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City launches community-led renaming process for Cesar Chavez Plaza, survey opens June 12
Summary
City staff kicked off a community-driven process to consider a new name for Cesar Chavez Plaza, with an online survey scheduled for June 12–July 24 and a mayor-appointed subcommittee guiding vetting; commissioners pressed staff on safeguards against online manipulation and on naming criteria.
City staff on Thursday launched a community-led process to consider renaming Cesar Chavez Plaza, asking residents to weigh in during an online survey that opens June 12 and will run through July 24.
"As you know, the city is initiating a community-led process to rename Cesar Chavez Park," Jackie Beecham, director of Youth, Parks and Community Enrichment, told commissioners. Beecham said the effort will center community input, include temporary park signage, and culminate with a staff recommendation to a mayor-appointed three-member council subcommittee and then to the parks commission for an October recommendation and possible council adoption in late October or early November.
Becoming part of the process will include a project web page (cityofsacramento.org/ccrenaming), a bilingual partner toolkit for outreach and a survey that staff said will ask respondents about themes and reasons behind proposed names. Staff said they will research name submissions and apply the city's naming policy when compiling recommendations.
Commissioners pressed staff on how the city will vet nominations and prevent online manipulation. "Let's say somebody bots it," Commissioner Flores said, describing concerns that large-scale coordinated submissions could skew results. Beecham and staff said the process will not rely solely on raw counts, that multiple criteria will inform vetting and that the mayor-appointed subcommittee will help narrow recommendations for the commission to review.
Beaucham/Becham said staff are open to names that are not attached to individuals and expect to provide commission members with background materials supporting any recommended names. The staff presentation traced the plaza's history and said the renaming effort aims to reflect Sacramento's culture and history while remaining inclusive.
The commission was asked to support outreach within commissioners' district networks; staff requested commissioners help promote the survey and events. The commission will act in an advisory capacity: staff will present findings and recommendations to the mayoral subcommittee and then return to the parks commission before forwarding a final recommendation to city council.
Next steps: the city will launch the online survey June 12, collect input through July 24, a staff review and subcommittee review are planned in August–September, and a recommended name is expected to come to the commission in October for forwarding to council.
