Tabled, reconsidered

The Council this morning voted to table the proposed Code amendment allowing Council-initiated street renamings now and in the future. They also unanimously voted to reverse last week’s vote calling for naming 4th Avenue for César Chávez, apparently after leaders of the Chávez committee held a press conference this morning, indicating solidarity with Chinatown residents on NW 4th.

Did you know that the official name for the historic district north of Burnside is “New Chinatown/Japantown”?

I concur with the outcome of this morning’s Council votes, i.e., that neither Interstate nor 4th are renamed, and the Code was not amended with the horrible new top-down process for this and future street renamings.

Council chambers were packed this morning, and more than a dozen people signed up to testify on the Code process issue. It’s unfortunate nobody on the Council called for consideration of this issue to be pulled to the beginning of the morning’s items. Too much of citizens’ time has already been wasted by the mistakes in this process. While the Bureau of Environmental Services’ watershed planning report is important, I question the value of requiring elderly residents of Chinatown to wait patiently through it. Even I barely listened, intent on writing up notes for the testimony I thought I’d be giving.

Instead, the second to last item was consideration of the Agenda item on Code amendments for renaming, on which testimony had been invited. The motion to table was introduced immediately. A motion to table is not debatable. That motion saved time and angst for citizens who eventually got what they wanted – nobody seemed to be in favor of renaming 4th, even though we didn’t get to say what we came for. Could that not have been done at 10 a.m., instead of closer to 11:30?

OK, on to Lessons Learned.

César Chávez said:

“From the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with strength and dignity.”

Approving a change in the name of either Interstate or 4th would not have accomplished that, at this point. The well-meaning attempt by the Councilmen to propose what they saw as a compromise would not have empowered the advocates for the name change to fill their own needs with strength and dignity. It would not have helped heal the rifts in the community (and between sections of the community) that have been incited and exposed in this process.

Portland’s streets belong to all the people. They don’t belong to the five elected to the Council at any given time, to use at will. They don’t belong to any one advocacy group. While technically the ground beneath them belongs to the adjacent property owners, the public has Constitutional rights to assemble there, travel along them, buy homes and businesses adjacent to them if we choose and can afford to. We have Code rules saying what can happen in streets, as well as how they are named and renamed.

In a city where “progress” and “renewal” often means tearing down old buildings and cutting ancient trees, our streets and street names provide needed connections to our sense of place and history – even when the name is just a number. The advocates for the name change wanted to establish a new connection, and provide/restore a value to a part of our history not much honored to this point. That goal is worthy and still valid. I look forward to seeing how the committee members choose to resolve their despair, and keep working towards their goal of honoring the great Mexican American hero – in a participatory public process that unites people and communities, with mutual respect.

A comment on Blogtown noted that neighbors in North Portland understand the Chávez committee’s frustration – that’s what’s made this process so difficult, in part. People experiencing powerlessness in other parts of the city relate, too. By one minority community group joining with another in the press conference this morning, perhaps more connections are being made. Both relationship connections in different advocacy organizations talking with each other, and mental connections in terms of, “Hey, maybe we have more in common than we thought. And maybe the issue goes beyond racial and cultural discrimination, and involves historical patterns of power that all of us need to work together to break through.”

I believe this saga, flawed and contentious as it has been, has educated many Portlanders. Many of us know much more about César Chávez than we did six months ago. We’ve seen overt racism more clearly voiced, and now it’s out in the open, we can work on addressing it. We know that the rules in the Code are there for a purpose, and that the Code does indeed place some limitations on what the five people elected to seats on the Council are allowed to do.

But wow, what a painful way to learn those lessons. Let’s draw a deep breath, and be thankful that tomorrow, we can think of other things to celebrate and be grateful for.