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Tuesday, June 23, 2009
News / City Hall Chavez Hearing Packed At City Hall
Posted by Matt Davis on Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 7:41 PM
There's an overflow chamber next door. So far the hearing has been going for an hour and three quarters. Council isn't even scheduled to vote tonight. The list of folks signed up to speak against the change is longer than the list of people signed up for it.
"Karla, how many more people do we have signed up to testify, more or less?" asked Adams, at 7:47.
"About 140," said council clerk Karla Moore-Love. Laughter.
"There are two ways we can do this, we can shorten the time or we can have a cutoff time," said Adams.
Council moved to shorten the time of each person's testimony to one minute, with a cutoff around 9:30 pm.
There were loud groans in the chamber, with the Save 39th folks seeming to view the change as an obvious attempt by council to silence their dissent. Personally, I viewed the cutoff as an opportunity to finally watch the last two episodes of Breaking Bad when I get home. But it's a question of perspective, I guess.
SAVE 39TH: DEBATE IS FEISTY AND SPIRITED IN PORTLAND TONIGHT...
OPB's April Baer is Twittering the meeting next to me, and most engaging it is, too:
"The divisiveness that this has created is sad," said one Save 39th testifier, a veteran with a deep voice. "When we could honor the man and educate the citizens of Portland and the tourists of Portland by naming a bridge or any other thing."
"Has anybody ever told you you have the voice quality of, like, God?" asked Adams. More laughter. And a little surprise, too. Evidently the mayor is more relaxed following his acquittal by the Attorney General.
"I don't know how I could top that," said the next person up to speak.
"We really have to put some perspective to this in terms of how we live," said Judith Mowry, with the city. "People talk about renaming a street pushing them over the edge. And that concerns me. We have to cope with global warming, a changing economy, all these things."
"It has been a long road to get to where we are today. We have worked hard, learned a lot of lessons and met some amazing people," said Marta Guembes, with the committee to rename the street. "Sometimes it has been hard to endure the hostility...yet I continue to support this cause. I truly believe this is a good thing for Portland. Today I have more than 4000 signatures of people who believe this. If this application is approved, this will bring honor to Portland. Not a disgrace."
"How do you get those seasonal vegetables that you trot out for your party guests?" asked Jeff Cogen's staffer Karol Collymore, who was speaking only for herself. [I spent the last five minutes looking at her food blog, it's been a pleasant diversion]. "The renaming should matter to foodies, but it should also matter to people like me. People who are shades lighter and shades darker. 39 is just a number, Cesar Chavez is about our community."
A few people have applauded, to which Adams has responded: "No, we're not getting into the clapping game, even though it's getting late and people are getting kinda cranky."
Update: After a five minute break, there were just 104 people left on the sign-up list to testify at 8:28.
"We believe that this is a defining historical moment," said the Reverend Doctor Leroy Haynes, from the Albina Ministerial Alliance.
Another person said she resented being called a "racist" for opposing the rename.
"People that oppose this are not necessarily racist," said Adams. "It's getting late at night, and I appreciate that people are getting kind of cranky, but I want to cut off the back and forth that these hearings have gotten into in the past."
"Even though I found out tonight that Cesar Chavez was a vegan, I still think it would be fitting to honor him," said another rename supporter. Yeah! Go, vegans!
In the weirdest testimony so far: Former city council candidate Martha Perez urged Mayor Adams to vote for the renaming of the street because if he voted against it, then he might encourage communities of color to support the recall. Loud boos all round.
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Fuck! That group supporting the rename is nasty and seriously vindictive!
Seriously?
"Sometimes it has been hard to endure the hostility...yet I continue to support this cause."
You're trying to rename a street. What a horrible cross you bear! If there's hostility from the community, maybe it's because you're forcing something upon them which they do not want.
I'm not really opposed to renaming 39th. I do think its really funny that Guembes is touting 4,000 signatures of people who want to rename 39th. I bet someone could get 4,000 signatures of those opposed in a week just standing in front of the Fred Meyer on 39th and Hawthorne. Just saying...
You better rename the street or we'll lock you up and treat you like the slutty trashy felon you are!
Interstate didn't want it. Broadway didn't want it. Now 39th doesn't want it.
Maybe the Chavez committee should figure out which areas of town actually *want* the rename before foisting it upon some place that doesn't support it.
Hell, why not name that new Lents stadium after Chavez? Oh, wait...
Karol Collymore has also posted her full testimony on Blue Oregon this morning.
http://www.blueoregon.com/2009/06/my-testi…
"How do you get those fresh, seasonal pears or that local, organic wine or beer that we proudly drink and trot out for our party guests? Even our own local fast food chain boasts seasonal shakes and something I discovered this morning: a strawberry and goat cheese Panini. Those fruits don’t pick themselves. They don’t magically appear at New Seasons, Trader Joe’s (on 39th, by the way), Burgerville or the latest offering at The Farm Cafe. That work is done by farm laborers. Many are residents of Oregon, many are migrant workers. Cesar Chavez fought for all their rights – starting with Vietnamese immigrants, migrant workers displaced by the Great Depression and Latino immigrants."
"To some it's an expense, it's a distraction, or it's simply uncomfortable. I’ve been in the room when some said they felt that naming a street after a person of color means the wrong element might start coming around. I’ve heard someone else say that a Latino could never afford a house off 39th – she lived in Laurelhurst – so why would we put it there? What message does that send?"
I can't believe anyone feels so passionately about renaming a stupid street - what a pathetic way to "honor" someone. How about instead of foisting your favorite symbol upon every person and business on a major street, you rename practically anything else, e.g. a bridge, a school, a park, your dog, your children, yourself.
