'Gut check' for council: Interstate or Chavez?

Street name - The mayor sets an Oct. 31 vote, but commissioners hope to buy more

JAMES MAYER

The Oregonian Staff

The emotion-charged question of whether to rename North Interstate Avenue in Portland for farm labor leader Cesar Chavez appears headed for a City Council showdown.

Mayor Tom Potter, who supports the name change, slated council action on the name change for 2 p.m. Oct. 31.

But Commissioners Randy Leonard and Sam Adams then filed a resolution for Thursday's council agenda aimed at sidetracking the Interstate vote.

Leonard and Adams propose forming a committee to recommend by July 1 which street to name for Chavez.

"It sounds like it's gut check time," Leonard said in an e-mail from Denmark, where he was attending a conference Thursday.

"The effect of (Potter) forcing a vote now is an acrimonious debate on October 31st that will almost certainly cause, in my opinion, anger, hurt and resentment on all sides. It is hard to imagine how anyone will feel as though they won that day no matter which side prevails," Leonard said.

Austin Raglione, the mayor's chief of staff, said the mayor is following the process set out by the council in September, which called for supporters to hold two community meetings and then bring it back to the council.

One potential snag: Raglione said the mayor wouldn't go ahead with the Oct. 31 vote unless he was sure all five council members would be there.

The renaming proposal has ignited passions in the Latino community and North Portland neighborhoods. Supporters of the name change argue that renaming Interstate will be a fitting tribute to the Latino leader -- something Portland lacks despite its fast-growing Latino population.

North Portland businesses and residents say the street's history and current identity are important to them, and many feel the city is jamming change down their throats.

No clear council majority exists for the Interstate name change or the expanded process advocated by Leonard and Adams.

Commissioner Dan Saltzman said he would wait to make up his mind on Interstate until he heard the testimony.

Saltzman said he would be absent for Thursday's meeting, but he worried about a new process just spreading the ugliness of the debate to other neighborhoods. Voting now on Interstate might be "the lesser of two uglies."

Commissioner Erik Sten said calling for the vote on Interstate now would be a mistake, but if forced to choose sides, he leaned toward renaming Interstate.

"The problem is it becomes about which side wins. You have two aggrieved sides, and you have to pick one rather than trying to work through it," Sten said.

If the council took a little more time without forcing votes, it still might be possible to get agreement, he said. He also said he was reluctant to vote for a new process that would itself be divisive and unlikely to resolve anything.

Marta Guembes, co-chair of the Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard Committee, said the group has made clear to each of the commissioners in recent days that it is holding firm in its request to rename Interstate.

Guembes said she didn't know how the vote would go.

"I would love to have five votes, but if we don't, it's OK," she said. "Not everyone is going to agree. This is not a win-win situation. We wish it could be, but it doesn't look like it."

Bill Mildenberger Jr., manager of the Nite Hawk Cafe and Lounge and a leader of the opposition to the name change, said he's disappointed that Potter has not listened to North Portlanders.

"The mayor said he wanted there to be a groundswell of support from the community, but the businesses, the neighborhood association and the overall community is overwhelmingly opposed. It's not even close."