The intersection of Southeast Cesar E Chavez Boulevard and Belmont Street in Portland, Ore, on March 18, 2026.
Saskia Hatvany / OPB
Portland leaders voted Wednesday unanimously to remove Cesar Chavez’s name from a major city street, months after reporting revealed that Chavez had allegedly sexually abused women and girls.
Councilors chose to rename the eastside thoroughfare Campesinos – a Spanish word meaning “farmworkers” – to honor the larger Latino labor movement that Chavez was a part of.
“We are reminded that a movement is never built by one individual,” said Councilor Loretta Smith, who introduced the ordinance. “It is built by the workers in the rows bent over under the heat of the sun, enduring backbreaking labor from dawn until dusk so that families across our city and our state have food on their tables.”
The vote comes on the heels of public debate around the name change.
Many of the supporters led the initial fight to rename the street previously known as 39th Avenue after Chavez in 2007. That group proposed renaming the road Campesinos Boulevard, to continue honoring Latino farmworkers.
Critics, who supported removing Chavez’s name from the street, urged leaders to simply return the name to 39th Avenue. They also raised concerns with councilors fast-tracking this process.
Under city code, changing a street name usually requires the support of at least 2,500 Portlanders or at least 75% of people living on the street in question. Councilors waived this requirement Wednesday.
Councilors also tweaked a rule which requires that, when a street is renamed, both the old and new street name signs remain up for a five year transition period. They gave that rule some wiggle room: The Chavez signs can remain up to five years, but aren’t required to.
Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane said she wants the city to remove the signs swiftly, noting how a constituent sent her a note saying every time they see the street sign ”they’re reminded about men abusing women and getting away with it.”
It’s not clear how much it will cost to replace the signs. According to Portland Bureau of Transportation Director Millicent Williams, it may take more than a year to make the new street signs.
While councilors supported the name change, several pointed to the importance of changing the city’s street renaming rules to not risk losing the public’s trust in the process in the future.
“I think that we need to make sure that before we do any other more street renamings,” said Councilor Steve Novick, “we have a process that we’re actually willing to stick to.”
