Larkspur sticks with Drake name
Council votes 4-1 against renaming of boulevard
The Larkspur City Council has voted to keep the Sir Francis Drake Boulevard name despite criticism over the explorer’s ties to slavery.
The city is the second jurisdiction to take a position in the renaming controversy. The Ross Town Council voted 4-1 last month to retain the name.
The Larkspur council’s vote was also 4-1. Meeting on Wednesday, the council decided to retain Drake’s name on three street signs and a freeway exit sign.
As part of the motion, the city will also consider a dual-name option when the county finishes its renaming process.
City Manager Dan Schwarz said the most common co-naming option is to have two street signs up with different names. In this case, Drake’s would be the legal name.
“One is often indicated as the more ceremonial name and one is the longstanding legal name,” Schwarz said. “But both names become, in all practicality, the names of the street.”
He added that a historical designation for the boulevard could be considered also, similar to El Camino Real in San Mateo County.
The dissenting vote was cast by Mayor Kevin Haroff, who said the city should work with the county to avoid a patchwork of names along the corridor — which is mostly in the county’s jurisdiction. Larkspur’s segment runs from San Quentin State Prison to just west of Highway 101.
Haroff also opposed a dual-name option.
“I am frankly opposed to any, what I view to be, half measures in the interim, including honorific use of multiple names for the same street,” he said. “To me, that would be an expensive and pointless waste of time, and only create confusion with the traveling public.”
Councilman Scot Candell disagreed with Haroff’s suggestion to follow the county’s lead.
“I think we, as an independent jurisdiction, need to have our own opinion. It’s not being written in stone,” Candell said. “You know, if we decide whatever we decide and three months later the county decides something different, we can always come back and revisit this issue.”
Fairfax and San Anselmo have not yet voted on moving forward with the county’s renaming process.
Community opinion at the Larkspur City Council meeting was varied.
Zeke Johnson, a senior at Redwood High School, said while he acknowledges Drake’s accomplishment of circumnavigating the planet, the road name should be changed because of his ties to slavery.
“Sir Francis Drake stole people from their homes and enslaved them. He owned people,” Johnson said. “From my perspective, it is time to take a
more comprehensive view of the past and stop idolizing Drake.”
He added it would be a first step in showing the city is committed to social equity and racial justice.
Larkspur resident Sarah Swigart said she is opposed to the renaming efforts. She said funds should be invested into communities instead.
“I just I think that if we’re on a quest to remove the names of historical figures trying to find anybody without sin and wrongdoing, that is a Sisyphean task that can never quite be achieved,” Swigart said.
The City Council delayed a vote on the controversial 30-foot explorer sculpture that once stood along the boulevard. The council directed staff to gather more information about the cost of relocating it to a local park or selling it.
Due to ongoing safety concerns over activists organizing to tear down the sculpture, the council is shying away from returning it to its original location at Larkspur Landing.
Councilwoman Catherine Way said the sculpture was removed by city staff in July and the risk that activists would mobilize and tear it down still exists.
“Perhaps there is a person who is appreciative of supporting art and would put this art piece on their private land … but not within the public sphere,” Way said. “So I continue to hold that we cannot safely put it back in that place.”