The Oregonian reports today that Dan Saltzman fashioned a better outcome for the Cesar Chavez Boulevard debacle. He proposes to rename Fourth Avenue (the downtown stretch only, not the disconnected bits and pieces in the Southwest Hills) instead of N. Interstate Avenue. He reportedly has the support of Commissioners Adams, Leonard, and Sten.
The Code prohibits renaming after a famous person a street whose name has historic significance. Interstate Avenue's name has historic significance because it resulted from the act of a bygone City Council to commemorate the first bridge between Oregon and Washington. Fourth Avenue's name doesn't. So at least this street, unlike Interstate Avenue, is eligible to be renamed.
However, the City Council still shouldn't abandon the code or it will be taken to court, just by the downtown interests instead of by the Interstate Avenue neighborhood. Here's what I suggest the Council does this afternoon: State that it is willing to rename SW/NW Fourth Avenue to be SW/NW Cesar Chavez Avenue, if the proponents gather the 2500 signatures of Portland residents as required by code and obtain a letter in support from some member of Mr. Chavez's family. (The proponents of renaming should be able to do both of these easily.) The Council could commit the City to paying the cost of sending out the notifications. The Council would take the other steps required by Chapter 17.93 of the Portland city code: convene the historic review committee, which will easily find that Mr. Chavez was a person of national signficance; hold the appropriate public hearing, and approve the renaming.
Why should the Council do this the long way (what we used to call the "legal way") instead of simply renaming Fourth Avenue today and being done with it? Because sometime -- next year, the year after, certainly within Mayor-elect-apparent Adams's first term -- someone else is going to ask Council to rename a street, and it's a lot easier for the Council to tell the next group to follow the rules if the Council follows the rules itself.