I’ve sat through eight hours of public hearings on a second
potential César Chávez street rename since we ran
our last story on it in the Mercury [“Chávez Rename Take
Two,” News, Feb 19]. At the first hearing—where the subject was
whether or not to rename Grand Avenue—I counted nine
journalists baying for blood.
April Baer, from OPB, buttered up Wentworth Chevrolet owner Bob
Wentworth and for her trouble got a few quotes about how expensive it
would be to change all his business cards after a rename. When a KATU
reporter made a play for an even juicier quote, Wentworth was direct.
“I’m a business owner,” he said. “I don’t want to be quoted saying
anything against César Chávez.”
The consultants who are being paid to run the process this time have
a weapon: Everyone’s terrified of being called a racist. Fortunately,
since the three hearings on Grand, Broadway, and, this week, SE 39th
Avenue have been about whether or not the streets are of a sufficiently
historic nature, nobody has been able to weigh in on the racism
angle just yet. Nor may they ever.
By holding separate hearings on the historic nature of each of the
three streets, the consultants have spread the opposition
thinner than last time, when only Interstate Avenue was up for
renaming. Bored to tears by a lack of decent quotes, there have also
been fewer reporters at each of the meetings. And while a survey by the
city auditor’s office shows that between 84 (Grand) and 95 (Broadway)
percent of local residents oppose the rename, I don’t expect those
numbers will be enough to stop city council from renaming a street in
due course.
When council eventually votes it’ll be able to say that while change
is difficult, the process has been followed thoroughly this time. It
would take someone setting himself on fire at one of the remaining
public hearings to change the course of the rename now. And while we
Portlanders love getting our knickers in a twist over politically
correct trivialities—seriously, let’s fund better education
for Latinos already—I can’t believe either side could care enough
to keep showing up at all the hearings, let alone whip out the kerosene
and strike a match. Self-immolation would make for great copy, though,
if you were, in fact, considering it. Hint. Hint.
There’s your well-intentioned rulers at work Portland. Scared to be called “racists” (yawn) and steamrolling 85-95 percent against what their constituents want.
I’m sure this will solve real problems.
PC uber alles
Thanks for parroting what I was saying on this blog during the whole Interstate clusterfuck while you were running around yelling “RACISM!!!” at the top of your lungs.
Dipshit.
I don’t care if people think I’m a racist, I know I’m not one. This whole issue is bullshit. I don’t know or care if Cesar Chavez warrants having a street (or anything else) in our city named after him; but if he does deserve an honor, then name something new after him. The new soccer stadium maybe, Chavez Stade? Then the new baseball thingy can still be PGE Park, the streets names don’t change and every ‘base’ is covered.