When you ask the general public to name a new government anything (a boat, a snowplow, or a public park), you get exactly what you deserve.
The idiots in charge of the City-County of San Francisco launched a contest to name a new city park, as KRON reports. I’m happy to relay that the contest has attracted thousands of entries and about 100 variations on the only correct name, “Parky McParkFace.” To tease out the comedy in the other leading entries, some backstory is needed.
During Covid, city authorities took to closing, periodically, a two-mile stretch of the Great Highway, a busy road that hugs the city’s western edge along the Pacific Ocean, to vehicular traffic. After Covid, locals tried to get the City to fully reopen the road.
In retaliation, the city put a measure on the citywide November 2024 ballot to permanently close the road and create a new “park.” The measure narrowly passed and, as of last month, the road is now closed, and the new “park” is in need of a name.
The locals haven’t forgotten and are using the naming contest to take out their frustrations on the city and their local District 4 supervisor. A sampling of the entries,
- Really Stupid Park
- The Joel Engardio Screw You District 4 Park
- Recall Joel Engardio Park
- Barren Stretch of Asphalt in the Service of the Idle Non-Working ‘Park’
- Traffic Congestion Park
There are many other good ones, but you get the gist of it. The response it generated is almost enough to make you believe in (small “d”) democracy, again. But whose democracy? The whole city or those in the local western neighborhoods who have to live with the traffic and the hassle?
Vox Populi, Vox Dei
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