Also, the whole convenience of having a numbered street grid kind of goes out the window if every few years another street gets renamed.
@ Chunty: It seems "foist upon" is the prevailing sentiment of the anti-renaming crowd, based on our posts.
@ Matt/Karol: I'm so tired of this race-baiting by using the comment of one nut to shut up every other legitimate detractor (for fear of the perception of being aligned with that nut). I don't think any serious person disputes that Chavez is a great figure in civil rights who deserves to be honored in some way, the real debate is over what is an appropriate way. The pro-renaming folks seem to believe that the degree of honor increases with the degree to which the proposed change in the community foments expense, divisiveness and political difficulty.
Why can't we do something easier? Why not a new bridge, or a new statute, or a new school, or park, etc.? Why does it HAVE to be a major street to be an appropriate honor? Why are we all racists if we oppose the one-huge-pain-in-the-ass option presented?
"This renaming should matter to foodies, but it deeply matters people like me and people who are shades darker and shades lighter."
I think the people that it matters to most are the people who live on 39th, but maybe that's just me. I think a bridge or a school would have the same conversation-starting effect without causing hundreds of people and businesses to absorb the costs of changing addresses on everything.
Why not name the new commuter bridge being designed to cross the Columbia? No extra expense to the people, and a proud landmark for a great man. BTW, I do not want them to rename 39th, that is a bad idea.
The people who live on and near 39th overwhelming oppose renaming the street. The neighborhood associations in the area overwhelmingly oppose renaming the street.
The city is even considering this.....why?
The reason the Chavez committee has focused in on 39th now is because there are not nearly as many businesses on 39th as there are on their other choices, such as Broadway or Grand. So business mean something to the city, and homeowners don't it would seem.
I think Portland should honor Chavez, he did great things, but let's find something new to name after him, or find a street that WANTS to be renamed.
Check out www.save39th.com for more info
The pro-renaming people make this point, in response to those of us that say, "why not something new?": there is no renaming process for anything other than streets, so that is why they are so focused on streets.
I think this is rather weak. All new things eventually have a name attached to them, and so there is a process for getting a preferred name onto a project, just not a formal one, and it requires waiting until the time when a name for a new project is considered. No one gets the ongoing fun of standing committees and crowded hearings and pissing off large swaths of the community and calling opposition people racists.
Frankly, given the committee's great job in making a public spectacle of the various Chavez renaming projects, it would take a pretty tin-eared government to NOT be very sympathetic to naming an appropriate new structure (bridge, park, school, etc) after Chavez, since they now know the fervent political support exists.
That's what I don't get. Why rename a street? Because MLK has one? Why this urge to rename, rename, rename?
If you name something new, it still has the name you want, but without all the strife. But maybe you are right Colin, that that's what is wanted, to create strife.
According to this FAQ, under question 13: http://www.portlandonline.com/index.cfm?c=…
"Other public spaces may be renamed through a separate process." So apparently a process does exist.
"How do you get those fresh, seasonal pears or that local, organic wine or beer that we proudly drink and trot out for our party guests?"
Same way we always have... Someone picks 'em. Used to be cheaper though when we had less people using food stamps raising the price of food and getting sick without insurance. Bitch!
This is a hollow gesture. I agree with Bones - name the commuter bridge for Chavez. AND FOR CLARIFICATION I am hispanic so I don't have some racist grudge - THOUGH there are definitely people in this town that do. STILL calling the race card in this case is lame. I used to live right off of 39th and would've found this renaming to be a huge ass pain as a resident.
"I’ve been in the room when some said they felt that naming a street after a person of color means the wrong element might start coming around. I’ve heard someone else say that a Latino could never afford a house off 39th – she lived in Laurelhurst"
What a crock of unsubstantiated s#!+. Name the new stadium after him and spare the city your own white guilt.
I mean seriously, "hey (insert racial stereotype here) let's go hang out and try our (stereotyped shenanigans) on Chavez Street"
Damn, D. Since I'm in this I should let you know I'm not White. But thanks for playing.
I'm against street renaming, period. I don't care who they're honoring.
How about we truly honor Chavez and his legacy by providing a better wage for the farm workers or enacting universal healthcare? Those were the types of things he was fighting for and we still don't have 'em.
Gotta chime in here. Thing is, I live on 39th, right between Hawthorne and Division. This area has been an epicenter of activism for the past month or so, and none of that community interest has been in favor of the renaming of 39th. We don't want it and it doesn't make sense-- and from what I understand Chavez has absolutely no historical relevance with regards to 39th. And what would renaming a street actually do in favor of Chavez and his fight for labor rights? Well, nothing really.
What do I propose? Take the money needed to rename 39th and start a fucking farm labor resource center-- or something else that's relevant to Chavez, his cause, and Portland's labor issues. Allocating city funding to empty gestures is misguided-- it's time to use funding constructively if we want to invest in the economic health of this city.
Name something new and constructive after Chavez-- not the street I live on.
PS-- I didn't read all of the above comments so if this has already been said than my apologies for being redundant...
"How about we truly honor Chavez and his legacy by providing a better wage for the farm workers or enacting universal healthcare? Those were the types of things he was fighting for and we still don't have 'em."
WIN! Now THAT is the best thing I've heard said in this whole debate.
We have it in the Planning commission record on this that the goal is to force it on the locals. Would Chavez have advocated that? I think he'd have said he'd rather see Oregon seasonal/casual labor conditions improved, or immigrant home ownership benefited. Chavez is worthy of honor, but practicing colonialism with your new political power -- forcing the street renaming -- hardly honors him.
BTW, Linus Pauling and Woodie Guthrie lived on 39th, let's honor them....but, please, NOT by naming a street after them.
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