Editor:
I took my dog for a walk at Golden Gate Park today and stopped by the Blue Heron Lake Boat House to buy a drink. I looked at the T-shirts and was struck by how boring and indistinctive “Blue Heron” Lake is. How – and more importantly, why – does an iconic San Francisco landmark have such a generic name?
Well, it’s because someone took time to research the name “Stow” and decided that it was not politically correct to retain the name in this day and age, even though the lake was named in 1890s. Instead of educating people with an information display about Stow’s history (he spearheaded the funding for Huntington Falls and was a park superintendent – that’s all!) at the Boat House, the beloved lake’s history was whitewashed. People have walked the lake, rented boats and stopped for a pink popcorn at Stow Lake for more than 100 years. But now the name is gone with no explanation.
Was this change even needed? There was never a reverence of the person the lake was named so long ago. It didn’t matter; someone was offended by his personal history, enough people agreed, and the SF Rec. and Park Department failed to defend the historical legacy of the park. This action is a good example of how “Woke” can go too far and why we have an administration in Washington, D.C. today undermining many of the positives the “Woke” perspective brought us. There are tipping points and seeing those boring Blue Heron Lake T-shirts for sale today reminded me of the adverse effects when unnecessary actions are taken.
Curt Cournale
Categories: letter to the editor
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 
Hm. Possibly because of the Great Blue Herons that tend to nest in a particular couple of trees, right there, they chose that particular reference?
In general I’d agree that the opaque naming processes of Park & Rec are as political as anything else SF might do – locals mostly learn to ignore it in favor of larger issues that have similarly opaque processes, but much more reaching implications.
(Like Engardio ditching the interests of middle/low-income residents of the Sunset to curry developer group favor and thus, campaign cash, for a singular example.)
But the Blue Herons are magnificent, so check them out before they migrate on.
Solution : Call the Lake whatever you like. Whatever goes viral wins anyway.
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He was a local leader of the Know Nothing Party. That name was changed to help the business of the woman who charges $15 to see the birds.
We should be educating people here about our racist and hateful past:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_Nothing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_W._Stow
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