Tomorrow, no matter what happens in the park, Cal’s name will be invoked countless times in discussions about housing insecurity and police power. I don’t think there’s any point in speculating about what historical icons “would have wanted” such speculations are always wrong but I think there’s significance in what Cal represents today.
Cal was at times a pragmatist. At other times he dreamed big: His entire time in the legislature, he repeatedly introduced an equal-rights bill that failed every single year, finally passing a decade after his death. He knew what he was up against, and he wasn’t afraid of sticking to his ideals, no matter how impossible they might seem after all, his presence in the legislature was nothing short of a miracle, given the times.