The whole idea of renaming a Dallas street after Cesar Chavez has been going on so long now, I can’t even remember who first came up with the idea (although I’m pretty sure it was a group of Hispanic leaders, enabled by Mayor Tom Leppert, who was probably already eyeballing his big step up the political ladder back then). And I suppose it makes sense: The Hispanic leaders look like heroes to a few voters, and Leppert looks like a hero to Hispanic voters throughout the state, if none of these voters stop and really take a look at how little was "accomplished" here.

It’s pretty pathetic that after all of this time and effort and vitriole, the DMN is reporting that the street selected is a desolate few blocks of Central Expressway Downtown that no one really pays much attention to. The whole thing seems like more of a slap in the face to the people supporting the renaming than any kind of honor for Chavez. For more on how we arrived at this point, read our previous Back Talk posts here and here and here.

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The name change proposal now goes before the city plan commission for review Thursday prior to an eventual final approval vote by the city council.