The Oregonian (Portland, OR) 
November 2, 2007 

ACTIVISTS FEND OFF CHAVEZ COMPROMISE
A Latino group wants the labor leader's name to replace Interstate on signs, and members are looking for support.

By Anna Griffin

Leaders of Portland's Latino community want people of color and progressives citywide to rally behind their fight to rename Interstate Avenue after Cesar Chavez later this month -- and help kill an attempt to consider other streets.

With a compromise looking more and more likely, leaders of the effort to rename Interstate sent out an e-mail to more than 50 civic leaders and community organizers this week seeking their help.

Their message: First, please support renaming Interstate and only Interstate. Second, if approached, say no to serving on a city committee that would consider other ways to honor the labor leader and civil rights activist.

Commissioners Randy Leonard, Erik Sten and Sam Adams are recruiting members for such a committee.

All three have said they support renaming a street somewhere in Portland for Chavez, who died in 1993, but they also say the city needs more time and should seek more public comment.

In the wake of last week's disastrous City Council meeting -- Mayor Tom Potter walked out as Sten, Adams and Leonard tried to work out a compromise -- they're trying to find a solution all three can support at a Nov. 14 meeting.

For the moment, the three are looking at creating a five-member committee that would include some of the city's biggest names -- former Mayors Vera Katz and Bud Clark have been mentioned as possible leaders -- to consider several streets, including Interstate.

Leonard said he'd like the first new street signs to go up on March 31, what would have been Chavez's 81stbirthday.

"We are not asking people to help us decide whether to name a street. That is going to happen. It's done," he said. "We want them to help us pick a street, so that this can be something the entire city rallies around instead of what we've seen so far."

In September, at the request of a group of Latino activists, the City Council voted unanimously to begin a six-week period of public comment on renaming Interstate, followed by a vote on the renaming. But to the surprise of everyone involved, the idea of turning Interstate Avenue into Chavez Boulevard generated overwhelming opposition in North Portland.

Business owners said it would cost them thousands of dollars to change signs and advertising. Residents said they feel abused by the city: After neglecting the area for years, the city pushed ahead with the Interstate MAX line and the renaming of Portland Boulevard after Rosa Parks with little public comment.

Potter said Chavez organizers deserve an up-or-down vote on renaming Interstate. Leonard, Sten and Adams all said the process they approved in September was inherently flawed and caused the debate to get intensely personal and unpleasant.

"What I do not want to do is take a group of well-meaning citizens and throw them under the bus again. We've already done that once to the Chavez committee," Leonard said. "What we need is not just five random thoughtful community leaders, but five folks who are recognized instantly for their contributions, have been through the political wars and are prepared for the job we're asking them to do."

An ex-official says no

Those five people cannot all be white, Leonard said. Judging from early returns, that might pose a problem.

Former county Commissioner Serena Cruz Walsh has said no. Roy Jay, a close friend of Leonard's and head of the African-American Chamber of Commerce, said he'd like to help settle the Interstate debate and has some ideas, but hasn't decided whether to serve.

"I'm waiting to see who else they get," he said.

Several civic leaders who received the activists' e-mail, written by Latino Network executive director Maria Lisa Johnson, said they would refuse the assignment if approached.

"It would be disrespectful to the people who have already worked so hard on this issue," said Kayse Jama, executive director of the Center for Intercultural Organizing and a native of Somalia.

Jama said he agrees with members of the Chavez organizing committee that the fierce reaction to the idea of renaming Interstate should bring together people of color. Portland, he said, prides itself on an inclusive attitude that doesn't always exist.

"Chavez isn't a Latino. He's a U.S.-born American. Yet we keep hearing that this is a Latino issue, that he was Latino," Jama said. "That is the discussion we need to have in this city, but that too many people are afraid to begin. Who is an American? What does an American look like?

"Maybe that kind of conversation will be the one good thing to come out of this."

Copyright 2007 - The Oregonian