71 when he died<\/a> in May 2024 after a prolonged battle with cancer.<\/p>\nThe announcement to rename sites took place in Balboa Park on Park Boulevard near Walton\u2019s longtime home and everyday cycling routes. One proposal calls for renaming a segment of Park Boulevard to Honorary Bill Walton Way.<\/p>\n
His wife, Lori Matsuoka Walton, said she supports the proposals and described her husband as a selfless proponent for community needs.<\/p>\n
\u201cBill was an incredibly proud San Diegan, and even though his job required him to travel quite a bit, on the days that he was home, he really devoted his time to giving back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said Walton shied away from individual attention and would be \u201ckind of embarrassed\u201d by a street renaming, but she added that it was something she thought he deserved.<\/p>\n
Shane Harris, president of the People\u2019s Association of Justice Advocates, is spearheading the renaming effort. His office proposed multiple sites as options for honoring Walton, in part due to his broad impact across San Diego, but also because it can be complicated to get a street rename approved by municipalities.<\/p>\n
\u201cBill\u2019s generosity didn\u2019t just come from an obligation, it came from joy,\u201d Harris said. \u201cThat\u2019s why this proposal doesn\u2019t stop here (in Balboa Park).\u201d<\/p>\n
The association proposes recognizing Walton at more than nine sites, all of which have connections to his lifelong philanthropic efforts.<\/p>\n
One would rename a portion of Mission Valley Road in front of the Mission Valley YMCA \u2014 where a bronze statue of him stands \u2014 as Honorable Bill Walton Way. Another would rename the Mission Beach Courts that Walton paid to be renovated as Bill Walton Courts \u2013 Mission Beach.<\/p>\n
Walton\u2019s basketball journey started at Helix High School in La Mesa, where he became one of the most accomplished basketball players in San Diego County history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On what would have been Bill Walton\u2019s 73rd birthday, a community advocate on Wednesday launched a campaign to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[4549,7,3053,181,23,100,3054,74,84,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-41424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-balboa-park","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-east-county","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-north-county","15":"tag-san-diego","16":"tag-san-diego-county","17":"tag-san-diego-headlines","18":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}