City Council officials in Dallas made it official this week – they’re not going to be rushed into nam
ing a street for United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez.
The council in the city that likes to think it is Texas’ preeminent urban area (it’s really Houston) voted 12-3 on Monday to rename “Industrial Boulevard” to “Riverfront Boulevard.”
THEY ALSO DECIDED that “Ross Avenue” should remain Ross Avenue.
Both were streets that had been talked about in the desire by Latino activists to put a “Chavez Street” sign on a Dallas road.
The issue became heated during the summer when city council officials put together an unofficial survey asking people to pick from several suggested names as part of an effort to give “Industrial Boulevard” a less blue-collar sounding monicker.
Somebody put the name “Chavez Boulevard” on the list, figuring that throwing something Spanish-sounding would be a sop to the city’s significant Latino population (more than 40 percent).
WHO KNEW THAT all those Latinos would turn out in force and vote for a street named for Cesar Chavez? That name got just over half the votes, with all the other names splitting up the remaining votes.
Now regardless of what one thinks of the concept of naming a Dallas street for Chavez, who was born and raised in the southwestern United States but was NOT a Texan, you have to admit that one has to be blind and deaf to the reality of the 21st Century to think that people in the southwest are not going to give strong support to something Spanish sounding.
But that is how Dallas officials repeatedly behaved, when they made it clear they had no intent of following the will of the people expressed in the city’s own poll.
And when activists put up Ross Avenue as an alternative street to name for Chavez, they remained equally deaf.
FOR THE RECORD, Dallas city officials said this week they don’t want to rush into the renaming issue. Mayor Tom Lampert told reporters in his hometown that city officials will come up within 90 days with an alternate street that can be renamed for Chavez.
I can only wonder if they’re going to look for the most remote road in Dallas, one tucked away in some obscure corner of the city – or one that only runs through Latino neighborhoods, so that “normal” people don’t have to see it on a regular basis.
If you think I’m kidding, take into account all the streets in cities across this country named for slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. How many run exclusively through African-American neighborhoods?
And how many are known as King Drive in black parts of town, but revert back to their original (pre-1960s) names when they cut into an Anglo part of town?
THIS CHAVEZ AVENUE issue is one that makes Dallas look petty and stubborn.
It is an issue that already has dragged through the summer months, and now will stretch into 2009 – if the mayor’s schedule is actually followed.
Personally, I don’t understand the hostility toward a “Chavez Street.”
The man has already appeared on a U.S. postage stamp – that’s about as mainstream an honor as one can get, since the Postal Service goes out of its way to avoid controversy when it designates subject material for stamps to be used on the mail.
YOU’D THINK DALLAS would have wanted to just get the issue past them by picking a street and putting up the street signs. Chances are within six months everybody would have forgotten that there was ever a controversy and would have just accepted the new name.
Instead, Dallas has ensured that even if they ever do get around to finally putting up a “Chavez Street” sign on one of their streets, it will be seen as a third-rate choice, and a snub to the growing part of the population that in many ways are the “founding fathers” of Tejas.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: There still is not (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6105168.html) a “Chavez Avenue” in Dallas. And for those who want to argue that Chavez wasn’t a Texan, that fact did not stop the capital (http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/news/2008/pw_cc_closure.htm) in Austin from creating a “Chavez Street.”
The United Farm Workers has its origins dating back to 1962 (http://www.ufw.org/_page.php?inc=history/07.html&menu=research).
ing a street for United Farm Workers founder Cesar Chavez.The council in the city that likes to think it is Texas’ preeminent urban area (it’s really Houston) voted 12-3 on Monday to rename “Industrial Boulevard” to “Riverfront Boulevard.”
THEY ALSO DECIDED that “Ross Avenue” should remain Ross Avenue.
Both were streets that had been talked about in the desire by Latino activists to put a “Chavez Street” sign on a Dallas road.
The issue became heated during the summer when city council officials put together an unofficial survey asking people to pick from several suggested names as part of an effort to give “Industrial Boulevard” a less blue-collar sounding monicker.
Somebody put the name “Chavez Boulevard” on the list, figuring that throwing something Spanish-sounding would be a sop to the city’s significant Latino population (more than 40 percent).
WHO KNEW THAT all those Latinos would turn out in force and vote for a street named for Cesar Chavez? That name got just over half the votes, with all the other names splitting up the remaining votes.
Now regardless of what one thinks of the concept of naming a Dallas street for Chavez, who was born and raised in the southwestern United States but was NOT a Texan, you have to admit that one has to be blind and deaf to the reality of the 21st Century to think that people in the southwest are not going to give strong support to something Spanish sounding.
But that is how Dallas officials repeatedly behaved, when they made it clear they had no intent of following the will of the people expressed in the city’s own poll.
And when activists put up Ross Avenue as an alternative street to name for Chavez, they remained equally deaf.
FOR THE RECORD, Dallas city officials said this week they don’t want to rush into the renaming issue. Mayor Tom Lampert told reporters in his hometown that city officials will come up within 90 days with an alternate street that can be renamed for Chavez.
I can only wonder if they’re going to look for the most remote road in Dallas, one tucked away in some obscure corner of the city – or one that only runs through Latino neighborhoods, so that “normal” people don’t have to see it on a regular basis.
If you think I’m kidding, take into account all the streets in cities across this country named for slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. How many run exclusively through African-American neighborhoods?
And how many are known as King Drive in black parts of town, but revert back to their original (pre-1960s) names when they cut into an Anglo part of town?
THIS CHAVEZ AVENUE issue is one that makes Dallas look petty and stubborn.
It is an issue that already has dragged through the summer months, and now will stretch into 2009 – if the mayor’s schedule is actually followed.
Personally, I don’t understand the hostility toward a “Chavez Street.”
The man has already appeared on a U.S. postage stamp – that’s about as mainstream an honor as one can get, since the Postal Service goes out of its way to avoid controversy when it designates subject material for stamps to be used on the mail.
YOU’D THINK DALLAS would have wanted to just get the issue past them by picking a street and putting up the street signs. Chances are within six months everybody would have forgotten that there was ever a controversy and would have just accepted the new name.
Instead, Dallas has ensured that even if they ever do get around to finally putting up a “Chavez Street” sign on one of their streets, it will be seen as a third-rate choice, and a snub to the growing part of the population that in many ways are the “founding fathers” of Tejas.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: There still is not (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6105168.html) a “Chavez Avenue” in Dallas. And for those who want to argue that Chavez wasn’t a Texan, that fact did not stop the capital (http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/news/2008/pw_cc_closure.htm) in Austin from creating a “Chavez Street.”
The United Farm Workers has its origins dating back to 1962 (http://www.ufw.org/_page.php?inc=history/07.html&menu=research).
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