The Dallas City Council has gotten themselves into a fine mess now. They got it through their heads that with the new Trinity River Project moving ahead, Industrial Blvd. needed a new name. Evidently, Industrial Blvd. wasn't a pretty enough name to go with their new project, even though the street has borne that name for many years and no one has complained.
I think they wanted to rename the street "Trinity River Parkway", but instead of just doing that they got cute. They decided to throw a bone to the minority communities in Dallas by letting the people vote on the new name. They tossed in "Eddie Bernice Johnson" for the African-Americans and "Cesar Chavez" for the Hispanics. There were about five choices in all, and they asked the community to log in and vote by computer.
But then, something unexpected happened. "Cesar Chavez" won the computer poll. In fact, it didn't just win the poll, it got as many votes as all the other choices put together. The "sleeping giant" that was the Hispanic community in Dallas has awakened and flexed their political muscle.
So what does the city council do? They put off making a decision until August. Maybe they were hoping Hispanics would forget by then. But that isn't going to happen. Several Hispanic groups are now demanding they honor the outcome of the poll they conducted.
I agree. If the council didn't want to honor the votes cast, they shouldn't have asked citizens to cast them. "Cesar Chavez" won by a landslide, and that is what the new name of Industrial Blvd. should be.
Anything else would be an insult to the voters, and that could have serious political reprecussions.
I agree even more strongly for more basic reasons. If you are going to change the Industrial Blvd name, Cesar Chavez Blvd fits very well. The public saw that!
ReplyDeleteYou name streets to reflect the history of a place. Little Mexico, like many other laborer communities in the history of Dallas, has been virtually erased from the Dallas landscape due to increasing land values. Industrial blvd is the major transportation artery through the industrial area of the city where thousands of workers from Little Mexico, and similar communities all over Dallas, worked, or traveled through daily, for decades. (Go to www.studentmotivation.org/littlemexico for a photo from Reunion Tower that shows location of Little Mexico and Industrial in one photo.)
It is very appropriate to honor these workers by renaming Industrial Blvd in the honor of Cesar Chavez, a nationally recognized and honored leader in workers' rights.
It will help us remember workers of all ethnic groups who are the literal builders and maintainers of our city and our nation. All workers benefit from the work of Cesar Chavez, including those now building the Trinity River Project, and those who will maintain it for the centuries to come.
What better name to honor the history, and future, of a place, and the workers who all make it possible?
Bill Betzen
Ditto what Ben Betzen said.
ReplyDelete:)
I kind of lost interest in this whole thing after I found out that Stevie Ray Vaughn was removed from contention, but it is really dumb for them to have an online vote, and then act like they don't want to honor the outcome of that vote. If they didn't want a supposedly "controversial" name to win the vote (I happen to think Cesar Chavez deserves at least a street named after him), they shouldn't have included it as one of the options. Or barring that, they shouldn't have had a vote at all.
ReplyDeleteOf course, these are the same geniuses who have given approval for that convention center hotel, which is going to be a huge boondoggle, so I suppose this is no less than what we should expect from them.