Common sense has finally broken out! Perhaps now they can find something or someplace to appropriately honor Mr. Chavez.

I am disgusted Maria would "befriend" the Chinese community for the purposes of her own agenda.

I kept struggling with the lack of logic through this whole thing.
Why pick Interstate when the Albina Misterial Alliance acknowledged the street would be a hot potato?
Why in my conversations with Marta did she seemed to not care about the good, hardworking North Portland Mexican families I was worried about?
Why the photos (professionally done) show Marta posturing for sympathy or as a strong leader? And what is with the team up of Marta, Cruz-Walsh and Rojo?
Why is the committee so tired after campaigning in reality for only two months? What is the big hurry?
Why did Marta NEVER use the words Mexican-American when referring to Chavez?
Marta's new found fear of North Portland, when in truth this woman is as tough as they come. So scared she has said she will have to move.

I think this debate stopped being about Cesar E. Chavez very early. Words kept spinning as if it was, but the result of the words created a very different reality. What was the goal? It seems to add up to a lot of media attention. Press coverage created at the emotional expense of North Portland and the honor of Cesar E. Chavez.

The girl is going to run for political office.

Politics is a full contact sport and the 5 white boys just got out manuevered by a brown girl.

To the council: Of course it was about race. They thought they were supporting a bid by Lobbyist (representitives of a future voting block) to circumvent the city code based on their race.

How extraordinarily strange! I was looking forward to walking down Cesar Chavez Boulevard on my way home :(

Can I erase this whole thing from my mind now? Maybe that will make room for learning what all Chavez did. (He was a good boxer, right?)

The city council really goofed by hosting neighborhood meetings on this in the first place. What happened was totally predictable. Theres always a certain segment of society that will be defiant and resist change. City Council members should have just have just made a decision to rename it or not rename it and then dealt with the fallout themselves.

that's it, i'm changing MY name to cesar chavez.

This is probably for the best.

After all sides have cooled down, the renaming proposal can move forward via the existing public process, as it probably should have done from the beginning.

There are just so many political issues, large and small, that have had to regroup, back up, start over, be subjected to further review, etc., that this shouldn't strike anyone as unique or unexpected.

Engage the process with determination and patience at the same time.

- Bob R.

Now that this whole mess is over, could the city maybe do some things that are a little more important? I have some ideas:
pave some streets
public safety
homelessness
business development
public transit

I hereby rename all proponents of the Interstate re-name "Asshole". Ha ha! Take that you self-serving, race-baiting nitwits.

I think it is possible to argue that this result would be more in line with Mr. Chavez's wishes anyway.

Speaking before the Labor Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare in 1969, he said the following:

"We want to be recognized, yes, but not with a glowing epitaph on our tombstone . . . . recognition is of value only in terms of what it leads on to. At the end of the trail we seek

-not recognition, but signed contracts;
-not recognition, but good wages;"

Granted, the recognition of which he was speaking was that of the UFW by the National Labor Relations Board, but I think the quote is fitting for this situation as well -- new street signs, no matter what they say, will not produce justice for anyone.

I am willing to bet that Mr. Chavez would be far more concerned about "sit-lie" and PPI.

I know 2007 isn't yet over, but I recommend we go ahead and vote for this as "Tempest in a Teapot" of the year.

... City Council knew the whole rename thing was dead in the water the instant they suggested, and approved, 4th Avenue. The Chinatown community and businesses weren't going to accept it for a second. It seems clear now that at some point within the past month or so City Council members decided they wanted to stop the rename idea altogether, so they specifically suggested 4th, knowing that would do the trick.

Thank goodness this nonsense is OVER. The racists behind the renaming effort can go pound sand now. You will NOT push your special agenda on everyone else!!!!!!!! I need to go to the bathroom and take a Cesar and a Chavez now.

first off, "Thank Goodness", you twat, maybe you have not caught up with the rest of the world, but just because some of the people advocating for Chavez Blvd are twats does not mean you can act like one as well.
Cesar Chavez deserves the honor of some form of recognition as much as either MLK or Rosa Parks.
secondly, I must admit disapointment in the whole proccess. I thought we were going somewhere, it turns out that the somewhere was in a circle. the whole "if we cant have Interstate we dont want anything" shows a TOTAL lack of any negotiating skills, which to me would be a good reason to NOT have someone representing me, anywhere... I am sure that our man Chavez would be embarassed by the committees total failure to figure out a way to negotiate their way in to a win-win situation.
if I was Wm Steve H, this weeks cover story would be "Chavez Committee Negotiates themselves out of victory"

It's richly ironic to have Saltzman suddenly be the voice of reason here. He plowed through Rosa Parks Way behind most peoples's backs by disobeying and waiving the city code. Now that he has finally talked to the city attorney about the law and found it to be "airtight" he's the one to stop everything and tell the chavez committee to follow the law. Unbelievable!!!

I wonder if he's losing any sleep worrying about whether anyone connects the dots and comes after him for screwing with the law on Portland Blvd and forcing a street rename in North and Northeast Portland.

