City's pick for Chavez street: 4th Avenue, not Interstate
Portland commissioners vote 4-1 to rename the downtown
Friday, November 16, 2007
JAMES MAYER
The Oregonian
Race, promises and politics all came to a head Thursday as the Portland City Council voted to rename Fourth Avenue in downtown for farmworker champion Cesar Chavez.
At the end of an emotional four-hour hearing that capped months of rancorous debate and charges of racism, council members said they hoped the compromise would be seen as a fitting tribute to a Latino hero in a city that has none.
"I see this as a way of taking it from not-in-my-backyard to putting Cesar Chavez in our front yard," Commissioner Dan Saltzman said.
In choosing Fourth Avenue, the council turned down a proposal pushed by Mayor Tom Potter and a committee of Latino leaders to rename North Interstate Avenue for Chavez.
The name change, passed on a 4-1 vote, won't be official until the city planning commission holds hearings and the renaming proposal returns to the council for a final vote. An ordinance setting out that procedure will come to the council next week.
Potter cast the only vote against renaming Fourth Avenue, saying he was saddened by the action.
"In my heart, I will always believe that renaming Interstate was the right thing to do," he said.
The other commissioners spoke about what they saw as a flawed process that unnecessarily set the Latino community against North Portland businesses and residents near Interstate Avenue.
"I think it's time to end the ugliness," said Saltzman, who along with Commissioner Erik Sten came up with the Fourth Avenue compromise and sold it to the other council members during intense conversations Wednesday.
Saltzman said the city was at legal risk for not using the proper procedures in exploring the Interstate renaming. And he worried that a threatened referendum sponsored by opponents would turn into a divisive debate over immigration policy.
Sten first voted against the motion to substitute a resolution renaming Fourth Avenue for one renaming Interstate, even though it was his idea, arguing that the hearing convinced him that the Latino community deserved the affirmation. But he voted for the new resolution renaming Fourth.
"I do believe we can come together over Fourth Avenue," he said.
But if the commissioners thought their eleventh-hour compromise would calm the storm of bad feeling, they were mistaken. Dozens of supporters and opponents of the Interstate renaming kept waves of recriminations coming -- from accusations of intolerance aimed at all sides to criticism of the city's handling of the entire effort.
For months, supporters of renaming Interstate have argued for the need to claim a Latino landmark by honoring Chavez. But the idea met with vigorous opposition from Interstate neighbors who argued that they strongly identify with the current name.
For Interstate supporters, the idea of switching to Fourth was insulting.
Maria Lisa Johnson, executive director of the Latino Network, lashed out at the four council members for substituting their judgment for the choice of the Latino leaders who picked Interstate.
Decisions in liberal Portland "are still made behind closed doors by white men who have our best interest at heart," Johnson said.
Ron Herndon, executive director of Albina Head Start and a longtime civil rights activist, said the renaming committee took the commissioners at their word when they indicated they supported the plan. Now, the committee feels betrayed, he said.
"What makes it worse, is you are talking to people who have had promises broken for generations," Herndon said.
Commissioners defended their change of heart, arguing that their early backing for Interstate depended on support from the neighboring community, and when that didn't materialize, they had a right to reconsider and to look for a way out of the mess.
For the most part, Chavez supporters ignored the commissioners' compromise idea and praised Potter for sticking up for renaming Interstate.
The businesses and residents who opposed renaming Interstate thanked the commissioners for coming up with an alternative and repeated their objections.
"I don't think I'll vote for another chief of police for mayor," said Pamela Brooks-Haines, co-owner of a coffee shop on Interstate Avenue. "It takes tact and diplomacy, and you have allowed this to be about race and racism, and I am disgusted."
Chris Duffy, chairwoman of the Arbor Lodge Neighborhood Association, said she still opposed renaming Interstate, but she called for a time of healing.
In downtown, the new idea to rename Fourth Avenue for Chavez didn't exactly get a warm reception from the surrounding community.
"No way, it's between Third and Fifth, and that's why it should stay Fourth Avenue," said Andrew McKinney, a bike messenger. "I don't see why it needs to change."
Samantha Moreland, a barista at the Three Lions Bakery at Fourth and Taylor, said a more fitting tribute would be a park, a special event or even a statue.
"It's just a street," she said. "Isn't there something better we could do to honor him?"
Several business owners declined to discuss the issue, deferring to their corporate bosses. Even owners of small, privately owned businesses were reluctant to take up the issue.
Sandra McDonough, president of the Portland Business Alliance, the city's major business lobbying group, said the group would have no position.
Stuart Tomlinson contributed to this report. James Mayer: 503-294-5988;
jimmayer@news.oregonian.com
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