Fresno moves to rename major streets for Cesar Chavez. Many aren’t happy with decision

As a farm labor organizer and co-founder of the United Farm Workers, Cesar Chavez was a figure who engendered strong emotions. And the labor leader who fought to elevate the plight of farmworkers and the conditions under which they toil is still capable of stirring passion 30 years after his death.

A 6-1 vote Thursday by the Fresno City Council launched the process to rename a 10.25-mile stretch of Kings Canyon Road, Ventura Street and California Avenue in southeast and southwest Fresno to “Avenida Cesar Chavez” in honor of the labor leader who died in 1993. The proposal was offered by City Councilmembers Luis Chavez, Miguel Arias and Nelson Esparza.

Councilmember Garry Bredefeld, who represents northeast Fresno, was the lone vote against the proposal, which is expected to receive final approval later this month.

The vote followed a heavy dose of criticism from residents along various sections of the roads based on concerns over the historic nature of the street names Kings Canyon Road and California Avenue and the cost and inconvenience for businesses to make the change. Of almost two dozen people who addressed the council Thursday on the issue, only three spoke in favor of the name change.

Several residents in the Sunnyside area of southeast Fresno near Kings Canyon Road spoke of the significance of the street name as a historic connection to Kings Canyon National Park and the Kings River gorge in the Sierra Nevada range east of Fresno. “I think in our haste to honor a man, we may be forgetting who we are and why we are,” said Sue Williams, a resident of the area.

Preserving historic context

“Our history is important to us; it’s who we are and what we are,” said another Sunnyside resident, Karen Musson. “To take away our history is to take away Fresno.”

For several African American residents in southwest Fresno, the inclusion of California Avenue came as a surprise, as the council’s agenda description for the meeting mentioned only Kings Canyon Road and Ventura Street.

“My biggest problem is that we were not notified” of California Avenue’s inclusion, said Keshia Thomas, a southwest Fresno resident who represents the area on the Fresno Unified School District board of trustees.

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.”

Other people spoke in support of the change, noting Chavez’s impact on the life of farm labor and agriculture in Fresno and the Valley.

“Change hurts,” said Gloria Hernandez, who said she worked as a civil rights activist 50 years ago alongside Chavez. “But Cesar Chavez was a great man. He opened a lot of our eyes or we’d still be in the fields working like animals, without protection, without toilets, without proper pay.”

Flaws in the process?

Local attorney Patience Milrod said the name change “is one of the best ways to acknowledge the vibrancy of our community.”

“I think the idea of the change is a wonderful one,” she added. “It’s many decades overdue.” But, she added, there is concern over the process that did not include input from residents in southwest Fresno who would be affected by the name change.

The process was also an issue for Vernice Curry, a longtime advocate in the southwest Fresno community. “I have no problem supporting the recognition and the accomplishments of Cesar Chavez,” Curry told the council. “What I don’t appreciate is the way it has been done and the way that it has this ability to divide communities, which I don’t think is your purpose … but it is doing that nonetheless.”

Councilmember Luis Chavez, who represents southeast Fresno that includes stretches of Kings Canyon Road and Ventura Street, said Fresno has made many changes since changing the name of the streets to honor Cesar Chavez was first proposed almost 30 years ago.

“Fresno is a different city now,” Luis Chavez said. “I think this city has done an extraordinary job of recognizing and honoring all communities in our city.” Chavez noted a park renamed to honor the Sikh community, a police station named for a fallen Hmong police officer, and the renaming Forkner Elementary School in north Fresno to Roger Tatarian Elementary to recognize the contributions of the Armenian community.

“The reason we picked Cesar Chavez is because he fought for (farm laborers, food processing workers and others), for their rights to be respected and to be treated with respect and dignity,” Luis Chavez said. “I believe our children should know who he was and, more importantly, what he did.”

Chavez and southwest Fresno Councilmember Miguel Arias both said Thursday’s vote was one step in a process that will come back to the City Council for final approval later in March and take effect a month after that.

The change would also apply only to areas of the roads that are within the Fresno city limits; the council’s resolution asks the Fresno County Board of Supervisors to take similar action for those stretches that are within county islands.

Not the first time

Arias noted that when the City Council first approved a measure to rename Kings Canyon Road, Ventura Street and California Avenue in 1993 to Cesar Chavez Boulevard, it was vetoed by then-Mayor Jim Patterson. The council did not override that veto.

“We know there are historical wrongs that need to be righted,” Arias said. “In this case, … the Latino community has been waiting 29 years and nine months for this historical wrong to be corrected.”

Councilmember Bredefeld, the lone vote opposing the change, said he believes there are other ways to honor Chavez that won’t force businesses along the roads to change stationery and incur other costs connected with an address change.

“I believe in honoring people too,” he said. “But at the same time, this has an impact on a lot of people, a financial impact on a lot of people, and I don’t think we should ignore that.” He noted that a previous City Council action earmarked about $1 million to help businesses cover the costs of making the changes they need.

Bredefeld was also critical of the process prior to Thursday’s proposal.

“The prior resolution in February 2022 was to direct (Mayor Jerry Dyer’s) administration to … direct the formation of a resident and business owner stakeholder committee to engage the public and receive input and recommendations,” Bredefeld said. “That didn’t happen.”

“This process is flawed, clearly flawed,” he added. “That’s why we have a lot of people saying they weren’t involved with the process. … This is a dramatic change in the community and will have an adverse effect on a lot of people.”