By admin 
Six months after allegations of sexual assault against the late civil rights leader were made public, the city of Sacramento announced its recommendation for renaming the plaza formerly named after Cesar Chavez.
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Union Plaza was the top choice of more than 2,600 residents surveyed earlier this year. The Parks and Community Enrichment Commission will consider the recommendation at its Oct. 1 meeting. If approved it will advance to the City Council for final consideration.
“Renaming a public space with this much history deserves a thoughtful and transparent process,” said Mayor Kevin McCarty in a news release. “This park has long stood as an emblem of the laborers and organizers who built Sacramento. Union Plaza recognizes the park as a place where Sacramentans have come together for generations and will gather for years to come.”
The second-most supported name in the survey was Dolores Huerta Park, named after the 96-year-old labor and feminist activist who co-founded the United Farm Workers union alongside Chavez in 1966.
Earlier this year Chavez was accused of raping Huerta and sexually abusing children in a New York Times report. The investigation spawned a nationwide reckoning with the legacy of the deceased labor organizer who had become an icon of Chicano rights.
Responses to the city’s survey showed community interest in the future name representing worker’s rights, the farmworker movement, Indigenous history and the plaza’s role as one of the city’s key historic gathering places.
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“Whatever name ultimately moves forward, we have a responsibility to recognize the people who have worked and are caretakers of the land, from the original native people to laborers, and farm workers who have built the Sacramento Region,” said Councilmember Eric Guerra in the statement.
Other commonly suggested names included Farmworker Plaza, People Plaza, Plaza Park and Nisenan Plaza, according to the city. The park was historically called City Plaza and Plaza Park before it was renamed after Chavez in the 1990s.
The city is following the national trend of renaming streets, parks and schools once named after Chavez. Davis Joint Unified School District renamed its namesake campus to Monarca Elementary School, which the renaming committee chose because it honors the school’s multicultural identity and because it “symbolizes transformation, growth, and resilience.”
Sacramento City Unified School District kicked off a renaming effort earlier this month for its elementary school in south Sacramento named after Chavez.
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This story was originally published September 25, 2026 at 12:23 PM.