Barack Obama Boulevard idea hits roadblock among Milipitas leadership

S.J. City Council, however, votes for plan to honor former U.S. president

MILPITAS >> Anyone waiting on Milpitas leaders to follow through on their intention to rename a portion of a major street after President Barack Obama can stop holding their breath.

Though the name change was vigorously supported in 2019 by councilmembers Anthony Phan and Karina Dominguez, and then- Councilman Bob Nuñez, the idea was put on the back burner after those same backers later labeled it a low priority.

It has been “deferred indefinitely” since the middle of 2020, according to city staff and Phan.

It appears Mayor Rich Tran’s opposition to the idea and pushback from some community members are why the idea stalled.

Nuñez and Phan originally proposed the name change at a September 2019 council meeting, saying it was an important move that would honor Obama, inspire youth and bring recognition and pride to the city.

At the time, Nuñez also said he wanted Milpitas to be the first in Santa Clara County to name a road in Obama’s honor. But they lost that chance when the San Jose City Council on Tuesday approved renaming about 4,300 feet of roadway near downtown as Barack Obama Boulevard, after a lengthy effort by some community members pushing for it.

When Nuñez first proposed the name change, the council voted 3-2 to support renaming a portion of Dixon Landing Road that crosses Interstate 880 to Barack Obama Boulevard.

Tran opposed it and called it “embarrassing” during the meeting because the road leads to a dump, the Newby Island Landfill, long believed by many residents to be a major source of stench in the city.

Councilwoman Carmen Montano opposed it on the grounds of “historical preservation,” as the road is currently named after Matthew Dixon, a gold rush- era settler.

Later, at a January 2020 special meeting, Nuñez, Phan and Dominguez told staff the project was not a priority.

“It’s no place ready yet, from my point of view, to be moved on,” Nuñez said at the meeting.

“I think that it’s not an urgent need right now to be prioritized. Just keep it on the radar and we’ll get back to it later, if that works,” Phan said.

“I do believe that it’s important for the

overall city, but I definitely think it’s not on our priority list,” Dominguez said.

Montano also pointed out the city could consider naming a new street in one of several new developments in the city after Obama, instead of renaming Dixon Landing Road or any other road. Nuñez agreed.

Nuñez has countered an assertion that he asked city staff in May 2020 to skip over any further discussions about the name change at a June 2020 meeting.

During an interview, Nunez said he was under the impression the name change was only temporarily on hold, and that the council was waiting for staff to come back with more alternatives and information about how to proceed.

However, in an email attachment sent to City Manager Steve McHarris in May 2020, Nuñez wrote by hand “we already said no” near the Obama name change proposal on a list of several pending items for the council to consider, according to a city document seen by this news organization.

Nuñez lost his council seat in the November election.

Phan, for his part, said though he initially clung “tooth and nail” to the road name change proposal, he reconsidered in light of Tran’s feelings about the project, and what he said was a “relatively substantive” amount of community pushback to the idea after it passed.

“I have no problem disagreeing with the mayor, I’ve disagreed with him on many occasions. This one in particular though, I’m mindful of his strong opposition to it. And to me, maintaining a relationship with my colleagues is sometimes more important than testy battles,” he said in an interview this week.

“I don’t know if (the proposal) will come back, it’s certainly not my immediate priority,” Phan said.

“If we were to revisit it, we’d probably look at a different location,” Phan said, because Dixon Landing Road leads to a landfill.

Pastor Jethroe Moore, the president of the NAACP of Silicon Valley, of which Nuñez is vice president, said it feels like he was “getting a lot of hot smoke” from the Milpitas leaders about the name change, now that they have deferred it indefinitely.

“For me, to put up an Obama Boulevard in San Jose or Milpitas or anywhere is to remember and hold fast Black history,” he said.

Tran, in an interview, said the road renaming idea was rushed, and there weren’t community meetings or outreach about it, so he’s not surprised to see it being put off indefinitely.

“That’s the road to the largest landfill in the Bay Area, and that’s not an appropriate match for a former president,” Tran said.

He also said “Milpitas is not a clear and true Democratic town, we’re a very split town,” so naming a street after a Democratic president could be difficult.

Tran has long credited Obama as his political inspiration, so much so that he lifted passages from Obama’s 2008 acceptance speech into his own mayoral inauguration address in 2016, but he has consistently opposed naming a road after him in Milpitas.

“I have never seen any city business item receive so much attention as the renaming of Dixon Landing, but I am okay with the project not moving forward,” Tran said.

Moore said he hopes the San Jose name change won’t get “hung up” in politics like the Milpitas one has.

“I would never go into politics,” Moore said. “They don’t keep their word, they do what’s politically expedient.”