IMAGE: Jonathan Hill

Renaming Broadway for labor icon César E. Chávez would cost tens of thousands of dollars more than renaming either Grand or 39th avenues, because it has more street signs that would need changing.

But on Monday night, business owners and residents along 39th Avenue weren’t debating the $100,000 price of a proposed name change to 39th, which already has sufficient city money set aside for it. They were at Hollywood Theatre to argue the historical significance of 39th Avenue precludes the City Council from changing the street to César E. Chávez Boulevard.

Their arguments for keeping the name ran the spectrum from inane to insanely racist, although their overall tenor was tempered compared to the 2007 debate around renaming North Interstate Avenue for Chávez.

One man noted that the first gas-powered bus route traversed 39th Avenue, a historical factoid that would presumably lose its value if the street’s name were changed. A woman claimed the French knew 39thAvenue was the entrance to Laurelhurst Park. Another man said the proposed renaming amounted to pandering, adding, bizarrely, “We had a Negro as our student body president in 1953, and we loved him.”

The April 6 meeting was the last of three public hearings for the panel to consider the appropriateness of renaming either Broadway, Grand or 39th avenues. The panel will meet again April 20 before forwarding a recommendation to the Planning Commission, which will accept public comment at its April 28 meeting. After the commission makes a recommendation, city commissioners have the final say.