Cesar Chavez’s name is officially being stripped from Fresno’s road signs. 

The Fresno City Council voted on Thursday to rename Cesar Chavez Blvd. back to Kings Canyon Rd., Ventura Ave. and W. California Ave., reversing a 2023 decision from the council after sexual assault allegations surfaced earlier this year against the labor leader. 

Driving the news: The New York Times reported last month that Chavez sexually assaulted girls throughout the 1970s. 

Dolores Huerta, who co-founded United Farm Workers alongside Chavez and Gilbert Padilla, also said that Chavez raped her twice in the 1960s. Huerta said both sexual encounters resulted in children, who she gave to other families to care for. 

After the allegations surfaced, the council voted to start the process to restore the former street names last month. 

What we’re watching: With the unanimous support of the council, city staff will start to replace the signs over the next few weeks. 

Public Works Director Scott Mozier told the council that the process should take three weekends and expects to have the renaming completed by mid-May. 

The city has all of the former street signs still in its possession and is able to reuse around 80% of them, making the quick transition possible. 

What they’re saying: Councilman Miguel Arias addressed the council’s original vote to rename the streets in 2023 to honor Chavez, with the current circumstances spurring quick action. 

“Ultimately, we made the vote to change the name, but the fact is when the facts change our minds have changed. And that’s what we’re required to do as public stewards of these roles,” Arias said. “When we made the change to Cesar Chavez, the facts were very clear. He was a hero in the labor movement. He advocated for those who didn’t have a voice. He took on the agriculture industry as they abused and took advantage of farmworkers. And since then the facts have changed, and now we know what nobody else knew, except a very handful of people that worked closely with him. And so it’s incumbent on us to change our minds when the facts have changed.”