{"id":507820,"date":"2026-10-25T21:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T21:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/507820\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T21:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T21:56:08","slug":"san-jose-city-council-set-to-pick-new-name-for-cesar-chavez-plaza-who-didnt-make-the-cut-east-bay-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/507820\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose City Council set to pick new name for Cesar Chavez Plaza. Who didn\u2019t make the cut? \u2013 East Bay Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

From serious proposals like Steve Jobs Plaza to more comedic takes like Parky McParkFace, hundreds of ideas missed the final cut as the San Jose City Council prepares to rebrand its prominent downtown plaza.<\/p>\n

The city is set to select a new name Tuesday to replace late labor icon C\u00e9sar Ch\u00e1vez<\/a>, following an investigation earlier this year detailing years of sexual abuse.<\/p>\n

The council has the final say on what happens next<\/a>. It can go with the public\u2019s favorite, \u201cPlaza de San Jose,\u201d or an alternative pitched by the Parks and Recreation Commission \u2014 \u201cPlaza del Pueblo de San Jose.\u201d Or it can come up with a new name entirely.<\/p>\n

During the commission\u2019s Oct. 7 meeting, members weighed public anxiety over naming civic spaces after specific individuals \u2014 whose legacies can prove fallible \u2014 against concerns that the staff-recommended Plaza de San Jose was too \u201cvanilla\u201d and culturally bland.<\/p>\n

The commission voted unanimously for \u201cPlaza del Pueblo de San Jose,\u201d attempting to capture both broad inclusivity and community identity.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s vote on the park\u2019s newn ame will cap off a process began in March, with community listening sessions<\/a> taking place over the summer, and culminating in a ranked-choice survey that wrapped up in August<\/a>. Out of 610 total suggestions, city staff set aside 178 nominations that didn\u2019t follow guidelines and consolidated the remaining 432 into 88 distinct options. More than 10,000 people responded to the English survey, while 229 answered in Spanish and 14 in Filipino.<\/p>\n

Many of the other public nominations were\u2026 interesting.<\/p>\n

Internet culture was on full display in the nominations. Aside from \u201cParky McParkFace,\u201d there was \u201cPlaza McPlazaface,\u201d which also lacked a clear connection to San Jose \u2014 as did \u201cEvery One was Kung Fu Fighting Park.\u201d Meanwhile, entries like \u201cDonald J. Trump Legacy Park\u201d also failed to qualify.<\/p>\n

While \u201cCalifornia ground squirrel\u201d may be a valid choice for animal lovers, why \u201cJulius Caesar\u201d was relevant to San Jose was just as unclear.<\/p>\n

There were also pop-culture nods to K-pop act BTS<\/a> through \u201cBangtan Park\u201d and 23-year-old pop singer \u201cJoJo Siwa.\u201d<\/p>\n

City rules require honorees to be deceased for at least five years, leading to several notable disqualifications. Steve Wozniak was scrapped. While the contributions of norte\u00f1o band Los Tigres del Norte to music are undeniable, they are very much alive and did not fit the criteria.<\/p>\n

Legendary singer Dionne Warwick, who famously sang about needing to find her way to San Jose in a 1960s hit record, made the list alongside former President Barack Obama, but both were disqualified because they, as well, are still living.<\/p>\n

Fellow labor icon Dolores Huerta \u2014 who recent reports revealed had two children with Chavez \u2014 received more than 50 submissions across various spellings, but was disqualified for the same reason. Blanca Alvarado Park, in honor of San Jose\u2019s first Latina councilmember, who is still living and in her 90s, received three nominations.<\/p>\n

Several ideas were rejected due to geographic conflicts \u2014 like \u201cSan Jose Central Park\u201d and \u201cTamien Ohlone Plaza\u201d \u2014 while \u201cDelano Manongs Park\u201d was nominated but already matches an existing park name in the city.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, tributes to New York activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera lacked the necessary local ties.<\/p>\n

Even among the eligible names, dozens of serious contenders failed to make the final ballot, falling short of the numbers required to make the top five list. Notable runners-up included a tribute to Filipino labor organizer Larry Itliong with 19 votes, Bank of Italy founder A.P. Giannini and \u201cIsang Bagsak Plaza\u201d \u2014 after a famous Filipino farmworker protest cry meaning \u201cone fall\u201d \u2014 with 12 votes each, and lower-tier pitches like \u201cSilicon Valley Plaza,\u201d which received just four votes.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the top five most popular names advanced to a ranked-choice survey. \u201cPlaza de San Jose\u201d finished in first place after leading the initial round with 90 nominations. It was followed by \u201cFarmworkers Plaza,\u201d \u201cPlaza del Pueblo\u201d and \u201cPlaza Park\u201d\u00a0 \u2014 all broadly tied to the farmworker movement or local history\u00a0 \u2014 and \u201cPlaza de Quetzalcoatl,\u201d named after a feathered serpent in Mexican mythology.<\/p>\n

Situated on Market Street, the 2.3-acre square has long been the heart of downtown, hosting well-attended events like Christmas in the Park, the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest, and Music in the Park.<\/p>\n

Once a town square during California\u2019s Spanish era, it was known as San Jose Plaza and Plaza Park before being named for Ch\u00e1vez in 1993.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From serious proposals like Steve Jobs Plaza to more comedic takes like Parky McParkFace, hundreds of ideas missed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[418,181,23,100,1725,8257,88,5500,90,89,420],"class_list":["post-507820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-history","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-parks","tag-pop-music","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-city-council","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507820","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=507820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}