How to Make the "Emperor Norton Place" Street-Naming Proposal Better
God Is in the Details
UPDATE 12 Apr 2023 — Today, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved the proposed resolution to add "Emperor Norton Place" as a commemorative name for the 600 block of Commercial Street. In the commentary published here, The Emperor Norton Trust supported the resolution, even as we offered some “fine tuning” suggestions for how to make the make the proposal better — including the suggestion of a slightly different name: Emperor Norton Way. These ideas were not taken up. That’s OK. In the spirit of how civic engagement works, we now throw our full and unqualified support behind this honorary naming. — JL
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ON FEBRUARY 28th, San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin introduced a resolution (top of page 6, here) to add "Emperor Norton Place" as a commemorative name for the 600 block of Commercial Street.
This is the block of Commercial, between Montgomery and Kearny Streets, where Emperor Norton lived at the Eureka Lodgings for the last 14–15 years of his life — from sometime between late summer 1864 and late summer 1865 until the Emperor's death in January 1880.
The Eureka Lodgings was on the site now occupied by the 4-story apartment building at 650/652 Commercial — next door to Empire Park.
Peskin's resolution — file number 230230 — was referred to the Board of Supervisors’ Land Use and Transportation Committee — where it was unanimously approved this past Monday.
The resolution now heads back to the full Board — where it is on the agenda for a final vote at the Board’s meeting scheduled for next Tuesday the 11th. (Details below).
I can’t claim to know Aaron Peskin well. But, I know him a little.
In 2018, The Emperor Norton Trust produced Emperor Norton at 200, a 6-week bicentennial series of talks, exhibits and special events to mark the 200th anniversary of Emperor Norton's birth on 4 February 2018. Our invited partners in co-producing individual offerings included the California Historical Society, San Francisco Public Library, Mechanics' Institute and Society of California Pioneers.
And: The Mayor's Office and San Francisco Recreation & Parks honored our request to light both City Hall and Coit Tower in gold on the anniversary itself.
In connection with this series, Aaron Peskin appeared at our special 200th birthday "free lunch" at the Comstock Saloon on 4 February 2018 and issued the following Board of Supervisors Proclamation declaring February 2018 to be Emperor Norton Month in the City and County of San Francisco:
So, I consider Aaron Peskin to be “a friend in Norton” — and, it’s in that spirit that I offer the following suggestions.
The truth is: If I had been asked to write this script, I might have focused on a different street. Commercial Street is where the Emperor slept for 14 or 15 years. But, he spent little time here. In his waking hours, Emperor Norton was the Emperor of every other street — and the political meeting halls — and the theaters.
When Emperor Norton was arrested in January 1867, the Daily Evening Bulletin defended the Emp by calling him "the kindly Monarch of Montgomery Street." The stretch of Montgomery between Market and Jackson Streets intersects with the Emperor's block of Commercial Street. But, that Montgomery corridor also includes nearly 10 sites of significance to Joshua the businessman and Joshua the Emperor. It's where he rented his first office from James Lick. It's where he delivered his Proclamation declaring himself Emperor. It's where, in that same Proclamation, he instructed delegates to gather in February 1860. It's where he attended his favorite lunch counters. And, it's where he sat for several photographic portraits by the studio Bradley & Rulofson.
Widen the corridor to include the block on either side of Montgomery — the “ladder” of side streets between Kearny and Sansome, with Montgomery as the “spine” — and the number of Emperor-significant sites nearly triples to more than 25. These sites are documented on the Trust’s annotated Emperor Norton Map of the World.
You see where I'm going. Compared to the 600 block of Commercial Street, Montgomery Street creates a much richer opportunity for seeing — and showing — the full story of Joshua Norton.
But, adding “Emperor Norton Place” as an honorary name for the 600 block of Commercial is the proposal on the table — and, it should be supported.
Still, there are opportunities to fine-tune and improve this worthy proposal. Here are a couple:
1
“Emperor Norton Way” would be better.
“Emperor Norton Place” is good. But, “Emperor Norton Way” is better — for a couple of reasons:
“Emperor Norton Way” is better on SUBSTANCE:
This name would speak to the notion of "the Emperor Norton way" as the Emperor Norton approach — or path — or "way of being."
“Emperor Norton Way” is better for DESIGN:
Here’s an example of how commemorative street namings are implemented in San Francisco. It’s the “Tony Bennett Way” sign for the 900 block of Mason Street:
Notice that the commemorative street-name sign is the same length as the primary street-name sign above it.
It appears that both (a) this dimensional relationship between primary and commemorative street-name signs and (b) the specified length of all street-name signs in such an arrangement is part of a design standard that is implemented the same throughout San Francisco.
Partial translation: There aren’t longer signs for longer names. The length of the signs — including commemorative signs — places a limit on how many letters can fit in the space.
“Tony Bennett Way” has 14 letters and 2 spaces. The text “breathes” nicely, so that it’s easy to read. And, it fits — but just.
“Emperor Norton Place” would have four MORE letters — 18 letters and 2 spaces. Much tighter.
“Emperor Norton Way” would have 16 letters and 2 spaces — somewhere in between.
The extra typographical ease of “Emperor Norton Way” — fewer letters to occupy the same space — would make it possible to produce an “Emperor Norton Way” sign that would be easier to read from the street level and easier to spot from a greater distance than an “Emperor Norton Place” sign would be.
To be sure, there are commemorative street-name signs in San Francisco that squeeze in much more: the "Gene Compton's Cafeteria Way" signs on Taylor between Turk and Eddy clock in at 24 letters, 3 spaces and an apostrophe!
But — from a design and user-interface perspective: If a compelling name exists that is shorter and that does an equal or greater amount of "commemorative work," the shorter option is preferable.
2
Supervisors should commit to signage.
A naming resolution is one thing. Signage is separate — and involves its own process of hearings and approvals.
The “Tony Bennett Way” naming resolution that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed in November 2017 included the following clause requesting the installation of signage:
FURTHER RESOLVED, That the Board of Supervisors requests the Municipal Transportation Agency to erect street signs on Mason Street between Sacramento and California Streets indicating both the honorary and the existing names of the street, either on a single sign or on separate signs, with the honorary name "Tony Bennett Way" beneath the existing name;
There is no such clause in the current “Emperor Norton Place” resolution.
There is no reason to suppose that it is not fully the intention of the resolution that there be a sign(s) at the end(s) of the 600 block of Commercial Street, to memorialize an honorary naming of this section of Commercial after Emperor Norton. But, as we’ve seen over the course of many generations now, when it comes to getting official tributes, the Emperor needs all the help he can get!
So, it would help if the Supervisors made their signage intentions clear and explicit by adding a signage provision to this resolution — something that presumably would..."signal" that the Supervisors really want signage here, thus helping to clear the path for an actual sign(s).
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DETAILS of the Board of Supervisors’ meeting on 11 April are here.
Written public comments are to include the “Emperor Norton Place “ resolution file number 230230.
Comments should be addressed to:
Angela Calvillo, Clerk of the Board
City Hall
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 244
San Francisco, CA, 94102
or sent via email to board.of.supervisors@sfgov.org
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