{"id":414524,"date":"2026-07-28T00:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T00:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/414524\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T00:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T00:00:10","slug":"five-finalists-for-renaming-downtown-san-jose-plaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/414524\/","title":{"rendered":"Five finalists for renaming downtown San Jose plaza"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Jose residents suggested more than 600 new names for one of the city\u2019s oldest public spaces. City officials have narrowed the final choices down to five.<\/p>\n

Officials are asking residents to fill out an online survey<\/a> ranking the five potential new names for Plaza de C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez in downtown. The options are Plaza de San Jose, Plaza del Pueblo, Farmworkers Plaza, Plaza de Quetzalcoatl and Plaza Park. The city\u2019s ranked-choice survey opened Friday and will remain available until midnight Aug. 3. From there, the Parks and Recreation Commission on Sept. 2 will weigh the rankings before making a recommendation to the City Council, which will make the final decision.<\/p>\n

Of the more than 600 suggestions submitted by residents, the city deemed roughly 178 ineligible under San Jose\u2019s naming guidelines.<\/p>\n

Ed Bautista, spokesperson for Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services, said many of the ineligible suggestions didn\u2019t qualify because the plaza can\u2019t be named after living people, and others lacked a connection to San Jose. After removing those suggestions, the city largely relied on the number of times names were repeatedly suggested to narrow the list.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile many thoughtful ideas were received, the ranked choice survey could not include every submission,\u201d Bautista told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cThe survey was designed to feature the eligible names that received the greatest level of support during the name suggestion phase. This approach ensured the survey remained manageable while reflecting the names that resonated most strongly with participants.\u201d<\/p>\n

The survey is the latest step in San Jose\u2019s effort to rename<\/a> the nearly 250-year-old downtown gathering place following community listening sessions and a suggested name submission period. The process comes months after councilmembers voted earlier this year to begin removing C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s name from city-owned sites<\/a> following allegations<\/a> that the late labor leader sexually abused women and children<\/a>. Ch\u00e1vez called San Jose home<\/a>\u00a0at various points in his life and has\u00a0long been celebrated<\/a>\u00a0in the city.<\/p>\n

The five finalists offer different approaches to the plaza\u2019s identity, from names tied to San Jose to those referencing cultural and agricultural history. Quetzalcoatl, known as the \u201cFeathered Serpent,\u201d is an ancient Mesoamerican god associated with wind, learning and creation. There is a statue<\/a> of his image at the plaza, called \u201cPlumed Serpent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plaza has served as a civic gathering place since the Pueblo de San Jose was established in 1777. The site has gone through several names over its history before being renamed Plaza de C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez in 1993 in honor of the labor leader and United Farm Workers co-founder.<\/p>\n

\"In-line<\/a><\/p>\n

Local artist Yonex Jones was at the plaza Monday helping clean up after a weekend concert. He opposes renaming the plaza and said removing Ch\u00e1vez\u2019s name discounts the labor leader\u2019s contributions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally just think the cancel culture is crazy,\u201d he told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cWe pick and choose who we want to cancel out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlos Jimenez, an East Palo Alto educator who has lived in San Jose for 26 years, supports changing the name and would like the space to be called Plaza de Quetzalcoatl.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m Mexican and very connected to the pre-Columbian history, so I love that Quetzal is an option,\u201d Jimenez told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cI don\u2019t know how people who don\u2019t speak Spanish will pronounce it, though. I think it needs to be something that represents San Jose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contact Maryanne Casas-Perez at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a> or @CasasPerezRed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Jose residents suggested more than 600 new names for one of the city\u2019s oldest public spaces. City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[712,88,90,89],"class_list":["post-414524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-centerpiece","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\/414524","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=414524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}