|
UPDATE: The campaign is over.
Consider this a historic record rather than an ongoing cause. The new
span has so many faults, it's just as well His Highness did NOT become
its namesake.
Oakland
Bay Bridge ~vs.~ 
The current
name tells it all: a bridge over San Francisco Bay, err... Oakland?
Whichever.
Our proposed
name says what?
History if
one knows it, otherwise...
Otherwise it prompts, "Emperor Norton? Who's that? Emperor
of what? Why'd they name this bridge after Him? Is He
still alive? Where'd He live? When?..."
In other words, history!
Changing the
bridge's name invites even the marginally curious to meet a fascinating
hodgepodge of Californian events and characters. Joshua
Abraham Norton is a gateway to: |
| |
Denis
Kearney, sandlot politics, and race relations,
Bummer
& Lazarus (not
his dogs), E
Clampus Vitus,
Lillie
Hitchcock Coit "5," minority & women's rights, the
post Gold Rush period,
the Emperor's bridge, His reign, San
Francisco's biggest funeral,
and all of it royally tinted with a Monty
Python quality of madness. |
At last, history
with a sense of humor!
As dry and uninspiring as Bay Bridge is Norton-the-First
isn't. He wasn't just a little loony, he inspired lunacy around
Him. Many shed some of the time's
self-limiting "wisdom," for what was possible to the open
mind, e.g. arching The Bay with a suspension bridge and being host-city
to America's Emperor--two good things.
His gentle lunacy
also humbled more than a few anti-Asian racists! [Please read our
webpages on His Imperial Largess: Chivalry.]
If you know anything about Norton-1, you know everything about Him
was kinda nuts. The guy was a walking Star Trek Convention where
anyone who wanted to dress up and play a part was welcome to and
did (and still do).
San Francisco had an emperor who wrote His own
money,
which was honored as legal, dined free in many restaurants,
was saluted by the police, and issued proclamations
which the newspapers eagerly printed (and fabricated).
Emperor
Norton-1 was and is fun!
What's wrong with having some fun with a bridge?! We're not trying
to sell it; just rename it--especially when it's getting a whole
new span.
Whether Emperor Norton-1 (or businesspersona Joshua
Abraham Norton as He manifested prior to ascendancy),
ever campaigned for a bridge across San Francisco Bay is less important
to our effort than the certainty that the bridge is historically
tied to Him. No doubt a lot of other mid-19th Century visionaries
thought a span linking Oakland and San Francisco was desirable,
but name two.
The point is, it got built. Having been built, it
got named. And the name it got we'd like changed.
We request
you join our campaign to rename
"The Oakland Bay Bridge" to the .
[sample text below]
Please write on paper that you want the
bridge rechristened, then snailmail your
short message to the following decision
makers: |
Mayor:
Ron Dellums
One Frank Ogawa Plaza
(One City Hall Plaza)
3rd Floor
Oakland, California 94612
|
Oakland
City Council
One Frank Ogawa Plaza
(One City Hall Plaza) 3rd Floor
Oakland, California 94612
|
Your
state Assemblyperson
Your state Senator
(find
their addresses here) |
|
DO NOT EMAIL! Here's
why:
A professional lobbyist told me (so you're not taking a nerd's word
for it) that the electronically generated response one gets after
emailing a politician ["...necessary because of
the huge volume of email..."] is about equal
to what the official's staff did with your e-letter. That is, electronically
file-13ed it. You think you get spam? Get elected!
The lobbyist
emphasized, "E-petitions are a waste of time; emailings don't
count; pre-printed postcards hardly matter because they're orchestrated;
but a written letter still gets read—a phone caller listened
to. One letter still counts as 100 constituents speaking."
His point's
well taken. Remember, it's doubtful secretaries [the people you're
actually communicating with] have time to do more than count you
into the FOR or AGAINST mailbags. Therefore, please write a terse
snailmail letter directly to the person(s) above.
PS: keep it short.
Sample thoughts
as to why you want the bridge renamed. Use no more than 1 or 2 of
these. Better yet, don't. Make up your own! |
| |
I'm a Californian [an American]. We own the bridge.
I use the bridge.
A new structure: a new name.
Emperor Norton-1 proclaimed it should be built. He published first.
His name has been linked to it from the beginning.
It's a great name.
I had no idea about the Emperor until I heard of the proposed name-change.
(Now I'm all!) |
|
