Industrial/Cesar Chavez Boulevard name change debate (Dallas,TX - Stupid city council)

DallasNews.com ^ | 06/10/2008

[devane617]

The City Council's Trinity River Corridor Project committee should open its meeting in about 10 minutes.

First item up - a briefing on the name change plan for Industrial Boulevard. There should be some interesting back and forth after a city sponsored survey ended in an overwhelming win to rename the road Cesar Chavez Boulevard.

We'll be live blogging the debate. Hope you can join us. Also, in the next blog item, we'll invite your comments and hopefully start a single thread.

[devane617]

A few weeks ago the Dallas City Council, in it's infinite wisdom, decided to conduct an 'online' poll to rename a large city street that is the center of a huge new 20-year project on the Trinity river in downtown. The online poll had as it choices: Cesar Chavez
Eddie Bernice Johnson
Riverfront
Trinity Riverfront

Guess who won? RIGHT! and who did not see this coming. Now the city council is trying to back away and NOT name the street Cesar Chavez Blvd.

[dfwgator]

NOT name the street Cesar Chavez Blvd.

Yeah but look at the bright side, now out-of-towners will know where they can go to score their drugs.

[denydenydeny]

This kind of renaming always amounts to a public safety measure, allowing outsiders to know which streets to stay away from.

[Texans]

I voted for RiverFront, I understand if you voted online from your computer you only get one vote, but if you called your vote in via the phone they would accept up to 3 votes from the same phone number...

[Baynative]

In every city I have visited where there is a “Cesar Chavez” or “MLK Jr.” street, parkway or boulevard, they are always in slums, run down industrial districts, or drug infested gangsta hoods.

[dfwgator]

I would have voted for “Boondoggle Boulevard” myself, but it wasn’t an option.

[19th LA Inf]

Does anyone know if Cesar Chavez ever set foot in the city of Dallas?

[WayneS]

Cesar CHAVEZ Boulevard, NO!

Cesar ROMERO Boulevard, YES!

[Eurale]

Why not “Che Guevara Boulevard”?

[WayneS]

But don’t they already have an MLK Blvd?

[TexasGunLover]

The Dallas city council is as dumb as their school board. The suburbs are where it’s at in DFW...

[Charles Martel]

In every city I have visited where there is a “Cesar Chavez” or “MLK Jr.” street, parkway or boulevard, they are always in slums, run down industrial districts, or drug infested gangsta hoods.

Yep, to a greater or lesser degree.

The renamed public schools usually follow the same pattern.

[dfwgator]

And a Malcolm X Boulevard. So now drug buyers have a choice.

[Centurion2000]

The Dallas city council is as dumb as their school board. The suburbs are where it’s at in DFW...

Aubrey ... that's about far enough out to enjoy Texas without dealing with urban idiocy.

[goodnesswins]

Hey...this already went on in Portland, Oregon.....don’t know where the fight ended up, however.....

[WayneS]

Yes.

And consumer CHOICE is the key to a successful capitalist system.

[TLI]

Apparently the city poll got scammed. The local TV station KTXA 11 / 21 had this on the news since yesterday afternoon and they are running a poll of their own that anyone can vote in and everybody knows about. Guess what?

More than half of the people who voted in a citywide survey said they want Industrial Blvd. in Dallas to be renamed after Cesar Chavez. Should the city honor their wishes?

yes = 27%

no = 69%

not sure = 4%

LINK

[weegee]

He probably urged a union boycott of some sort if it’s like his other “actions”.

[TLI]

But don’t they already have an MLK Blvd?

Yep. It is on the east side of downtown Dallas

[al_c]

Yeah, it wasn’t the most brilliant move by the council (something they’re quite famous for), but it was just a poll and not a public vote. They’ve got every right to say no.

[al_c]

Aubrey ... that's about far enough out to enjoy Texas without dealing with urban idiocy.

Not for long. The population explosion along 380 will sneak up that way before you know it.

[tal hajus]

When I lived in Dallas, Industrial Blvd had more than its share of sleazy adult theatres, trashed buildings and a general overall low-rent appearance. Sounds like the name is apropos.

[TexasGunLover]

Aubrey ... that's about far enough out to enjoy Texas without dealing with urban idiocy.

Nah... I grew up in East Texas, and there are some great suburbs, some that even touch Dallas proper. Still spend a lot of time though in West, North, and East Texas as well as an occasional trip to the coast for geese hunting...

[C19fan]

Cesar Chavez has to be the most overrated person in American history, a case of historical affirmative action.

[Bubba_Leroy]

About 30 years ago, the City of Austin changed the name of 19th Street to "Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd." About 10 years ago, Austin changed the name of 1st Street to "Cesar Chavez Street."

So now Austin has a 2nd Street, but no 1st Street. It also has an 18th Street and a 20th Street (and a "38 & 1/2 Street"), but no 19th Street.

I suppose all the other numbered streets will be renamed for liberal icons eventually.

[dfwgator]

Yep, they’ll be Jesse Jackson Street, Che Guevara Street, Louis Farrakhan Street, just to name a few.

[devane617]

"When I lived in Dallas, Industrial Blvd had more than its share of sleazy adult theatres, trashed buildings and a general overall low-rent appearance. Sounds like the name is apropos."

That street/area is going to be the new main street through the Trinity River Project. They are planning to develop the entire trinity river area in that part of town, so this was a beginning. Trinity Blvd, Trinity River Blvd, etc... was what they should have done, and moved on. NO one would have even noticed...

[KenL214]

Sure the results were scammed. There was a phone number taped to our phone at work with a note saying “Vote for Cesar Chavez”. I didnt think twice about it till the next day i heard about the poll results. I aqgree it was an organized effort to place an ethnic stamp on the Triniy River project. Why not rename Commerce Street Pablo Escobar Way...