SAN ANTONIO – The Durango Boulevard name endures.
The San Antonio City Council voted unanimously Thursday morning to officially revert the name César E. Chávez Boulevard back to Durango Boulevard in the wake of a March New York Times investigation into the labor leader.
Chávez, who died in 1993, is accused of sexually abusing girls and the co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America union, Dolores Huerta, decades ago.
Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5) submitted the official request to change the name back to Durango Boulevard and told KSAT “what we heard from (the) community is ‘how soon can they come down?’”
“Streets and public spaces should reflect community values, and what that meant to me is that we had to have this conversation about renaming the street,” she said.
The street, which spans from the West Side across downtown to the near East Side, was named after Chávez in 2011, replacing the previous name, Durango Boulevard.
Changing it back will cost nearly $375,000, mostly in city and state signage changes. The updated signs will include:
- 58 ground-mounted pole signs
- 15 highway signs
- 31 streetlight-mounted overhead signs
- 1 overhead frontage sign
San Antonio officials expect to change the city signs within two months. It could take up to 12 months for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) signs, though officials hope it will happen sooner.
It will also require 295 address changes, but the Development Services Director Amin Tohmaz said they got confirmation “in writing” from the county that it won’t affect anyone’s ability to vote in the November election.
After the allegations against Chávez came to light, the city received more than 18,000 responses for a survey on renaming the street.
And though many of the suggestions included other civil rights or farmworker movement themes, such as “Dolores Huerta Boulevard,” the city says 64% of respondents wanted the name changed back to Durango Boulevard.
For the respondents who live on the street, the city says that rose to 79%.
Rose Garcia grew up on Durango Boulevard and said the name change for her was less about dropping Chávez’s name than reverting to the name that she feels is tied to her family’s identity.
“I see Durango Boulevard as me. I see me. I see my family,” she told KSAT. “We grew up there. We skateboarded on there. We rode our bikes on there, and I live there still. So it’s in my blood.
The city’s Governance Committee gave the go-ahead for a name change three months ago, but it also had to go through technical review and be reviewed by the Historic Design Review and Planning Commissions, which both recommended approval.
Read KSAT’s previous reporting: Renaming César E. Chávez Boulevard could cost over $300K, city estimates
