Reconstructing California

Bosley_J (BosleyJ@ORE.PSB.BLS.GOV)
Fri, 1 Mar 1996 11:37:00 EST

Friends of ANTHRO-L:

I have been enjoying the postings so much recently--very thoughtful, very
thought-provoking, hardly any bickering, etc.-that when I got this from my
pal George Curran today I just *had* to post it, partly for Friday fun but
also because I think it has the potential to spark some interesting thoughts
about the State of the Culture, and maybe a few lively comments that really
pertain to anthropology, unlike the software flame wars I sparked with my
off-hand deprecation of M****S***'s W*****s 95 :-)
Have good weekends all!
John
Bosley_J@bls.gov
----------
From: George Curran
To: Bosley_J
Subject: FYI: Things are changing!
Date: Friday, March 1, 1996 7:04AM

3COM PARK AND AFTER: RENAMING CALIFORNIA'S HERITAGE HPCwire
Virtual History by Norris Parker Smith, Editor at Large Sept. 15, 1995
===================================================================

Cisco, California November 15, 1998 -- Well, it's over. The bizarre
episode that began two years ago, when Candlestick Park, San Francisco's
breezy, freezing sports stadium, was renamed 3Com Park to publicize a
communications company, has come to an end.
A review of the great damage done during this brief period may serve as
a warning for a forgetful future. It might even help to prevent a
repetition of this folly.
Oakland was, as might be expected, the first to follow. The sportsocracy
of the East Bay was afraid of a taxpayer revolt if ticket sales continued
to sag despite popular enthusiasm over the return of the prodigal football
Raiders. Bids were solicited for a sponsor to place its name on the
Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
Larry Ellison, out-maneuvered in the bidding for Candlestick Park, won
easily in Oakland. Oracle Park was born. (Persistent rumors that
Ellison threatened to bring the Oakland economy to a halt by inserting
a secret virus into municipal databases have never been substantiated.)
Then California's notorious highway department was privatized, and the
floodgates opened.
The Golden Gate Bridge went first. The three months of political
maneuvering that followed were too sordid for description. Sun
Microsystems prevailed in the lottery that was held when all other methods
failed. Sun Gate sounded too much like an astronomical scandal, so Sun
Span was chosen.
One side-effect: a reduction in the number of suicides leaping from the
bridge. More than one would-be suicide has turned away from the edge,
later telling police: "I couldn't bring myself to do it. Jumping from the
Golden Gate Bridge had class, but Sun Span is simply too tacky. It sounds
like a discount shampoo."

BACK TO BASICS
The executives of Silicon Graphics, Inc., had begun to consider a change
to a corporate name that would reflect more accurately the company's
increasing concentration on entertainment. This reform became more
pressing when SGI bought the Great America theme park down the road and
renamed it "Virtual America."
Embarrassment grew when SGI's all-digital musical, "Indigo Dreams,"
failed utterly on Broadway. Variety's headline: "Silicon Bomb Leaves
Nothing but Gritty Taste."
So it was only natural that the company would change its name and
simultaneously affix the new one to Highway 101, the battered, overcrowded
freeway that passes the gates of SGI.
Highway 101 is, of course, now known as "SGI Boulevard."
In retrospect, the adverse consequences should have been anticipated.
SGI sales have dropped for the first time in history. Commuters now
associate their en route sufferings with SGI, not the bureaucrats in
Sacramento.
A happier outcome was found for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
This awkward name, born of a political impasse more than 50 years ago, has
always been ignored by those who live around the Bay. They have stubbornly
referred to the bridge by the name used during its construction: "The Bay
Bridge."
Bay Networks, Inc., took advantage of this preference and offered to
restore the bridge's name to its original simplicity -- and pay for the
reform. Popular gratitude was unprecedented, slowing for a while the
upsurge of opposition to the "selling of the Bay Area."

APPLE HOOKS ITSELF
Apple was becoming increasingly frustrated as it lost out in one round
of bidding after another. Then San Francisco began to auction off the
names of its most popular tourist attractions.
Moving fast, Apple scraped together its last few hundred million
dollars and made a pre-emptive bid to place its name on the most famous
attraction of them all.
Naturally, the purchase was immediately attacked in the courts. The
protracted litigation was followed daily on TV all over the world.
Then the judge ruled that, due to a defect in the intricate wording of
the bidding document, Apple had paid approximately $321 million for the
privilege of calling itself Fisherman's Wharf, rather than the other way
around.
When the laughter subsided, the leadership of the former Apple decided
to make the best of it. They accepted the new name and licensed its use
back to the City and County of San Francisco for its original purposes.
Adversity may, occasionally, lead to determination. Apple had been, at
best, plodding steadily downward. The reborn Fisherman's Wharf ("nothing
fishy about our performance") has flourished ever since.

SHORT STREET, LONG NAME
As is its policy, IBM had procrastinated until most of the best sites
had been renamed. Then it made a try for Lombard Street, which swishes
picturesquely down the side of one of the City's splendid hills.
IBM won the bidding easily but encountered opposition when it proposed
the new name: "IBM POWERParallel RS/6000-S/390-AIX-OS2 Way."
Even in wordy San Francisco, this was considered too cumbersome. In the
arbitration that followed, IBM's lawyers argued that this was a typical
IBM product designation.
Attorneys for the city won out after they proved that any sign capable
of displaying the full name legibly would be wider than the street. The
final compromise was: "Blue Street."
Proponents of the renaming fad noted that all this was simply innovative
civic finance: revenue had been extracted from names, which had formerly
been potential assets that had never paid their way.

OPPOSITION EXPLODES
Opposition was nevertheless exploding. It became tumultuous in the
summer of 1997.
Intel had been watching quietly, waiting for a suitable opportunity.
Then an assistant treasurer of Santa Clara County siphoned off nearly $1
billion in county funds. She was caught, but the money could not be
recovered. She had frittered away much of her stake, buying Netscape at
78. The rest was lost speculating on mohair futures.
The county authorities were relieved when Intel offered to make up the
shortfall. In that atmosphere, the matter of the county's name was only a
detail. Hence today's Intel County, and, inevitably, Intel Valley is
replacing Silicon Valley.
Another precedent had been set. Cisco, another communications company,
had by that time accumulated almost as much loose cash as Intel. Cisco
approached the civic authorities in San Francisco who were, as always,
eager for any money they could get.
Cisco shrewdly packaged its proposal as an economy measure. It presented
evidence of the savings in letterheads, printing on the five million
parking tickets issued every year, signs and other expenditures that could
be made by removing seven letters and one space from the name San
Francisco.

PROPOSITION 666
After Cisco's proposal was approved, opposition became irresistible.
Within a few weeks, enough signatures were collected to place Proposition
666, the Preservation of Historic Names initiative, on the 1998 ballot.
It was a bitter and expensive campaign. Supporters of the initiative
exploited reports -- never confirmed but never denied -- that Microsoft
proposed to solve the financial problems of Yosemite National Park if the
Yosemite Valley were renamed "Windows Gulch."
A relentless series of TV ads showed a malignant, goggle-eyed Bill Gates
reaching greedily toward Half Dome.
Proposition 666 carried by a decisive margin. In a deal with local and
state authorities, the supporters of the proposition had accepted a key
stipulation: names already changed would be retained until valid contracts
expired.
Consequently, this article is still datelined "Cisco, California."
At least for now, however, the commercialization of names on civic
monuments in California has been brought to a tardy but welcome stop.
Except for Disney's efforts to change the name of the city surrounding
Disney World to "Mickey Heim." After almost two years, this proposal
remains in litigation -- with no prospect of early resolution.


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