Promenade Defended

I do not know where to start in responding to Jim Jacobson’s letter to The Times (Feb. 2), since so much of it is inaccurate. However, since he encourages any citizen or newsperson to visit the glorified median strip, as he calls it, I’d like to recommend where they might start their tour.

I would start by taking the bay side trolley to the Convention Center which, incidentally, will allow access to anyone who wants to visit the park, day or night. I would then walk west 200 feet to the Convention Center and proceed to the second level. From this vantage point, you will view in a few years an urban park comparable only to Balboa Park in civic quality. Green with many rows of trees, shrubs and flowers, the park will extend as far as you are able to see east and west from this vantage point. Directly in front of you, between First Avenue and Front Street, will be a circular lily pond a full block in diameter. Quiet and reflective, it will inspire a sense of peace in anyone who stands at its edge and reads the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Proceeding back to the trolley station you will walk past rows of rail tracks and wonder how this space could ever be a park. The answer is that Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade responds to the needs of our city for the next century. It takes a neglected linear strip of the city and incorporates places for trolleys, cars, joggers, bicyclists, strollers and lovers. It links and unifies diverse neighborhoods.

What better legacy for Dr. King can we provide than a concept for the revitalization of abandoned, neglected areas?

PATRICK O’CONNOR, Designer, King Promenade