http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2009/06/23/chavez-hearing-packed-at-city-hall Comments On: Chavez Hearing Packed At City Hall by Matt Davis en-us Copyright 2009 Portland Mercury. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Portland Mercury readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Portland Mercury. webmaster@portlandmercury.com (Portland Mercury Webmaster) Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:01 -0800 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:45:00 -0800 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
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.
Posted by busy ditch]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 20:28:51 -0700 Portland Mercury
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...
Posted by Matt Stangel]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:27:54 -0700 Portland Mercury
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.
Posted by Suburban Porn King]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:47:30 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by Karol]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:55:16 -0700 Portland Mercury

Posted by D]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:33:09 -0700 Portland Mercury
What a crock of unsubstantiated s#!+. Name the new stadium after him and spare the city your own white guilt.
Posted by D]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:30:40 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by Abusive]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:59:19 -0700 Portland Mercury
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!
Posted by Mizzzzzzz]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:54:41 -0700 Portland Mercury http://www.portlandonline.com/index.cfm?c=…

"Other public spaces may be renamed through a separate process." So apparently a process does exist.
Posted by tk.]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:46:52 -0700 Portland Mercury
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.
Posted by Mo]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:46:31 -0700 Portland Mercury
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.
Posted by Commenty Colin]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:40:16 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by Mo]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:35:24 -0700 Portland Mercury
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.
Posted by MO]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:32:34 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by Bones]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:28:13 -0700 Portland Mercury
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.
Posted by tk.]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:13:04 -0700 Portland Mercury
@ 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?
Posted by Commenty Colin]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:11:45 -0700 Portland Mercury
Also, the whole convenience of having a numbered street grid kind of goes out the window if every few years another street gets renamed.
Posted by Commenty Colin]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:04:25 -0700 Portland Mercury
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?"
Posted by Matt Davis]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:59:32 -0700 Portland Mercury
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...
Posted by Chunty McHutchence]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:58:51 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by Demondog]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:45:31 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by BlackedOut]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:24:55 -0700 Portland Mercury
"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.
Posted by tk.]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 07:27:23 -0700 Portland Mercury Posted by Mizzzzzzz]]> Wed, 24 Jun 2009 06:28:33 -0700 Portland Mercury