you know, sorry to say i agree with Jared... for example
he states: "We all make assumptions that are based on race. So let’s stop pretending that race has nothing to do with this."

he is exactly right, why not continue to change the names of streets of the parts of portland that are the most Racially diverse instead of introducing these name changes to less diverse neighborhoods where people might not know about such hero's like SW portland for instance. I think the race issue is exactly the point, why not change names of SW portland streets. I think that is one of the overlooked things to consider here.

Go Mayor Spencer!

Exactly, Outsider,
How come Barbur Blvd isn't under consideration for a name change?
Jared's main problem is he's actually putting faith in "liberal" Portland.
He should know by now, that for all the good intentions of liberals, they'll screw you every time- and shoot themselves in the foot doing it.

Interstate begins and ends in Portland.

Also, Barbur is a name. Interstate isn't.

Did he send that email in official capacity as staff of the Mayor?

If so - it quite possibly violated some law, or at least some policy.

Go Jared!
I find it interesting that something as minor to many people as a street name that at the same time could mean so much to someone else is such a big deal! Funny how small pebbles can cause big storms.
Martin Luther King, Jr can have a blvd. but Chavez can't??

I guess they're using Poli Sci degrees as placemats at IHOP now.

What a perfect example of an idiot being politically oblivious while making it clear in no uncertain terms that they're not prepared to even entertain the thought of listening to the other side of the argument.

And by Public Policy, I guess you meant Public Safety.

Jared Spencer
Staff Assistant - Public Safety & Security

So obviously high up on the food chain and should be afforded a greater voice than, say...the actual residents in the neighborhood.

Hey Matt...this guy sounds utterly ignorant when it comes to the history of Portland. Want to lay a bet he's another transplant opining on shit he knows nothing about?

Their sentiments include, “this will make Interstate a ghetto” and “it will drive down my property values.” (BTW: Those are the nicer comments)

That's a weak tactic, and reminds me of Bill O'Reilly cherrypicking the absolute worst (and unrepresentative) comments on liberal sites like Daily Kos and then using them to smear the whole community. Yes, I'm sure that a few of the people who are opposing the name change just don't like Hispanics. But let's stop this tactic of taking the most extreme comments of a small group of people and putting them up there as representative of the whole.

From Potter's website:

"Personal Background:
Jared graduated from Benson High School in 2002. He is currently enrolled at Portland State University with a major in Political Science."

Thank you for your letter Jared. And thank you Matt for posting it.

Nice. Lucky for me Matt is probably auto-ignoring all his threads. Graduated high school in '02, so I'll assume the Portland history he speaks of begins in about 1985.

We should name it Neil Goldshmidt Blvd. He actually did alot of good for this town and state, particularly in the transportation realm. Except for the whole dating a 14 year old thing, it seems more sensible than naming a street after an activist who mostly just visited portland and has no real ties to the town, and would be just about as popular an idea.

The race card must be the biggest card in the deck. It's getting pulled out and thrown on the table first and with a fury during this long winded tiresome game.

This has nothing to do with race. Cesar Chavez is an arbitrary figure in the whole issue. This could easily be the Noid, Pac Man, Jesus, Vishnu, or Ghandi and it would still be an issue. Not a race issue.

I would totally support naming Interstate after the Noid.

Wow, lucky Potter is not running again. he just lost every vote on Interstate (as if anyone was going to vote for him there anyways). do they not realize that they have screwed the pooch and no one around there is going to like this? the more they push, the more they make it an "epic life and death struggle between a neighborhood and a bully mayor". (fee free to use that as a headline).
as for Jared Spencer, he also thinks it is a good idea to take people's civil rights and kick the homeless off the sidewalks.
let him steal other peoples rights and name other people's streets in some other burg.

Avoid the Noid during rush hour.

Potter (and Jared, apparently): "Hey, I know what we'll do that won't make us appear racist one little single bit at all whatsoever... we'll rename streets after respected minority figures, but we'll only do it in a minority-centric part of the city, because, you know, doing that won't appear racist at all."

