Starting fresh on Cesar Chavez - Portland, Oregon

B y the time the Portland City Council abandoned its plan to rename North Interstate Avenue for Cesar Chavez last year, it had badly bruised every constituency with a stake in the renaming, and damaged its own reputation in the bargain.

The Latino community, businesses, neighborhoods along Interstate, innocent bystanders who’d only watched the racially charged saga unfold, all were disgusted. And the Chinese American community was angry. The council’s last-minute proposal to rename Fourth Avenue struck many in that community as disrespectful, since Fourth runs through Chinatown. “*

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