It has been a while since this website has been updated.

We have been working actively, but a carefully, on finding a resolution to the Council’s decision.  We have been talking to our attorney’s and our strategists to map out a path that best utilizes our scarce resources of time and funding.  Finding the best strategy has been complex and time consuming because it depends on many factors outside of our control.

We apologize if you feel you have been kept in the dark.  Please trust us that we are working very diligently to save historic 39th Avenue.

City Council voted 5-0 to rename 39th Avenue.

The Council’s vote is the latest in a long list of rules and processes that the City has failed to follow or followed incorrectly.

City Code requires that the City consider the best interest of the City itself as well as the area within 6 miles of the City limits:

The Council may approve or deny application for a street name change upon determination of the best interests of the City and the area within six miles of the City limits.

However, there is no evidence that the Council in any way considered the best interest of the area within six miles of the City limits. For example, in the Council discussion regarding 39th Avenue terminating in the City of Milwaukie, the focus was on whether or not the street ended within Portland’s borders.

NO ONE ON CITY COUNCIL INQUIRED WHETHER THE CITY OF MILWAUKIE HAD ANY CONCERNS ABOUT THE RENAMING.

City Council Votes on 39th Avenue TODAY!

What: The Portland City Council is scheduled to vote on whether to rename 39th Avenue after Cesar Chavez.

When: The council meets at 9:30 a.m. in City Hall, 1221 S.W. Fourth Ave. The renaming issue comes later in the agenda. The council held a hearing on the issue two weeks ago and will not take testimony today before voting.

From today’s Oregonian:

Stick with 39th Avenue

It’s anti-democratic and very much at odds with the Portland’s
way of doing things to steamroll the residents of a neighborhood

Question: What have people who live and work along 39th Avenue ever done to deserve this? Answer: Nothing. But, by all appearances, they’re about to get flattened, anyway.

By large margins, it appears that most oppose the renaming of 39th for labor leader Cesar Chavez. And yet their wishes, thus far, have registered with all the weight of lint on the shoulders of the City Council — lint that’s about to get the brush-off.

Publicly, council members have not tipped their hands about how they’ll vote on the renaming of 39th on Wednesday morning. Privately, the betting is that they’ll vote, 5-0, in favor. Why? Because the process is tilted against the status quo. The neighbors have to show why their street name should stay the same. Or else they’ll see it changed.

As Commissioner Randy Leonard put it Monday, in an email, “I have heard no compelling substantive argument against renaming 39th.”

Oh. So, apparently, the strong opposition of people who live and work there doesn’t qualify as compelling?

“Of course, that is an important consideration,” Leonard responded Tuesday. “However, if that were the sole determinant, Martin Luther King Boulevard would still be Union Avenue.”

Point taken. Most people do not happily embrace a drastic revision in their addresses. Several streets in Portland have been renamed with relative ease, mostly because the council bypassed its own renaming policy.

This time, in contrast, the council members are in danger of following the rules almost too closely. It’s as if they’re bound and determined to sleep-drive right into a brick wall.

In truth, any one of the council members could interrupt this municipal-crash-in-the-making by acknowledging a reality that the city code does not address: There are better options than a street for renaming.

Or naming.

Naming the new pedestrian and transit bridge across the Willamette for Chavez would be a win for everyone. It would be even more visible than, but every bit as important as, a street. As historian Eugene E. Snyder told The Oregonian’s Anna Griffin several years ago, “A street name is so much more than the name of a building or a statue or a park. You use it every day. You write it on your envelopes. You tell it to your friends. You drive on it every time you leave the house.

“It is a very personal thing.”

And when the City Council takes it away, that loss is personal, too. You feel like the victim of municipal I.D. theft.

The group that is eager to rename 39th has respected the city code, but it hasn’t shown a huge amount of interest in opponents’ reactions. The group hasn’t done much to convince neighbors in the area they have something to gain from the change. Which seems like a curious omission, if they’re serious about educating this community and burnishing the legacy of Cesar Chavez.

The group has also stubbornly reiterated that only a street will do. It has never really answered the question of why a bridge wouldn’t be more fitting. A bridge, after all, would elevate the discussion, transcending the bitterness and anger street-renaming attempts have provoked.

The council should do something statesmanlike today. It should help to reconcile respect for Chavez and people near 39th, by recommending that a new bridge, The Chavez, join the elite company of The Hawthorne, The Steel, The Morrison, et. al.

Naming a new bridge would be inspiring. If the council votes, instead, to rename 39th, the decision will be diminishing. It will shrink opponents to size. It will put them, firmly, in their place — on a strange street where no one wants to be.

Because people who live near it are treated like lint.

The following is my letter to City Council regarding the renaming process so far. Here is a brief summary of the letter:

• Many of those affected by a street renaming are disappointed that the City Council and the applicants do not seem willing to consider any of the many win-win compromises suggested.

• We strongly urge the City Council to find a win-win compromise. A 39th Avenue / César E. Chávez Avenue dual name is one such compromise that is within the City’s range of feasible options.

• In the absence of any win-win compromise, Save 39th will seek to halt or undo any street renaming passed by City Council. The letter below describes the processes.

• Several commissioners and their staff have inquired about flaws in the street renaming process. The letter below identifies some of the many flaws. It focuses only on the most obvious and unambiguous instances in which the applicant or the City clearly have failed to follow procedure, have misconstrued the applicable law, and made findings inconsistent with evidence in the record.

This email to Commissioner Fritz nicely sums up the opposition to renaming historic 39th Avenue:

Dear Amanda,

My wife Peggy shared with me the e-mail you wrote.  Like her, I really appreciate that you have taken the time to respond to our comments and suggestions.