Sigh.

That's right, guys, focus your hate on Jared. There's clearly enough to go round!

He has a right to be stupid. You have a right to lionize him for it. I have a right to call him out on it. World keeps spinnin'.

"Martin Luther King, Jr can have a blvd. but Chavez can't??"

I am increasingly frustrated that everyone's focusing on this notion that people oppose honoring Chavez. Maybe that debate should happen, but as someone on another thread mentioned, it's hard to debate that when the law has been kicked to the curb. As a result, we're discussing why the law wasn't followed, not whether or how to honor Chavez. I, for one, would love to name any street after Chavez. Division, Interstate, or a new street in the South Waterfront. Or a farmer's market.

My problem is that council sends the signal that rules and procedures are for everyone else's ideas, and when they want to send a positive message about diversity, the rules have to get out of the way. As a native Portlander and a minority, I don't feel honored, I feel pandered to. Why have rules and laws if we can shove them aside when the council feels like it?

Viva Spencer! and Viva Cesar Chavez Blvd.

Viva Spencer! and Viva Cesar Chavez Blvd.

The Portland Public Market says they want to name themselves after James Beard. Maybe instead we could have the Cesar Chavez Public Market?

And since it doesn't open until 2013, it will give Matt Davis, a couple City Hall interns and other assorted hangers on time to teach Portland how not to be racist.

how about we name a street after the guy in a neighborhood where people want the name change?
I know it seems whacky, but why not ask neighborhoods if they would like a street named after the guy?

"That's right, guys, focus your hate on Jared. There's clearly enough to go round!

Posted by Matt Davis | October 4, 2007 12:21 PM"

Matt,
are we wrong? or does he think it is a good idea to steal people's civil rights and streets?

Bored. Bored. Bored. Jared Spencer is the greatest. That's all you need to know.

Re-naming Interstate Avenue is simply a political feel good gesture. Why not take the $100,000 that they are estimating this will cost and actually help the Latino and Hispanic families in North Portland (Or other families for that matter) instead of simply renaming a street and creating problems for businesses that are already having difficulty surviving. This is not a race issue! The real issue is that they are spending our tax money on frivolous gestures instead of really making a difference. Weren't they just telling us that they didn't have enough money for our schools? That would be a great place to start.

"Living in N Portland" if it is such a frivolous gesture, then why do you care about it so much?

It's not a frivolous thing. It's a big deal. It's a big honor. That's why they are proposing it.

If you don't think it's about race, why do you assume that Latinos and Hispanics are the only people who will appreciate or benefit from this change?. It's for the entire community and it will benefit us all.

N Portland Rocks (sometimes),
so you feel that there should be a street named after Chavez? I agree. now why cant we find a street where everyone thinks it is a good idea to name it after Chavez?
to me this is a case of a neighborhood not wanting something and the hipsters that thought it was a good idea getting pissed because someone dared to disagree.

I am curious how you think it could benefit us all. What a dramatic statement. What real benefit will our community receive by changing the street name? Will it suddenly make Interstate a better street? Will the corner of Interstate and Lombard be a safer place? I honestly don't see any benefit. If you want to educate our community on who Cesar Chavez was then it would seem to me that the money would be better spent in buying new text books for our schools or maybe they could spend the money on Clarendon School that they are closing and turn it into the Cesar Chavez Community Center. The money could be better spent doing something real for our community not just a gesture.

It benefits us all by acting as a symbol of inclusiveness. We all benefit when we accept each other and invite our neighbors to share our public spaces and share the ways our society honors people through those spaces, especially streets and street names. A community that recognizes the importance of that is a safer place.

Wouldn't you rather be part of a community like that than one that tells a minority group to go away and find some other street?

NPR(s), you make good points, except for the fact that they don't seem to be true. Is MLK Jr. Boulevard safer, happier, better in any way than Union Avenue was? I seriously doubt it. Does the name "Martin Luther King Jr." stand taller in anyone's mind because there's a significant street named after him? Maybe, maybe not. I doubt it. Did that name change have an impact on the surrounding neighborhoods? You bet it did, and 20 years later people are still sorting it out.

