By voting against street name change, Fresno supervisors put their pettiness on display | Opinion
When it comes to pettiness, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors is a tough act to top.
During their Tuesday meeting, one month after the Fresno City Council voted 6-1 to rename Kings Canyon Road, Ventura Street and California Avenue within the city limits to Avenida Cesar Chavez after the farm labor leader, our county supes took their ball and went home.
Not on short segments of the 10.25-mile roadway we control, they said.
By unanimous vote, the Board passed a resolution that opposed the Fresno City Council action and formally rejected the name change within the county’s jurisdiction.
What does that actually mean? It means a half-mile stretch of California between West and Hughes avenues in southwest Fresno will retain its name. As will Kings Canyon between Minnewawa and Clovis avenues in southeast Fresno.
There are also three areas west of Temperance Avenue where Kings Canyon bisects residential and commercial property that are city on one side and county on the other.
Good luck to those folks in a couple years when dialing 911.
But other than two segments on the opposite sides of Fresno, Cesar Chavez Boulevard will run uninterrupted from nearly one edge of the city to the other and through the heart of downtown. The supervisors have zero authority to change that.
So what was the actual purpose of this resolution, co-authored by Supervisors Brian Pacheco and Steve Brandau?
It was a great opportunity to stage some political theater, enlisting public speakers on both sides of the issue as part of the performance, and for certain supervisors to make soapbox speeches.
Supes draw a line in the sandbox
This was little more than the county supes drawing a line in the sandbox between themselves and city council members gunning for their seats in 2024.
Fresno City Councilmember Luis Chavez has declared for the Fresno County supervisorial District 3 race against incumbent Sal Quintero, while fellow councilmember Miguel Arias is mulling a run. Chavez and Arias are also the primary forces behind Avenida Cesar Chavez.
Except neither of them actually knew Chavez, or helped coordinate United Farm Workers events in Fresno. Quintero did both and spent several minutes going over their relationship. He went so far as to hold up a book autographed to him by Chavez and a UFW belt buckle.
Why? For Quintero to establish the credibility necessary to make the following statement: That if Chavez were alive today, he’d decline the honor and give the $1 million (allotted by city leaders for change-of-address expenses) to charity.
Quintero isn’t claiming to speak to the dead; he’s merely speaking on their behalf.
Brandau, meanwhile, will be squaring off against the only Fresno city council member who voted against the name change: Garry Bredefeld.
No matter. Brandau echoed much of what was heard during public comment in that he’s not in any way opposed to honoring Chavez, he’s just opposed to honoring Chavez by naming these particular streets after him.
So NIMBY-ism, just in a more specific and necessary form.
“We don’t want to elevate one cultural position by dismissing another,” Brandau asserted while speaking up for the “history” of the California Avenue, Ventura Street and Kings Canyon Road names.
Pacheco echoed that sentiment: “No culture should be erased during this process.”
A little late for erasing culture
A little late for that, is it not? As a reminder, the mighty Sierra river that helped carve the famous canyon and subsequently became a national park was originally named El Rio de los Santos Reyes — “River of the Holy Kings” — by Spanish missionaries in 1806.
Before that, Native American tribes surely had other names for those geographic features. By my count, that’s two cultures that were previously “dismissed” and “erased” over the course of history.
Or else Kings Canyon and the road leading there from Fresno (until Highway 180 came along) would be named something a lot less generic sounding.
Unlike Quintero and Brandau, Pacheco doesn’t have an election coming up. Still, why let such an opportunity slip by?
If southwest Fresno residents opposed to renaming California Avenue feel like they’ve been ignored by Arias, their city council representative, Pacheco reminded them he’s all ears.
You know. Just in case Arias decides to run against Pacheco for county supervisor in 2026. Or if the two of them vie to replace the termed-out Anna Caballero in the state Senate.
In politics, there’s no such thing as thinking too far ahead.
Fresno County and the city of Fresno have a lengthy history of not seeing eye to eye. It’s been nearly two years since the tax sharing agreement between the two governments expired, leaving city annexation of several business and residential developments in limbo.
But rather than address important issues, we get political theater over a street name that is 90% within the city limits.
In a few years, when Avenida Cesar Chavez runs across Fresno except for two segments on the outskirts of town, county supervisors won’t be remembered for taking a brave stand.
They’ll be remembered for being petty.
