WFAA-TV

Council member Mitchell Rasansky stormed out of the committee meeting.

DALLAS — The July 4th fireworks came a few weeks early at Dallas City Hall Tuesday when what started as an attempt at civic unity erupted into a divisive issue.

The issue is a proposed name change for Industrial Boulevard, the gateway to the new Trinity River project.

The City Council's schedule was for its Trinity River Corridor Project Committee to recommend and vote for one name to re-label Industrial Boulevard, but the process that was supposed to bring a city together instead left council members upset and divided.

As part of the plan, the city staff conducted a public online survey to get citizens involved in the process. There were more than 20,000 votes cast, and the winning name was César Chávez Boulevard, honoring the Hispanic farm and labor civil rights leader.

Hispanic council members wanted the Chávez name to be considered by the committee Tuesday, but District 13 Councilman Mitchell Rasansky, who is Jewish, objected, calling it part of a political agenda. He made a motion to rename the street "Riverfront Boulevard."

That set up a testy exchange between Rasansky and District 2 Councilwoman Pauline Medrano.

"In the Jewish community, with all respect, no matter how young or how old, they will remind you that this would never happen again," Medrano said. "Mr. Rasansky, you know, in the Hispanic community, César Chávez is respected."

"I think you are completely out of line to even mention the Holocaust — completely out of line," Rasansky replied. "I understand your feelings; Chávez was a great person, a great person — but in my mind, the two do not correlate to one another."

Rasansky then stormed out of the meeting and did not return.

Medrano later said she intended no disrespect to her fellow council member or to the Jewish religion in her remarks.

With council members now upset, divided, and frustrated that this process has dissolved into a controversy over culture and religion, the committee postponed a final decision on renaming Industrial Boulevard until August 5.

One potential political solution would be to rename another street near Industrial Boulevard in honor of César Chávez. That could leave enough votes on the Trinity River Corridor Project Committee and on the full City Council to support a name change to Riverfront Boulevard.

E-mail bwatson@wfaa.com