By admin 
Until the end of business on Friday, Sacramentans can help rename The Park Formerly Known As Cesar Chavez — the plaza directly outside Sacramento’s old city hall where thousands of residents gather every year for summer concerts, markets and events.
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After credible sexual assault allegations against Chavez were uncovered by the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times earlier this year, it became untenable for the city of Sacramento to continue commemorating a disgraced hero. The news prompted public calls for change, not only for the name of the park, but also for the removal of the statue of Chavez that stands on the plaza’s north end.
Nothing less than taking it down is appropriate. Any man accused of raping and assaulting women shouldn’t be commemorated, regardless of fame and status. The first necessarily outweighs the second, and I’m proud to live in a city that recognizes that — even if the wider country often does not.
The city’s online survey asks Sacramentans to “reevaluat(e) the current park name and reflect Sacramento’s commitment to transparency, public participation and ensuring public spaces continue to reflect community values.” Survey takers are encouraged to share their thoughts on what kind of values, histories, stories and identities the park’s name should represent, and the survey provides an opportunity to suggest names, too.
Sacramento’s subreddit has been having some fun with ideas, suggesting names such as Parky McParkFace or Grant Nakamura Park, for the locally famous city parking meter cop gave out 22,000 tickets last year.
(More than one person there has suggested naming it Dorothea Puente Park, though I think some of them have confused the city’s serial killer landlady with United Farmworkers’ leader, Dolores Huerta.)
Jokes aside, it might be best if the city shies away in the future from naming any more landmarks after people; men in particular.
The survey began in June and closes this week, on July 24. A link can be found at cityofsacramento.gov/ccparkrenaming, and can be taken in both English and Spanish.
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City staff will review the public’s input and prepare a recommendation for consideration by the City Council’s Subcommittee and the Parks and Community Enrichment Commission. In turn, they will present to the City Council their recommendations, and the council will make a final decision regarding the park’s new name sometime later this year.
Names are a funny thing. You can put up all the signs you want, but people still have a way of calling things by the most convenient name. People here still called the Natomas-area basketball arena where the Kings once played “Arco Arena” for years, even though the building was renamed in 2011 and demolished in 2022. (Heck, sometimes I still refer to the Golden 1 Center as Arco Arena, just because it feels so right.)
I don’t think many people will continue to (or ever did) regularly call the park by its full name, Cesar Chavez Park. But it stands to reason the most logical name will be the easiest for everyone to switch to: City Hall Plaza.
Hopefully, after this, the city has learned its lesson about naming things after people. So if we don’t go with the most logical name, then the council should pick something to honor a movement or a group of people, like Farmworkers Park or Nisenan Plaza, after one of the local Native American tribes whose land it’s on. Maybe we should call it the City (Park) of Trees.
Whatever the patch of land winds up being renamed, it will no doubt remain a communal place for thousands of Sacramento residents who flock downtown to enjoy events, concerts and the shade. That’s what really matters.
But changing the name now is a much-needed signal that Chavez’s behavior was intolerable and disgusting, and we reject it as a community — even in someone who was venerated for decades. The name change is a sign of hope for every survivor of rape or sexual assault, since they so often do not receive justice in law.
Now, let’s extend the principle beyond Chavez, and rename the city’s monuments for John Sutter, next.
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