We can do SO much better than this.

NPR(S) states:

"We all benefit when we accept each other and invite our neighbors to share our public spaces...."

If I may point out the obvious, the neighborhood was not invited by the Latino community to share anything; they came to the neighborhood and said 'we have secretly lined up political support from the City Council for this name change, and now you need to go along with it, or you are racists'

It appears Jared Spencer did more to sink the push to rename Interstate than the entire North Portland community. Well done young man.

Mr. Jared Spencers letter is concerning on several levels,
Grammer, sentence structure, clarity of thought. Thank heavens he he didn't have the mettle to go to Jefferson.

Longview (@33), are you going for the ironic guffaw, or are you choosing to be slain by the sword you live by?

Here's how your letter should read:

Mr. Jared Spencer's letter is concerning on several levels:
grammar, sentence structure, and clarity of thought. Thank heavens he [...] didn't have the mettle to go to Jefferson.

And judging other people's "clarity of thought" with a comment like that? Seriously?

I don't understand how a group that is so committed to honoring Chavez (a great man) can be so singularly committed to simply renaming a street after him. I also don't understand how this (renaming streets) has come to represent the highest honor someone can possilby recieve. Furthermore, to instantly assume that someone who is against the name change is a bigot or doesn't also value the contributions Chavez made in the labor movement is really disappointing.

"Daaaaaaaave" offered a tremendous idea when he suggested that the Portland Public Market be named after Chavez- (why, I ask, did nobody stop and say, 'yeah, now *that* would be a *real* honor!) if you ask me, that would be a much more fitting memorial for this great man who did so much for the farm laborer. It would provide a real meaningful connection between the rural laborer and the big city. But a street? How many of you get a vision of George Washington crossing the Deleware when you turn onto Washington Street downtown?

The nuts and bolts of the case is this:

The people that are most attached to the names of the streets in their neighborhood are the people that are most involved in their community. That is why the neighborhood associations are coming out AGAINST the name change. Business owners also have a commitment to the areas they serve and changing the name would be a burden on them as well.

When you rename a street after someone, their name becomes... a street. It actually TAKES AWAY from people's perception of them as great human beings and dulls their accomplishments in people's mind. It doesn't educate people about the person OR their accomplishments.

By chosing to focus on the renaming of Interstate, the committee has taken their eyes off of any *real* prize. A plaza in front of the future public market could provide education, and inspiration to people that might be inclined to follow in the foot steps of a great man.

If I were Chavez, I'd be pissed. I don't think that supporters of the name change are being asked to "go away and find some other street" I think the real sentiment is that the neighborhood loves their street that they've grown up knowing as "Interstate Ave." AND that there are better ways to honor him, even IN the neighborhood. There is going to be a new (currently nameless probably) public library in the neighborhood. IT could be dedicated to Chaavez and could include a memorial plaza outside and, perhaps, a entire room dedicated to educating people about Chavez and the Labor Movement! It could actually be a draw to the neighborhood!! I'd take a pilgrimage there a time or two, anyway.

Jeff Rose

Viva Chavez! (but NOT Cesar Chavez Blvd.- stupid.)

PS Look at the past. About the same time we renamed Union Ave. after the greatest civil rights leader in our country's history, we built what has become known as the 4th greatest public space in the world! We could have named THAT after him but NOOOOOO!!!!! It had to be a goddam street! And people are still pissed about it. And what was the street named after before? The Union as in the half of the United States that was against slavery, right? We did this because every other city was also renaming streets after Dr. King, and we couldn't manage to be ANY more creative than that and it resulted in a blown opportunity to REALLY honor the good reverend!

PSS AND we could have created a plaza for dear ol' Rosa Parks in the new Portland ..... BUS mall. The B-U-S mall. It'd be too perfect, wouldn't it. But no. It HAD to be a street.

The city should consider a moratorium.