On a Simple Tribute, City Has Lost Its Way : San Fernando should find a new street to name after Chavez

There is an amendment to Murphy’s Law that deals with honoring the memory of an important leader. It doesn’t often matter how respectfully the matter is broached, or how unobtrusive the tribute will be. Suddenly, parks that no one cared about are cause for civic concern and cannot be renamed. Obscure street names are suddenly treasured. Magically, buildings about to be renamed become historic masterpieces that cannot, of course, be renamed.

The city of San Fernando should have known this. Its officials should have simply forged ahead by, in this case, picking another street.

All the city wants to do is extend a further and well-deserved tribute to the memory of labor leader Cesar Chavez. It’s a welcome idea that shouldn’t arouse much protest, but it has.

In March, the San Fernando City Council decided on a gesture that should not have raised eyebrows: taking a relatively unknown and neglected road and naming it Cesar Chavez Street. They picked Kalisher Street, which seemed like a good choice.

Kalisher runs through a tough and crime-scarred area that is regularly prowled by gang members and other troublemakers. Maybe someone, at some time, cared about this place, but not in recent memory. Perhaps, proponents thought, naming the street after Chavez would inspire a renewal of civic pride.

What the idea inspired was a civic outburst that has yet to be settled.

Very quickly, opponents put together a petition with 500 signatures. There was talk about how a name change would erase a piece of San Fernando’s history, even though no one seemed to know exactly who Kalisher was or why the street was named for him. Finally, a Kalisher namesake surfaced.

Ready to defend the honor of the Kalisher name, actress Bonnie Kalisher of North Hollywood did copious research. Of course, it turned out that Wolf Kalisher was quite a fellow, too, although not nearly of Chavez’s magnitude. Kalisher was a 19th-Century Jewish immigrant from Poland who was one of the few merchants in Los Angeles willing to befriend and employ displaced Native Americans.

Meanwhile, Latinos could be forgiven for finding it curious, at the very least, that no one cared at all about this street in the barrio until someone decided to rename it for a man named Chavez.

Chastened, the City Council punted the matter to a committee, which held the last of three public meetings on how to honor Chavez this past week. Unfortunately, the street idea seems to have been shelved in favor of a bike path or a park. Too bad.

Nothing quite compares to the renaming of a street, particularly a prominent and well-traveled one, when it comes to honoring an important man or woman. Motorists and pedestrians alike are more likely to see the name on a regular basis, remember it and feel proud. The same can’t be said for an infrequently visited park, bike path or memorial.

We’re certain that the City Council can find a suitable avenue for this worthy gesture. It can do a better job of researching the names of potential streets for protests that might arise. And we’re sure that the council can do a better job of keeping its citizens better informed about its efforts in this regard.