THE BITTER THREE-YEAR FIGHT over a simple street name finally concluded last week with the installation of Portland’s first César E. Chávez Blvd street sign along SE 39th.
The city’s effort to rename a major Portland street after the famous activist and farm worker crumbled in controversy during 2007 after a push to rename Interstate Avenue spurred allegations of racism against opponents. The rename process kicked off for a second time last winter, this time with a professional consultant and eyes on 39th Avenue.
“Symbols are important and changing symbols is always controversial,” Mayor Sam Adams told the large, mostly Latino crowd attending a ceremony held at Central Christian Church on Friday, January 29. The mayor thanked the “scrappy group of applicants” for their part in the rename, while paying tribute to the “honest opinions” of the most recent rename opposition group, Save 39th Avenue.
Just six months ago, Save 39th Avenue’s members were questioning the immigration status of rename petitioners and investigating city street-renaming code. But on the day the long-debated new name actually unveiled, opposition leader and 39th Avenue neighbor William Schneider was on hand quoting Chávez.
“I fought fiercely to keep the street named the way it has been for 102 years. There was a lot of bitterness, but the healing has begun,” Schneider told the crowd.
After city council approved the name change last July, Schneider says members of the city and Latino community approached him.
“After a lot of prayer and a lot of discussions with a lot of good people, I’ve decided it’s time to end the street fight on 39th Avenue,” he said.
Lead pro-Chávez advocate Marta Guembes was equally dramatic. “It has been a very, very hard three years. Today is a day for celebration, but we have to recognize that we worked through a lot of racism and hardships,” said Guembes, nearly coming to tears.
City Council allocated $150,000 for the rename process, including $35,000 for a consultant.
As the street transitions to the new name, the 39th Avenue and César E. Chávez Blvd signs will coexist peacefully for the next five years.
185th in Hillsboro would have been more appropriate. BOOOOO to Guembes.
Shame on Marta Guembas and shame on city council for ignoring the will of the majority in order to serve their own interests. They should have found a street where the citizens were ammenable to this change.
Chavez would be appalled at how this happened!
Is it really soo important to have some nasty ol’ stretch of tar named after you? Why not a scholarship or a public garden instead?
if anybody took the time to research this “labor leader” they would find that he snitched out illegals to the govt all the time, that he was very pro union. thats what makes this whole thing so laughable. these Mexicans think they are honoring a great man when in fact he was the leading govt snitch against them. it’s amazing the stupidity of uneducated people!
Alright, downboy1488. We get where you’re coming from. “These ‘Mexicans'” are actually Americans, you bigoted twit. Really, “the stupidity of uneducated people” like you is not “amazing.” It’s just pathetic. And people: get over it. It’s just a name. Why would you push it out to Hillsboro? Is that because that’s where “they” live? Well then. It is important to name a street after this man so that his name and the ideas that name conveys remains in the public consciousness and not hidden out of the way. Everybody travels the road; not everybody gets (or even hears of) a scholarship. Seriously people, you need to take a hard critical look at what exactly is motivating your disdain over this. If it helps, try not to think of him as a brown skinned man who speaks Spanish, and try thinking of him as a symbol. That is why we don’t push his name out on the margins of the map (something Whites seem always to want to do with people of color): he needs to be a symbol in the heart of a place that tries not to think of him. Hispanics and Latinos already do think of him. Who else among you wants to think like/sound like downboy1488? Really?
Portland is the whity-est city west of the Pacos (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/41…) 90% white. So exactly why did we need to ‘change our symbols’?
Personally, I don’t think anyone on the Portland City counsel spent even 10 actual minutes with the latino community asking THEM what they really need from their city government. Instead, it smacks of elitist whites trying to either buy off the latino vote with a token gesture or just make them feel better about themselves. How exactly does this really help the problems latinos are having in this city? Was there even one mention of that? Instead, this seems to have done nothing but divide an anger people more.
And as for the ‘healing’ process beginning – I don’t buy that either. Every time these homeowners write their street address on a letter or form, they’ll remember being ignored by their leaders in favor of token gestures.
I don’t see the counsel members suggesting to rename the street in front of their OWN houses to ‘Sitting Bull road’, ‘Stalin way’, or ‘Vincente Garrerro ave’. Bunch of hypocrites cajoling others with teary-eyed pleas to accept those forced changes without daring to hurt their own property values.
Disgusting
I don’t see the fuss either way.
It’s a street name. I’m going to drive down it whether I look at the sign or not. Naming a street after a person isn’t going to make me think of that person, it’s just going to make it a tiny bit harder to give directions. Whoopie.
That money could have been used is so many more pressing ways.
That money could have been used is so many more pressing ways.
Well judging by his screen name alone, “downboy1488” is a nazi piece-o-shit coward. Please dis-regard whatever he has to say.
It just seems like they could have used the money on something we actually need, like school funding and repairing infrastructure as opposed to cosmetic changes.