Cesar Chavez Ceremonial Street Signage

Request City Council approval to install ceremonial street name signage recognizing
Cesar Chavez along Baseline Road at signalized intersections across City of Phoenix
limits.

THIS ITEM IS FOR DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION.

Summary
In celebration and remembrance of Cesar Chavez, the Street Transportation
Department received a request to install Ceremonial Street Name signs in his honor
along Baseline Road from 75th Avenue to 48th Street.

Biographical Information
Cesar Chavez was a Mexican-American labor leader and civil rights activist who
dedicated his life’s work to what he called "la causa" (the cause): the struggle of farm
workers in the United States to improve their working and living conditions through
organizing and negotiating contracts with their employers. Committed to the tactics of
nonviolent resistance that were also practiced by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther
King, Jr., Chavez founded the National Farm Workers Association (later the United
Farm Workers of America) and won important victories to improve working conditions
and raise pay for farm workers in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Cesario Estrada Chavez was born on March 31, 1927, in Yuma, Ariz. In the late 1930s,
after losing their homestead to foreclosure, he and his family joined more than 300,000
people who moved to California during the Great Depression and became migrant
farm workers. Before he was able to enter high school, Cesar began working in the
fields full time. This experience laid the foundation for his work to support farm
workers. In 1946, Chavez joined the U.S. Navy and served in a segregated unit for two
years. After his service, he returned to farm work.

In 1952, Chavez was working in a lumberyard when he became the grassroots
organizer for the Community Service Organization (CSO), a Latino civil rights group.
Over the next decade, Chavez worked to register new voters and fight racial and
economic discrimination, rising to become the CSO's National Director. Chavez


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resigned from the CSO in 1962 after other members refused to support his efforts to
form a labor union for farm workers. That same year, he used his life's savings to
found the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA). Using non-violent strikes and
boycotts, Chavez fought for better wages and working conditions.

In September 1965, the NFWA launched a strike against California’s grape growers
alongside the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), a Filipino-
American labor group. The strike lasted five years and expanded into a nationwide
boycott of California grapes. The boycott drew widespread support, thanks to the
highly visible campaign headed by Chavez, who led a 340-mile march from Delano to
Sacramento in 1966 and undertook a well-publicized 25-day hunger strike in 1968.
The grape strike and boycott ended in 1970, with the farm workers reaching a
collective bargaining agreement with major grape growers that increased the workers’
pay and gave them the right to unionize. The NFWA and AWOC merged in 1966 to
form the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, which in 1971 became the
United Farm Workers (UFW).

Throughout the 1970s, Chavez continued leading the union’s efforts to win labor
contracts for farm workers across the agricultural industry, employing the same
nonviolent techniques of strikes and boycotts. In 1972, he went on a second hunger
strike to protest an Arizona law banning farm workers from organizing and protesting.
That year, a group of Arizona union farm workers marched to the state capitol to
protest a law enacted to prohibit migrant workers from boycotting, striking, and
collective bargaining. Chavez joined the rally and made Santa Rita Hall near 11th
Street and Hadley Street his base of operations. It was there that he spent 24 days
fasting in protest. Today, Santa Rita Hall is owned by Chicanos Por La Causa and is
used for special community events as well as during the month of March to celebrate
Chavez' birthday. Thanks to the UFW’s efforts, California passed the landmark
Agricultural Labor Relations Act in 1975, giving all farm workers the right to unionize
and negotiate for better wages and working conditions. In the mid-1980s, Chavez
focused the UFW’s efforts on a campaign to highlight the dangers of pesticides for
farm workers and their children. In 1988, at the age of 61, he underwent his third
hunger strike, which lasted for 36 days.

Chavez died in his sleep on April 23, 1993, at the age of 66. The following year,
President Bill Clinton awarded him a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom, the
nation’s highest civilian honor.

This biographical information was based on a compilation of sources, including the
Cesar Chavez Foundation, Barriozona Magazine, and Cesar Chavez biographies.



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The blue ceremonial signs will read "Cesar Chavez Boulevard" (Attachment A) and
will be placed on the mast arms at the following 23 intersections along Baseline Road:
· 67th, 59th, 57th, 55th, 51st, 47th, 43rd, 41st, 39th, 35th, 27th, 19th, 7th and Central
Avenues;
· Jesse Owens Parkway; and
· 7th, 16th, 20th, 24th, 32nd, 40th, 46th and 48th Streets.

Financial Impact
The cost per intersection is approximately $800 (including fabrication and installation).
The total estimated cost for the signs at all 23 intersections is $17,200. The fabrication
and installation of the ceremonial signs will be completed by Street Transportation Sign
Shop staff, and the internal City costs of the ceremonial signs and funding is available
in the District 7 Council Office budget.

Location
Baseline Road from 75th Avenue to 48th Street
Council Districts: 6, 7 and 8

Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Deputy City Manager Mario Paniagua and the Street
Transportation Department.




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Attachment A




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Report

Maricopa Association of Governments Regional Homelessness Planning Efforts

This report provides Council the efforts underway to strengthen the regional response
to homelessness, focusing on the efforts undertaken by Maricopa Association of
Governments (MAG). In addition, MAG staff will provide a report of the work underway,
to receive feedback from Phoenix City Council on priorities, and to discuss the most
viable regional actions that will move people from homelessness to stability.

THIS ITEM IS FOR INFORMATION AND DISCUSSION.

Summary
The focus of the current efforts at MAG is to develop regional strategies that will
reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness, make homeless assistance
programs available in more communities throughout the entire region, and strengthen
the safety net for all people. Significant research and outreach are underway to inform
these efforts.

To date, more than 1,000 people from a variety of sectors have shared their
perspectives and priorities on this work. Research has resulted in the development of
a local inventory of strategies, analysis of national best practices, and a variety of
studies aimed at better understanding the various elements impacting homelessness,
including the financial commitment made now by municipalities, the role of law
enforcement, and existing considerations to address when implementing new
programs.

All of these efforts are driving toward the development of a regional portfolio of
strategies that will be offered for approval in May 2021. These strategies will address
action steps in the areas of housing, shelter, services, prevention/diversion, and
coordination. An implementation plan will be offered for approval in August 2021.

Both documents will be offered for approval to the Maricopa Regional Continuum of
Care Board, the MAG Management Committee, and the MAG Regional Council. In
addition to these groups, this work is supported by the Regional Collaborative on
Homelessness, a partnership among ASU Action Nexus on Homelessness, Arizona
Housing Coalition, MAG, Maricopa County, Valley of the Sun United Way, and Vitalyst


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Health Foundation.

Responsible Department
This item is submitted by City Manager Ed Zuercher and the Office of Government
Relations.




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