Public Speaking

A lovely walking path follows the curves of the harbor across the street from San Diego’s convention center.  The path offers something for just about everyone: art (an arresting silver sculpture), nature (a small dog park with the prettiest dog-level drinking fountain I’ve ever seen), a reflecting pool (surrounding yet more art).  But the most interesting feature to me were the square granite plaques spaced every few feet along the path, with quotations engraved on them.

Now, San Diego is not the only city to do this: The public spaces in Manhattan’s Battery Park City feature passages by Walt Whitman and Frank O’Hara, celebrating what one web site calls “the exhilarating spirit of New York City.”   But those passages are actually about New York City.  The quotations in San Diego’s park were not created for or about San Diego; the man who wrote the words never lived there.

From the written word to the art inspired by it, the entire park – its official name is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Promenade – celebrates the spirit and the vision of this great leader.  And the fact that San Diego has placed this tribute in such a prominent location, across the street from its Convention Center, where tens of thousands of tourists encounter it every day, gives even casual visitors a real sense of the culture and priorities of this beautiful city.

I can’t wait to go back.

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