San Jose rescinds controversial name
(03-05) 08:02 PST SAN JOSE — They were older, most of them refugees who had fled Vietnam decades ago. One after another, they walked to the podium at San Jose City Hall and gave testimony that for many marked a personal first: participating in a public hearing.
One thousand people showed up for the meeting Tuesday night, drawn by a passionate controversy over what to call the mile-long strip of primarily Vietnamese restaurants and shops on Story Road between Highway 101 and Senter Road.
Most pleaded for the council to name the stretch Little Saigon to honor the fallen capital city of their homeland, and the Little Saigon that has become their home.
“Little Saigon … is part of what we left behind,” said Andy Pham of San Jose. “I’m angry … the council is ignoring us.”
After hours of testimony, the council finally voted 10-1 to rescind the controversial name approved last June, “Vietnamese Business District.” But the council members sought to avoid future controversy and stopped short of renaming the area, instead ending discussion around 1:45 a.m. and directing staff to create a process for naming areas and districts in San Jose in the future.
“The council expressly resolves that it recognizes the widespread support for the name ‘Little Saigon’ in the broader Vietnamese-American community,” read the motion. “Nonetheless, the council also determines that it is up to local members of any future business district to decide what they want to call their district.”
With more than 350 residents signed up to testify at the public hearing, Mayor Chuck Reed limited each speaker to one minute, then urged them to try to deliver their message in less than a minute. But many spoke broken English - and some spoke in their native Vietnamese.
When a translator tried to translate, Reed politely told the translator not to bother - he had heard the words “Little Saigon.”
“It’s pretty clear what they said. I don’t think we need a translation,” the mayor said.
The dispute over what to call the 1-mile strip is as puzzling to outsiders as it is all-consuming to certain members of the Vietnamese American community.
It all started last year, when the City Council proposed designating the area an official Vietnamese business district and allocated $100,000 for signs and banners. At first, the council suggested what it believed to be the noncontroversial name of Vietnam Business District.
In November, following a prolonged outcry, the council changed the proposed name to Saigon Business District, only to find that the name still did not satisfy those who favored Little Saigon.
Last month, city lawmakers decided to rescind the November vote and put the matter before voters. But a week later, Reed and Councilwoman Madison Nguyen - who originally proposed naming the district - changed their minds and said an election would be too expensive and divisive.
For former citizens of South Vietnam who came to the United States during the Vietnam War, the issue represents nothing less than who they are, where they came from and how their old homeland is regarded and remembered by their new one.
In Vietnam, Saigon is no longer Saigon. It was renamed Ho Chi Minh City after anti-communist South Vietnam fell at the end of the war and was combined with the communist north into one country.
To some in San Jose, the name Vietnam Business District, as first proposed by the council, would have been a further slight to the memory of Saigon and a further slap at their past.
Crowds squeezed between police barricades to form a line outside City Hall on Tuesday before the meeting. Some people wore stickers with the South Vietnamese flag and the name “Little Saigon,” and some made placards to show their support of the name.
“Little Saigon identifies our community,” said San Jose resident Hieu Tran. “We will not forget. It has to be that name, Little Saigon. We have Little Saigons elsewhere, and we need our own in San Jose.”
Only a few people in the crowd carried signs supporting the mayor.
“Little Saigon is a symbol - it’s like our identity,” said Barry Do, leader of San Jose Voters for Democracy. “We are the political refugees. We will never forget why we are here.”
But to the new generation of Vietnamese Americans, the name is something only their parents and grandparents could fret over. There were few younger people in the crowds Tuesday night. Most appeared to be older, first-generation Vietnamese refugees.
Reed is among those surprised by the fervor of the outcry.
“I never expected this much difficulty with what seemed to me to be a simple thing,” he said.
Nguyen, the first Vietnamese American elected to the San Jose City Council, said she did not want to take sides between the Little Saigon and the Saigon Business District proponents. Some 110,000 Vietnamese Americans live in Santa Clara County, the largest community outside Orange County.
“Little Saigon gives them something to remember their heritage,” said San Jose resident Sammy Castillo, who showed up to the meeting to support the Little Saigon name. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”
E-mail Steve Rubenstein at srubenstein@sfchronicle.com.
