Chaos over vote to strip Justin Herman’s name from plaza

Justin Herman Plaza as the floor for the outside ice rink is set up on Oct. 17. San Francisco’s Recreation and Parks Commission narrowly voted Thursday afternoon to strip Justin Herman’s name from the plaza seated next to the city’s Embarcadero Center amid mounting pressure to rechristen the iconic public space. less Justin Herman Plaza as the floor for the outside ice rink is set up on Oct. 17. San Francisco’s Recreation and Parks Commission narrowly voted Thursday afternoon to strip Justin Herman’s name from the plaza ... more Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 58 Caption Close Chaos over vote to strip Justin Herman’s name from plaza 1 / 58 Back to Gallery

San Francisco’s Recreation and Park Commission thought it voted Thursday to strip Justin Herman’s name from the plaza next to the city’s Embarcadero Center — then found out later that it hadn’t.

In a confusing series of events, the commission’s vote to rechristen the iconic public space was initially recorded as 4-3 in favor. Later in the day, the city attorney’s office determined that Commissioner Eric McDonnell, who had to leave the meeting early, did not officially register his vote on the matter. Because there was a 3-3 tie, technically, no action was taken.

Commission President Mark Buell and the panel’s secretary erroneously recorded McDonnell as having cast a yes vote, said Recreation and Park Department spokeswoman Sarah Madland. The panel can’t go back and take another vote before its next scheduled meeting in late November, she said.

At the park commission meeting, McDonnell was clearly supportive of the proposal to rename the plaza, but because he had to depart the meeting early, his vote could not be officially counted. “There have been many moments like these when the city, candidly, gets it right and finally takes the step in the right direction,” McDonnell said at the meeting.

Before it all fell apart, it appeared as though the vote to change the plaza’s name had come down to Commissioner Larry Mazzola. He asked for a moment to collect his thoughts as he weighed how he would break the apparent 3-3 tie he was faced with.

“I have complete mixed feelings about this whole thing,” he said. After several tense moments, he voted to approve the name change. In the end, Mazzola said he was swayed by the unanimous decision by the city’s Board of Supervisors last month urging the parks commission to erase Herman’s name from the plaza.

With the commission’s vote having gone for naught, Herman’s name remains on the plaza. The temporary moniker it would have gotten, Embarcadero Plaza, is also on hold.

In his time, Herman was a powerful San Francisco official, executive director of the city Redevelopment Agency under three mayors, from 1959 until he died in 1971. The city named the plaza after him when it opened the following year.

But a growing chorus of critics, including the Board of Supervisors, has thrust Herman’s fraught legacy with the city back into the spotlight, prompting calls to rededicate the plaza to commemorate a less divisive public figure. Those efforts managed to reinvigorate a public discussion about renaming the plaza that has waxed and waned over the years. In 2001, then-Supervisor Chris Daly introduced a proposal to scrub Herman’s name from the space, but the board never voted on it. In 2015, a citizens’ campaign to rename the space after poet Maya Angelou sputtered out.

Herman is perhaps best known for leveling large swaths of the Western Addition in the name of “urban renewal,” an effort that had disastrous effects on the vibrant African American and Japanese American communities living there. Thousands of people saw their homes and businesses destroyed as the city razed 60 square blocks.

Board of Supervisors President London Breed, who represents the Western Addition and grew up there, said she was happy that the parks commission moved to get rid of the “stain” on the city’s history that Herman’s name has come to symbolize.

“I’m really excited that this happened. This is going to be the first step in the process to do what we should have done many years ago,” Breed said, before the commission’s decision was undone. Breed said that despite the procedural hiccup, she expected the parks commission to again vote to remove Herman’s name from the plaza.

Among those who voted against changing the plaza’s name was Buell, the parks commission president, who worked in Herman’s office in the late 1960s and in 1970. Buell said that while Herman’s pursuit of urban renewal in the Western Addition was a grave mistake, he believed Herman was being unfairly “demonized” for policies that he was not alone responsible for. “He was passionate about trying to make San Francisco a better place,” Buell said.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who authored the board’s resolution on the plaza, spoke to the commissioners before their vote to emphasize that while the board supported removing Herman’s name from the plaza, “this is not about demonizing Justin Herman the person. But that era has come to symbolize a lot of hurt,” particularly for communities of color, Peskin said. “We’ve learned a lot, and I think it’s time to turn the page on this chapter of history.”

Numerous members of the public urged the commission to consider naming the space after San Francisco photographer David Johnson, who was in attendance Thursday. Johnson, a student of Ansel Adams, made his mark by turning his camera on the Fillmore district’s vibrant African American community of the 1960s.

“We need to find someone or something that sheds a brighter light on such a significant public plaza in our city,” Breed said.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa