{"id":411418,"date":"2026-07-24T23:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/411418\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T23:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:58:07","slug":"san-jose-announces-finalists-to-replace-cesar-chavezs-name-on-central-park-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/411418\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose announces finalists to replace Cesar Chavez\u2019s name on central park \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The city of San Jose announced a survey Friday with five finalists for Plaza de Cesar Chavez, bringing the city one step closer to removing the disgraced labor leader\u2019s name from its most popular park.<\/p>\n<p>The potential replacement names are: Farmworkers Plaza, Plaza de Quetzalcoatl, Plaza de San Jose, Plaza del Pueblo and Plaza Park. Community members can give their preferences in a ranked-choice survey that will be open until midnight Aug. 3. The survey is available at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.surveymonkey.com\/r\/29TD923\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">www.surveymonkey.com\/r\/29TD923<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2026\/07\/15\/san-jose-cesar-chavez-plaza-rename-suggestions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">The candidates are based on a series of community listening sessions and suggestions from the public<\/a>. Eligible suggestions were reviewed to make sure they follow naming criteria, which generally excludes naming facilities or land after living people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCommunity engagement is fundamental to how we make important decisions that shape the future of San Jose,\u201d City Manager Jennifer Maguire said in a statement. \u201cEvery survey response helps us better understand the community\u2019s priorities and provides valuable input as we prepare a recommendation for the Parks and Recreation Commission and City Council.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>City staff will review the results after the survey closes and present recommendations to the Parks and Recreation Commission on Sept. 2. The commission\u2019s recommendation will go to the city council, which will make the final decision.<\/p>\n<p>The city council voted to name the park \u2014 which has had several names since the city\u2019s founding including Market Plaza and Plaza Park \u2014\u00a0 to honor Chavez after the iconic labor leader\u2019s death in 1993. Chavez lived in San Jose in the 1950s and started his organizing in the city, helping get out the vote among Latino residents.<\/p>\n<p>Officials launched the renaming process last month following <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2026\/03\/18\/allegations-of-abuse-against-chavez-shock-bay-area-where-his-name-adorns-dozens-of-landmarks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">explosive sexual abuse allegations against Chavez<\/a> that became public in March.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe extraordinary response from our community reflects how deeply San Joseans care about this historic gathering place,\u201d Mayor Matt Mahan said in a statement. \u201cResidents shared an inspiring range of names and ideas, and now we\u2019re inviting them to rank the finalists so we can move closer to a name that honors the plaza\u2019s history, reflects our shared values and represents the community it serves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city of San Jose announced a survey Friday with five finalists for Plaza de Cesar Chavez, bringing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[417,181,23,1725,182,88,90,89],"class_list":["post-411418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-around-town","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-parks","tag-pm-report","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}