He is not a statesman, he is a coward who has abstained from attendance or input on the Interstate rename until the 11th hour.

It still don't understand why they wanted to rename a street for the president of Venezuela.

Best news I've heard all week. Props to the Council for standing up against that nonsense. A big middle finger to those pro-chavez folks trying to label everyone racists.

Did Maria Rojo de Steffey cry when she got her way?

WOW !!! just came from the "Yummy Bash after the Chavez vote at City Hall this Morning.
I've chased many ethnic groups today with my camera ,including the PDX Po Po whose still in Old Town China town.
Lt Wyatt whom was at yeserdays Press conference at Central P.D RE: all the OldTown drug Busts was escorting a woman at 8:20 a.m today at 3rd and Davis,that he was calling a hooker over to a corner and running her I.D. while I was looking for the Press conference with the China town Folks Re: the Chavez name change debackle,second loop around the Block, Lt.Wyatt was still staring down the same woman on a different corner while she came past me and was growling to me about "they are still looking at me and following me"
So I said yeah, you must look like a donut or something" tell them "Voodoo donuts" is behind them on the other corner"...and its time for their 1st coffee break" then I split.

The China town Leaders had their te'te and headed for city hall.
As Amy posted the results earlier,You know that City council Members stated,because of their stupid insensitivity toward the Chavez Committee and Chinatown Propietors, they had not heard on their phones and in emails or felt the wrath of so much hatred attached with almost racial li riot like overtones and that it ran a close second to the Race riots in 1968 in Portland".
Mayor Potter said ,"yea, I was a cop then and it was bad! real Bad!"This was a close 2nd".
After the vote today,"Potter said,"I 'm so glad that I'm finally part of a full majority vote on this"
So Back to China town after the Vote and a wonderful Chinse man footed the Bill for Lunch for about 50 of US,at"Fong Chongs Place . I sat next to the sweet little old Chinese man whom was the original designer of the building.
He kept loading my Plate,while I was Updating Matt at the Mercury about all the wonderful toasts being made
So my suggestion now for a new Chavez location, is on the North Park Blocks with a Great statue of Chavez pointing his finger over toward the "ICE Building"

So Now can we all get on with "Happily ever after"???

See ya at the tape pulling up party on the Parade routes tomorrow!!!!
Yes folks, there a huge parade Friday a.m..so get to work early or be late cause a big float may be in your path

Happy turkey day tomorrow !!

Marta must have thought that was a compliment...I am not sure how considering the "politicians" we have in this ridiculous town.

Wait, dude...there's a Commissioner Saltzman?

Well, dumb as it might sound, a do-over is exactly what is needed here. Stop and let it cool, but don't let the original idea-honoring Chavez-die. Take it away from cheap punks like Guedes and droolers like that gent from th' Night Hawk, and...

How 'bout a fucking park? A statue? A school? A community center? Even a street, if the people who live on it agree?

As some shiny-eyed believer above put it, some people are resistant to change. Well, so maybe the process could reflect that and be sensitive to it? I think that this part of North is perhaps the most diverse part of the city (this side of Felony Flats, perhaps), so accusations of racism were especially grating.

This could have been easy, actually.

Amy, Thanks for your work and the update, but I fear this is not nearly over and is potentially even worse for the City. If Saltzman's Ordinance to amend 17.93.050 comes off the table and passes, the City is in big trouble (not in an "End of the World" way, but more of a "Have you been eating toys made in China?" situation.) This amendment is a Power Grab and not the intent of the State and City laws.

You can't satisfy the minorities. You kiss one on the ass, you make another one mad. Thank you, fuckin' liberals for bringing it all into sharp relief. Let us all learn from this.

Lets be clear here. It had nothing to do with the Chinese community uproar. It had every thing to do with the power players who have addresses on 4th. If the city cared about China Town they wouldn't have been using "street improvement" projects to move them out east. That land in China town is worth money.

Oh, and on a last note. I seem to remember watching Mississippi Avenue burning in 1969, but hey, who actually worries about details.

herein, don't kid yourself. The politicians who feel a need to please all the minorities wouldn't have rammed Cesar Chavez Blvd down the throats of the Chinese. Even if they had placated the business interests (and what's wrong with their interests, anyway?), they would have had to deal with the complaints of the Chinese.

If Mr Chavez is lookin' down at all this he must be having quite a laugh right now- he's probably joking with MLK and Rosa about having dodged a bullet. One thing for sure, I wouldn't want to put any hero of mine through having a street renamed after them. What a shitty thing to do to the name of a great person knowing that it is going to piss off 90% of the people in the city- quite an "honor".

On the other hand, create some new urban space that people will love and name THAT after someone and they will be remembered without any of the negative feelings. Such a place could be created for Chavez in new northern-most parkblock taking the place of the surface parking lot at about flanders or Glisan in NW. This new plaza might end up being next door to the new Portland Public Market where the fruits of agricultural workers' labor is brought into the city. Hmmm. Fitting!!!

Just a thought.

Jeff