San Francisco has narrowed its search for a new street name to two choices honoring farmworkers rather than any single leader.
The city unveiled “Sí Se Puede” and “Las Campesinas” on Thursday as the finalists to replace Cesar Chavez Street, a roughly 3-mile roadway cutting through the Mission District. A 27-person working group selected the names after multiple meetings and a voting process, with the mayor’s office helping assemble representatives from the three supervisor districts the street traverses.
“Sí Se Puede” translates to “Yes, we can,” the United Farm Workers slogan co-created by Dolores Huerta. “Las Campesinas” means female farmworkers. Both options emerged deliberately free of any individual’s name.
The group explicitly avoided honoring a person following allegations that emerged earlier this year accusing labor leader Cesar Chavez of sexually abusing and raping multiple women and young girls. City Supervisor Susan Leal told Mission Local she hopes future generations will understand the name change as recognizing both the movement and “the very sad, very terrible experience of those girls and women.”
San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Joaquín Torres, who co-led the working group, said the panel plans to make a final recommendation next week. Official legislation to rename the road will then come from Supervisor Jackie Fielder’s office. The public can submit feedback through a form before the legislation advances.
Members of the working group said the names were designed to honor Latinos “in the midst of the pressures and traumas” of today’s political climate, an apparent nod to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The renaming carries a $107,000 price tag for sign replacements and sidewalk etchings, to be paid by the city. Moisés García, speaking on behalf of the mayor’s office at the community meeting, said the city will assist residents and businesses with address changes and official document updates over time.
Reaction has split between community meeting attendees, where support dominated, and social media, where critics pushed back. “How about Army Street? How is this so hard,” Kent Lindstrom wrote on X, reflecting a persistent sentiment among some residents.
The street bore the name Army Street until 1995, when the Board of Supervisors voted to change it to Cesar Chavez. That same year, residents placed a measure on the ballot to revert the name, but it failed by nearly 10 points. Many longtime residents still call it “Army” regardless.
On Facebook, some residents found “Sí Se Puede” too cumbersome to pronounce while praising “Las Campesinas” as an alternative. Others framed the proposed names as political performance. “The majority of people, especially native San Franciscans want it put back to its original name, ARMY ST,” one local wrote on Facebook. “Hopefully Assessor-Recorder Joaquin Torres will not buckle to the virtue signalers with names that don’t pertain to the heritage of San Francisco.”
Torres and the working group are expected to finalize their recommendation in the coming days.