Cesar Chavez street name change is a done deal. Why a second vote won’t be taken

The controversial move by the Fresno City Council to rename a major 10-mile stretch of road through southeast and southwest Fresno for late farm-labor leader Cesar Chavez is effectively a done deal without a second council vote.

The City Council voted 6-1 on March 9 to adopt a resolution renaming Kings Canyon Road, Ventura Street and California Avenue as “Cesar Chavez Boulevard.” At that time, council members anticipated that a second vote would be necessary, largely due to what Councilmember Miguel Arias described as an expectation of a veto by Mayor Jerry Dyer.

A mayoral veto would trigger a second vote if the council wanted to override it. But Arias, who represents southwest Fresno, and Councilmember Luis Chavez, whose district includes southeast Fresno, confirmed that a second vote won’t be needed on the action. “Since the mayor didn’t veto it, it’s final,” Arias said.

In a response to the resolution, Dyer urged the council to reconsider the action and “consider reducing the amount of roadway being renamed, to lessen the impact on businesses and residents.”

Arias said this week that under the city’s processes, changing the name of an existing street can be done by resolution, a one-time action that requires a majority vote of the city council, subject to approval or veto by the mayor. But naming a new street requires a city ordinance, a process that involves two separate council actions: one to introduce the measure and a second vote to finalize it.

Chavez, who died in 1993, would have reached the age of 96 on Friday, which is also a state and federal holiday recognizing him.

The name change will affect Kings Canyon Road in southeast Fresno from Temperance Avenue on the east to Cedar Avenue; Ventura Avenue and Ventura Street through downtown Fresno between Cedar Avenue and Temperance and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard; and California Avenue in southwest Fresno from Martin Luther King Boulevard to Marks Avenue.

Areas of the streets that are in Fresno County islands are not affected unless the county Board of Supervisors takes similar action to rename them.

Concerns over effects of the name change

“I am supportive of naming a street in Fresno after Cesar Chavez, especially in light of Fresno’s large Hispanic population and our location in the heart of California’s agricultural region where Mr. Chavez helped so many farm workers and their families,” Dyer wrote in his March 20 letter to the City Council. But, he added, “the process has many residents in southwest Fresno feeling forgotten and disheartened.”

Dyer noted the objections voiced by many Black community members at the March 9 council meeting over the inclusion of California Avenue in the name change. “Frankly, in the eyes of some, the process undertaken to pursue the street naming has felt counter to the spirit of the great man in which we are aiming to honor,” he wrote.

Of almost two dozen people who addressed the City Council at the March 9 meeting, only three spoke in favor of the name change. Some cited costs associated with making the change, while others cited geographic and historical reasons for keeping the existing street names.

Pastor B.T. Lewis of the Rising Star Missionary Baptist Church in southwest Fresno said the prospect of changing the name of California Avenue is “another of 1,000 cuts killing the history and heritage of the African American community in our city.”

“While the name California Avenue may seem benign to people unfamiliar or even insensitive to the cultural history of southwest Fresno, California Avenue continues to be a landmark of measurable significance for our community,” Lewis told the council.

“No other area in this city represents the history and heritage of African Americans like southwest Fresno,” he added. “The blood of our ancestors literally saturates the soil of southwest Fresno. … To change California Avenue to Avenida Cesar Chavez from Highway 99 to Marks is an insult and blatant disregard for our presence in the city.”

Dyer also noted the potential for additional cost besides changing street signs. “This is a cost that is yet to be fully determined, but would need to consider all the businesses and residences that will require address changes, modifications to websites, advertisement, signage, licensure, business cards, brochures, etc.,” the mayor said.

But, he added, “because the City Council passed this resolution … with more than a super-majority vote, a veto would simply prolong the agony of enduring another public discussion with the same outcome.”

As an alternative, Dyer urged the council to revisit the issue to consider “an outcome that honors the please of the Southwest Fresno community for California Avenue to remain as it is” and “an outcome that honors the spirit of community engagement without marginalizing another historically underserved population.”

“I am proud to support moving forward with renaming both Kings Canyon and Ventura … to Cesar Chavez Boulevard, he added.

What happens next

The March 9 resolution states that “this resolution shall be effective upon final approval.” It’s unclear just how soon the name change may become evident through changing street signs and other physical manifestations. In its 2022-23 budget, the city council earmarked $1 million to cover the costs for replacing city street signs at intersections, changing Caltrans signage for freeway exits, and other expenses associated with the change.

From Temperance Avenue on the east to Marks Avenue on the west, there are approximately 100 intersections at which street signs will need to be changed to reflect the new name. That’s in addition to the off-ramps from the northbound and southbound lanes of Highway 99 to Ventura Street in downtown Fresno.

The council members who sponsored the resolution — Esparza, Chavez and District 7 Councilmember Nelson Esparza, whose district is bounded in part on the south by Ventura/Kings Canyon — said in a statement that they are “working closely with the Dyer administration to facilitate the name change.”

They said the city is also “preparing support for businesses and residents to access city resources to defray the cost of changing the name.”

“This is an exciting moment in the history of the city of Fresno,” said Luis Chavez, the lead sponsor of the resolution. “Fresno now joins the ranks of virtually every major city in the United States and names a street to honor a civil rights icon from our own community.”

Paul F. Chavez, son of the farm-labor leader, said he and his family are grateful for the honor. “For us it is especially meaningful for Fresno to have a street named for Cesar Chavez in the city where the movement was officially founded and has played an important role in its ongoing work,” Paul Chavez said. “This historic street naming is also a tribute to the countless men, women and children who marched alongside my father in the quest for fairness, justice and opportunity for those most in need”

Arias, Esparza and Luis Chavez said they are organizing a ceremony to celebrate the street renaming with the Cesar Chavez family.