However, it sounds from your opening paragraph that you have already decided to change the name of our avenue against the wishes of the residents and business owners.  Not only that, but during this time of severe economic hardship, you propose spending even more public funds on the project, above and beyond the estimated $86,000 cost of the name change.

Also, contrary to your observations about last week’s City Council meeting, there were several eloquent Hispanic speakers who were opposed to changing the name of 39th Avenue.  They seemed very concerned about the bitterness and resentment that will be created for them by this divisive issue.

Please consider that our section of NE 39th is fairly diverse.  I am an immigrant to this great nation, my politics are left-wing-liberal and I support the right of workers to unionize.  Our next door neighbor is Cuban.  Next to him is a Greek family and across the road from them lives a lesbian couple.  African-Americans live on the next block.  None of our neighbors want our avenue renamed for anybody or anything.

My wife and I are old enough to have supported the famous grape boycott.  We admire the accomplishments of César Chávez.  He fought against tyranny for small people like us. He would be appalled by what is being thrust upon us and by the negativity created in our community.

We ask you to do a courageous thing and vote for the small people of Portland, people with no political clout, who feel threatened and ignored by City Hall.

Please vote no on renaming 39th Avenue.

Thank you.

No one at the hearing on Tuesday could answer the most fundamental question:

WHY MUST WE RENAME A STREET AND WHY IS HISTORIC 39TH THE ONLY SUITABLE STREET?

Many speakers asked: Why not a BRIDGE? Why not a SCHOOL?

We find, in fact, that the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation says that any of those memorials are important:

Commemorations: individuals and communities continue to enact hundreds of commemorations in Cesar’s honor every year, including the renaming of schools, streets, libraries, and parks.

The Foundation reports that “MAJOR EXAMPLES” of commemorations include:

• Cesar E. Chavez BRIDGE in Chicago, IL

• Cesar E. Chavez SCHOOL of Excellence in Racine, WI

• Cesar E. Chavez Memorial BUILDING in Denver, CO

• Cesar E. Chavez Park Branch LIBRARY in Phoenix, AZ

If the Chavez Foundation identifies many appropriate memorials, why does Portland think that a historical and significant street in Portland is the ONLY suitable memorial?

From the “In Portland” section of the Oregonian:

A couple blocks from the Pagoda sits another problem — at least in the eyes of some neighborhood activists — that they seem unlikely to solve: The plan to rename 39th Avenue in honor of labor hero Cesar Chavez.

Prompted by a request from a group of Latino activists, a panel of amateur historians ruled earlier this year that, unlike Broadway and Grand Avenue, “39th” carries no historical significance. The Planning Commission voted in favor of the street renaming last month. Almost 90 percent of 39th residents and property owners opposed the renaming in a postcard survey, but City Council members seem inclined to vote yes later this month.

Outside the neighborhood and off the avenue, it might not seem like a big deal; proponents of the name change say the only true reason to oppose it is racism. But neighbors are “circling the wagons,” in the word of one.

“What we don’t get is why the city would do this now, when so many people are struggling,” says Craig Stockbridge, an architect and president of the Hollywood Neighborhood Association.

Business owners say the change will confuse potential customers and cost them money by forcing them to print new business cards and stationery.

“Not to mention the fact that 39th does have history for some of us,” Wayne Stoll says. “I grew up on 39th Avenue.”

Some other related items from today’s news:

• “Street of dreams,” Our PDX Network.

• “At City Hall, it’s all about the politics,” Oregonian.

• “Chavez leader claims racial profiling,” Portland Tribune.

Here is a link to our spot on KGW (MP4).

WHY WERE NO HISTORIANS ON THE HISTORIAN PANEL?

That is one of the biggest questions about the street renaming process.

Even the Historian Panel itself wrote in its conclusions that future panels should have AT LEAST TWO “ACTUAL HISTORIANS.” (PDF)

There are at least 75 HISTORY PROFESSORS at Oregon universities. Here is just a sample:

• Portland State University: 18 permanent faculty

• University of Portland: 5 permanent faculty

• Willamette University: 10 full time faculty

• Oregon State University: 16 full time faculty

• University of Oregon: 26 faculty

With none of the 75+ history professors satisfying the City’s objectives, it formed a “Historian Panel” out of (a) an immigrants’ rights attorney, (b) a national guard general, and (c) a neighborhood activist.

And—surprise, surprise—the Historian Panel came up with the exact conclusion the City wanted.

The last post reported that 39th Avenue CANNOT be renamed because it terminates in MILWAUKIE.

A complete analysis (PDF) has been sent to the City.  The analysis shows that:

• The City’s property database, PortlandMaps.com, shows that 39th Avenue terminates in the City of Milwaukie.

• Milwaukie changed the name of a street to 39th Avenue to maintain consistency with the Portland’s street names.

• Therefore: 39th Avenue in Milwaukie is a continuation of 39th Avenue in Portland. Thus, 39th Avenue cannot be a candidate for renaming.

• The Chavez Committee (a) did not submit a valid demonstration that 39th Avenue starts and terminates entirely within City boundaries, and (b) did not submit a valid demonstration that the renamed 39th Avenue would be the same for its entire length.

• Therefore, the applicant provided an incomplete or invalid application.

ONE CLICK! Send an email to the City Commissioners and urge them oppose renaming because of all the missteps in the process.

Please attend the City Council meeting on June 23 at 6pm at City Hall to express your opinion about renaming 39th Avenue!