Naming SFO for Harvey Milk ‘a terrible move,’ says Willie Brown

The budding controversy de jour, whether to rename SFO in honor of the late gay rights pioneer, gets a curious thumbs down from, of all people, someone on whose behalf there have been quiet overtures to claim the airport’s name—Willie Brown. He calls Supervisor David Campos’ effort to attach Milk’s name to the airport “a terrible move” because Milk had no connection to SFO.

So far, Brown is 0-for-2 in the less-than-flattering game politicians play to slap their names on stuff. The elementary school named in his honor in the Bayview was torn down. And the push to rename a downtown section of Third Street after him didn’t get traction.

Among others whose friends and/or operatives have at one time or other peddled an SFO name attachment: Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, the late Mayor Joseph Alioto, and the late Rep. Tom Lantos. By one indicator, Lantos came closest: There’s a plaque in Terminal 3 that designates the “Tom Lantos Hub.” Chronicle