Long Beach's Harvey Milk Park? Piece of Cake

Groundbreakings are usually snoozers - shovels of dirt, the stuff of civic pride but hardly prime photo op. But Long Beach City Councilman Robert Garcia knows how it's done: he staged the naming of a small industrial street after bad-boy native son Jessie James' motorcycle shop back in 2010, and it drew then-wife and actress Sandrah Bullock. Which (watch here) drew more than your average street-sign hanging.

A different storied character was honored Tuesday, a hero figure to gay and straight alike. Harvey Milk Promenade Park was billed by Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster as the nation's first park to be named for the slain gay rights leader. And it was all Garcia's idea.

The groundbreaking at Third Street and The Promenade coincided with the 82nd anniversary of the slain gay activist's birth, and Harvey Milk Day since 2009 in California.

And on Tuesday, Milk's nephew, founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation, was there to appreciate it.

"Today is the celebration not of a people or community or nation being better than another, but a celebration of the knowledge that we are so much less when we do not embrace, without qualification, all members of our unique and varied humanity," Stuart Milk wrote in a statement afterward. 
"
My uncle’s legacy has many monuments, all those openly LGBT elected officials, all those who live an authentic and open life, all those strong allies like our President [of] the United States that fight to keep us embraced, the hope givers who help to full fill our potential of equality."

For a good photo of Stuart Milk see the Jeff Gritchen photo gallery here.

The park site will include new landscaping, seating, lighting, enhanced paving and public art, including a replica of Milk's famous soapbox, and an area dedicated to honoring Long Beach area lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender leaders.

The project is part of the final phase of the Promenade Master Plan estimated to be completed by the end of the year. ``Harvey Milk was a trailblazer for the LGBT community who battled against discrimination and unbelievable odds,'' Foster said. ``I'm proud Long Beach is the first city in the country to honor Harvey Milk by dedicating a park in his name.''

Born May 22, 1930, in Woodmere, N.Y., Milk became the first openly gay elected official in California when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. He was assassinated in 1978. A movie starting Sean Penn brought his gay rights work to a new generation.

--City News Service contributed to this report.