The El Dorado Park West Senior Center is now named the Dr. Thomas J. Clark Community Center after the Long Beach City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to rename the building after the former mayor and longest-serving council member.

Clark was elected to the City Council in 1966 and served 30 years on the body, including three terms as mayor before the city switched to a citywide elected mayoral position. Prior to being elected to the council, Clark led the Parks and Recreation Commission’s effort to secure bonds to purchase the land that the senior center now sits on.

The recommendation to rename the center after Clark has been winding its way to the City Council since September where it cleared a council committee vote before being sent to the Parks and Recreation Commission, which voted to forward it to the full council in October.

Clark represented the city’s 4th City Council district. The district’s current councilmember, Daryl Supernaw, said Tuesday that Clark told him that if anyone ever wanted to name anything after him that Clark hoped it would be something at El Dorado Park.

While the park had been part of the city’s 5th City Council district for the past few decades, the most recent redistricting process completed in November put the park into the 4th City Council district.

Clark died in May 2020 at the age of 93.

The cost of installing a new sign for the Clark community center is not known, but previous renaming signs have cost the city about $20,000 to $30,000, according to a city memo.

Committee to discuss renaming El Dorado Park senior center after former Long Beach Mayor Tom Clark

https://lbpost.com/news/tom-clark-obit-longest-serving-councilman