assembly, they run for supervisor, and they run for dog catcher. It’s ridiculous.”