Resident Commission Recommends New Name For Cesar Chavez Community Center

After months of collecting community feedback, the city of Riverside is one step closer to renaming a community center named after labor rights leader Cesar Chavez, who earlier this year was accused of sexual abuse.  

The Riverside Park and Recreation Commission Monday voted 5-2 to recommend the council rename the city-owned building as the Eastside Community Center.

“Arlanza, Casa Blanca, Eastside, this is how Riverside knows its locations,” Commissioner Oz Puerta said at the October 19 meeting. “I think it would speak to that neighborhood and that community better to name it the Eastside Community Center.” 

Noemi Lopez, the department’s deputy director, told the commission that the city collected more than 500 responses and that results showed 75% of surveyed residents said they wanted to explore a name change. More than half of respondents, she added, also wanted the name to prioritize either local history, cultural representation or community identity.

The commission ultimately ended up considering two potential names, University Heights Community Center or Eastside Community Center. 

The University Heights name stood out for its connection to the building’s previous life as University Heights Junior High School until 1976, when the city bought the facility. Some of the commissioners also felt the name Eastside retained strong cultural and community identity and that it would connect with the soon-to-be-completed SPC Jesus S. Duran Eastside Library a few yards away from the community center. 

After a lengthy debate among the resident-led advisory group, Commissioner Stephanie Schaefer moved to recommend the Eastside name for the council’s consideration.

Commissioners Kevin Dawson and Mark Jones voted against the decision. At the meeting, Dawson said he voted against the recommendation because he preferred to have the neighborhood vote on two finalists. 

“I wouldn’t want communities from other parts of the city trying to come into my community and start renaming things,” Dawson said. “I really want to defer as much as possible to a meeting of minds in the community.”

Deputy City Attorney Anthony Beaumon told the commissioners that, although they would be sending a recommendation straight to the council, the public would still have an opportunity to voice their opinions.

“We’re not foreclosing community involvement,” Beaumon said at the meeting. “What you’re saying is that, ‘We’re just going to recommend this to the city council,’ and then that can take on the life of its own, whatever happens there.”

Both the survey and the recommendation for a name change came months after a March New York Times investigation, which detailed several accusations against Chavez, alleging he sexually abused at least two teenagers in the 1970s. United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta also alleged she was sexually assaulted twice by him in the 1960s. 

In the weeks following the report, another individual, in an interview with Spanish-language news outlet La Opinión, alleged Chavez groomed and sexually assaulted them.

Days after the release of the bombshell investigation, communities nationwide began scrubbing Chavez’s name and likeness from public view. Riverside instead opted for a slower approach. 

Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson, the day after the allegations came to light, announced the city would remove an agenda item that would’ve initially proclaimed March 31 as Cesar Chavez Day and instead observe Farmworkers Day. She also called for a “thoughtful review” of the next appropriate steps regarding the city-owned community center, which is currently under renovation. 

The city held two community forums during the summer in a building adjacent to the fenced-off center. Staff also shared a survey online, while also conducting outreach to neighborhood groups. 

Art Alcaraz, a representative for the Riverside Latino Network, also gave an update to the commission regarding the future of the Cesar Chavez memorial statue located in downtown Riverside. 

The statue is on public property, but is owned by the Riverside Latino Network. City leaders have previously said the organization is responsible for deciding the memorial’s future. 

Alcaraz said the organization had also surveyed the community and begun consulting with the statue’s sculptor. He said a majority of respondents said they would like to see the statue modified in some way, and that the organization has three possible renditions drawn up if they ultimately decide to take that route. 

“We don’t know which option we’re going to choose, but whichever option we’re going to choose is going to cost us money,” Alcaraz told the commission. “It’s going to require a major fundraising campaign that we would probably launch sometime after [the] New Year or sometime in spring to start raising the money.”