I was outraged when I heard this on the noon Channel 8 broadcast. Hispandering at it's worst. We have sooo many Texas heroes that we can re-name our freeways after that we don't need one named after Caesar Chavez.

And I guess I've never heard of that particular area being called "Little Mexico" before, but that is DEFINITELY what it has turned into. You drive down Northwest Highway near Love Field Airport and it's all Latino businesses, Spanish signs, and new banks with big signs out front saying they take matricular ID cards. You feel like you're in another country for a couple of miles. The area used to be full of strip clubs and bars, but once they were run off, the Latino business came in and overtook the area. No improvement of the area in my mind (actually, a co-worker of mine was murdered in the parking lot of one of those strip clubs around 5 years ago). It's still a bad area of town to drive through.

Luckily I found an article on the subject. Read away.

TexasGal


http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... c683a.html


Neil Emmons: Rename the Dallas North Tollway after César Chávez

07:54 PM CDT on Sunday, August 17, 2008

In Dallas' quest to name some roadway -- Industrial Boulevard, Ross Avenue, Live Oak Street -- after César Chávez, City Plan Commissioner Neil Emmons offers another idea altogether:

Name the Dallas North Tollway after the late labor leader.

"It makes perfect sense to me," Mr. Emmons told the Dallas City Hall Blog on Sunday.

To read why he thinks so, click on the jump, where Mr. Emmons, an appointee of District 14 City Council member Angela Hunt, explains his rationale:

If Ross Avenue is not renamed, I have been wondering why the Dallas North Tollway, which goes right through the heart of Little Mexico, and near to St. Ann's School and Luna Tortilla Factory (I think) -- the two major designated Hispanic Dallas landmarks -- should not be renamed César Chávez Tollway?

This would be a far more important presence. AND it was this tollway that basically wiped out the important and well-established early community and caused it to relocate.

This could be accomplished easily I would think with the turnpike authority, and would commemorate the physical location and beginnings of the strong Hispanic business community in Dallas, and this early history.

There is a precedent to naming a toll road in the naming of George Bush toll road.

Dallas North Tollway is not a historic name -- it was built on the tracks of the Cotton Belt Railroad.

I believe that a major street (more akin to Industrial Boulevard, which is six-lane divided) or a major highway or a toll road would be a fitting tribute.

With the growing number of toll roads around the area, giving them each a name for ease of location is an important step in making them more easily locatable for new users.

Most people do not even know the name of the Dallas North Tollway (indeed I am not certain I even have it correct here.) But it is no longer "the tollroad" as so many folks call it -- and to continue to call it this as additional toll roads are added causes confusion.

This road is many miles long. It has multiple direction markers located all along its length which could carry the César Chávez name on them.

It would be a major presence and also name a road that essentially has no real name today.

Neil Emmons
Dallas City Plan Commission, District 14