Was the public’s pick too boring? San Jose commission adds option to Chavez Plaza naming proposal

Worried that the public’s top pick was too “plain” and “safe,” San José’s parks commission voted Wednesday to propose an alternative name in the months-long saga over what to rename downtown’s Plaza de César Chávez.

Their idea? “Plaza del Pueblo de San José.”

The recommendation will go to the City Council alongside staff’s recommendation of “Plaza de San José,” an informal moniker that dates to the city’s early Spanish settlement and emerged as the top choice in an August ranked-choice survey. But commissioners decided to offer the second option after concluding the survey winner was simply too generic.

Parks and Recreation officials clarified Thursday that the commission’s vote does not discard the public survey results. Instead, both names will be forwarded to the City Council for consideration on Oct. 27.

“It’s very plain and safe — it wasn’t meant to be a safe thing,” Commissioner Daisy Barocio said.

The new name they are recommending for the San Jose City Council to consider later this year roughly translates to “Plaza of the people of San Jose,” or more colloquially, “San Jose Town Square.”

The recommendation caps a process that began in June following the sex abuse scandal that tarnished the image of the late labor leader Cesar Chavez.

Historically, the downtown plaza has gone through several names, including San Jose Plaza and Plaza Park, before it was named Plaza de Cesar Chavez in 1993.

Once the town square during California’s Spanish era, the 2.3-acre park is situated on Market Street downtown, hosting several signature events throughout the year including Christmas in the Park, San Jose Jazz Summer Fest and Music in the Park.

Barocio, who proposed adding “del Pueblo” to the public’s suggested name, admitted feeling conflicted about it.

“I’m torn, because typically my vote is going to honor what all the surveys said,” Barocio said. “It was an extensive survey that had a lot of votes.”

But ultimately, she said, “San Jose Plaza or Plaza de San Jose doesn’t fully capture it all.”

More than 10,000 people responded to the English survey, while 229 answered in Spanish and 14 in Filipino. There were 610 total names submitted, with staff determining that 432 complied with city naming policy. Staffers then consolidated duplicate nominations and language variations into 88 options. Ultimately, a mix of historical, cultural and labor-inspired proposals rose to the top.

After nominations opened in June, staff narrowed the field to five finalists for a ranked-choice survey in late July, which concluded in August.

Plaza de San José led the pack with 90 nominations. It was followed by Farmworkers Plaza and Plaza Park, which tied for second with 35 nominations each. Plaza del Pueblo drew 25 nominations, while Plaza de Quetzalcoatl — named for a Mesoamerican deity represented by a statue in the park— received 23.

Rounding out the top tier was a tribute to Filipino labor organizer Larry Itliong with 19 nominations. Tying with 12 apiece were A.P. Giannini Plaza Park, named after the Bank of Italy founder, and Isang Bagsak Plaza, referencing the Filipino labor unity cry meaning “one fall.” Trailing just behind were Plaza of Heart’s Delight with 11 nominations, a nod to the county’s agricultural past, and Sí Se Puede Plaza with 10, honoring the famous farmworker movement chant meaning “yes we can.”

The list also included joke entries like Parky McParkFace, which received three votes in a nod to the U.K.’s viral 2016 “Boaty McBoatface” polar research ship naming poll. Other submissions, such as Donald J. Trump Legacy Park and Barack Obama Park, were disqualified because city policy requires a park’s namesake to be deceased for at least five years.

Both the public submissions and commission recommendations are only suggestions, and the city councilmembers can choose whatever name they want.

Misrayn Mendoza, a community organizer with the San Jose organization Amigos de Guadalupe, called on the commission “not to take the easy way out.” He advocated for a tribute to Quetzalcoatl to honor San Jose’s deep Mexican heritage.

“I want to remind you this was called Mexico,” Mendoza said. “And Quetzalcoatl has everything to do with this because … a park name tells every child that plays in the park what the community stands for and what values a community has.”

Commission Chair Jose Villarreal said he was “not comfortable” sending a generic name to the city council, adding that he hoped to find a moniker that commanded the same respect as the plaza’s former namesake.

“Cesar Chavez, before all these allegations, was a person who was revered, lived in San Jose, and did great things,” Villareal said. “And I was hoping we were going to be able to find some type of name that could be in that same reverence.”

But Parks Director Jon Cicirelli pointed out that the recent controversy soured some community members on naming the park after a person at all “because we’re fallible in our histories, and it might come back to bite you.”

Although the City Council directed staff to honor the Latino and farmworker communities, city officials, commissioners, and residents grappled with how specific the name should be — wary of inadvertently sidelining other groups in one of the nation’s most diverse cities.

Assistant Parks Director Andrea Flores Shelton reflected on the difficulty of balancing today’s diversity with concerns about erasure.

“It was in the early ’90s when the suggestion to name the plaza after César Chávez came about. If you think about what the Latino Mexican community was experiencing, (they were) not feeling seen, not feeling represented,” Flores Shelton said. “So when I think about representation, it’s changed. Even our demographics of San Jose have changed greatly. So how do you go forward in one of the most diverse cities in America and continue to have representation of so many?”