West Valley City removes Cesar Chavez Drive signs; Ogden leaders still mulling issue

KEY TAKEAWAYS

West Valley City has removed commemorative Cesar Chavez Drive signs from 2320 South, paralleling action in Ogden and Salt Lake City.
The decision stemmed from sexual abuse allegations that emerged against Chavez last March.
Ogden leaders are still weighing whether to create a new commemorative designation for 30th Street in the city, previously known as Cesar Chavez Street.

WEST VALLEY CITY — Commemorative street signs in West Valley City honoring Cesar Chavez have been taken down, as in Ogden and Salt Lake City.

The signs that had the commemorative name "were removed so all the signs show the official street name, 2320 South," Sam Johnson, spokesman for West Valley City, said Wednesday. The determination to pull down the Cesar Chavez Drive signage "was an administrative decision," he said, and was not discussed at a City Council meeting.

Officials in Ogden, meantime, are still weighing whether to create a new commemorative designation for 30th Street in the city, known as Cesar Chavez Street before sexual abuse allegations against the late labor leader publicly emerged last March. Glenn Symes, executive director of the Ogden City Council, said city officials have been more focused of late on preparing the city's 2026-2027 budget, though he expects the future of 30th Street's commemorative name to come back up.

Ogden City Council Chairman Rich Hyer said he's put the question to Jesse Garcia, a former Ogden City Council member who championed creating the commemorative Cesar Chavez designation in 2003. Garcia has broached the idea of changing the commemorative designation to something like Farmworkers Way in recognition of the population Chavez helped during his years of organizing and activism on behalf of farm laborers.

The New York Times in March reported the allegations of sexual abuse against Chavez. Simultaneously, Dolores Huerta, who worked alongside Chavez in the farmworkers' rights movement, revealed that Chavez had pressured her into unwanted sex on two occasions, both leading to pregnancies.

The revelations prompted many locales and entities around the country to rethink decisions to name streets, buildings and more after the man. The Salt Lake City Council, in response, commemoratively named a portion of 500 South Dolores Huerta Boulevard. It had been commemoratively named Cesar Chavez Boulevard, but that signage was quickly removed.

In Ogden, city workers removed Cesar Chavez Street signage in late March or early April. However, the commemorative designation of 30th Street still remains Cesar Chavez Street, even if the signs are gone, because the resolution giving it the name remains on the books.

There's no word on whether West Valley City officials will take additional action. Part of 2320 South from 1000 West to Redwood Road received the commemorative Cesar Chavez Drive designation in 2013 at the request of the Utah AFL-CIO, according to the Deseret News.

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