The Portland City Council is poised this week to weigh whether to fast-track a renaming of César E. Chávez Boulevard to Campesinos Boulevard after explosive sexual abuse allegations against the revered farmworker union leader emerged earlier this spring.
Proponents say the extraordinary allegations against Chávez — that he assaulted young girls and fellow farmworker leader Dolores Huerta — are so deeply upsetting that Portlanders would like to quickly scrub his name off the major thoroughfare on Portland’s eastside.
But a slew of residents say they would prefer the street’s name revert to 39th Avenue, its moniker until 2009, when the City Council unanimously adopted the name César E. Chávez after three years of contentious and at times racist debate…