Name Change of Persian Dr. in Sunnyavale to a Hindu Name

UPDATE Nov 15, 2002 (San Jose Mercury)

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/news/4525755.htm

Posted on Fri, Nov. 15, 2002

Sunnyvale ponders street-name clash
HINDUS WANT TO BE ON THE MAP, TOO
By Michael Bazeley
Mercury News

It's just a little ol' street in Sunnyvale, barely a mile long.

But when leaders of the Hindu Temple and Community Center asked the city to ditch Persian Drive and rename it Mandir Drive after the Hindi name for ``temple,'' it sparked an emotional feud of national pride between local Indo- and Iranian-Americans.

Sunnyvale Mayor Fred Fowler, whose city is suddenly at the center of a cultural debate, said the dispute underscores how important seemingly innocuous landmarks can be to some ethnic groups.

``What's in a name? What's so special about some signs?'' Fowler said. ``The issue is tangible recognition that the Indian community exists, and that they have an indelible mark on the city's landscape. What's in a name? Well, a heck of a lot, it turns out.''

Stunned by a sudden outburst of objections by local Iranians, the temple withdrew its proposal this week, during a drawn-out city council hearing that stretched well past midnight. But temple officials still plan to pursue their request.

Both sides say they want a compromise. But they are also equally adamant that their heritage and cultural contributions somehow be represented along the nondescript, two-lane road that abuts Highway 237.

The Hindu Temple, which has occupied a sprawling office building at 430 Persian Drive for a decade, first asked for the name change in January.

``We are 11 percent of the population of Sunnyvale, and this is one of the largest community centers in Northern California,'' said Naranji Patel, president of the temple that serves 5,300 families. ``We thought we could get recognition from the city for this, and that might bring more people to the temple, and we could leave a legacy for our children.''

Late last week, though, local Iranians got wind of the proposal to banish the historical name of their homeland from city maps. Iran was called Persia for centuries until 1935, and ``Persian'' is still used to refer to a language and ethnicity.

``The word Persian resonates with profound meaning to Iranians, the way Thomas Jefferson resonates with Americans,'' said Shahin Tabrizi, former president of the Persian Center in Berkeley. ``Persian has deep emotions for us.''

Tabrizi and others started organizing via e-mail, and on Tuesday, about 300 people attended the council meeting to explain why Persian Drive was so important.

``I saw the street the second month I was here, and I have an attachment to it,'' said Ali Salehifar of Santa Clara. ``It happens to be the only street name that I can point to and say, `This is about me.' ''

Persian Drive is an unremarkable patch of asphalt bordered by a sound wall on one side and stretches of wood fencing on the other. There are no homes or sidewalks and just a dozen businesses.

City officials say they believe that the street was renamed from Alviso to Persian Drive about 50 years ago, probably after the Persian Gulf. Other nearby streets are also named for bodies of water.

For months, the proposal faced the same sort of objections as other name changes. Nearby residents said they would be inconvenienced. And business owners complained about the cost of and headache associated with a new address.

In September, temple officials amended their request by asking to rename about two-thirds of Persian Drive, between Mathilda and Fair Oaks avenues.

Iranian-Americans say they are especially sensitive to the name change because of anti-Middle Eastern sentiment in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

``This is something where it feels like an another attack on us,'' Salehifar said.

Temple officials say they meant no disrespect. And local Iranians are grateful that the temple withdrew its request. Both sides are trying hard to be conciliatory and polite.

``We never talked with them before, and they surprised us,'' Patel said. ``We didn't want to fight with them.''

But a compromise will not be easy. City officials have suggested the temple create a private Mandir Drive on its property. Others prefer renaming Morse Avenue, adjacent to the temple. But temple officials are adamant about renaming at least a section of Persian Drive.

``What are they so attached to? The sound wall?'' temple treasurer Raj Bhanot asked of local Iranians. ``They don't come out here. They don't walk around here.''

For their part, Iranian-Americans are having trouble envisioning a solution that forces them to give up any part of Persian Drive. Susan Akbarpour, founder of an Iranian professionals networking group, said both sides have too much in common to spar over a street name.

``We can definitely come up with a solution ourselves,'' Akbarpour said. ``We don't have to have an issue like this. We are both ethnic communities contributing to the larger community, and we both want to be happy.''

Contact Michael Bazeley at mbazeley@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5642.

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UPDATE NOV 13 (After Nov 12th Meeting)

> Hello friends,

> The purpose of this message is:

> 1) Thank each and everyone of you for your continued support,

> love, and affection. I, for one, am very proud to be part of such a community

> where weget together at times of need and see it to conclusion. Many thanks to

> everybody.

> 2) Give a brief report of what happened last night:

> The meeting started at 7:30 PM, but the council had a number of

> agendas on their plate. The majority had shown up for the name change of Persian

> Drive to Mandir Drive. The council members got to a few of their items, and

> finally started the hearings at 8:15 PM on this issue.

> We heard pros and cons from all sides. I say "all" sides because

> there were Indians, Persians, and most importantly businesses with their agenda.

> I have to be honest and say some of the arguments were quite humorous, but I

> won't go into details of it.

> The meeting finished at 1:40 AM with the following result:

> The Indian temple decided to pull their application, and asked for

> more time; which a period of 12 months was granted. After wasting eveyone's

> time, lots of energy, and a lot of valuable resources, this is a win-win-win

> decision for the following resons:

> 1) Persian Drive stays as Persian Drive (WIN)

> 2) The businesses don't have to deal with the cost and headaches

> of addresschanges (WIN)

> 3) The Indian temple made lots of new friends, who are willing to

> work with them and come up with a better solution than what they had proposed

> (WIN).

> The only draw back is that we have to continue working on this

> until the issue disappears for good; otherwise, we will have to revisit this for

> years to come! However, this is a small price to pay considering the

> consequences.

> So, in short CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL.

> Going forward: Let's hope that we will keep this unity,

> cooperation, and wonderful spark that was generated on this issue. It is wonderful to

> see so many Persians working together so well, be united, allow one another

> to speak their minds, pull it together in a very short notice, and pull it

> through all the way.

> Once again, many thanks to each and everyone of you for all your

> support. Without you, this would not have happened and the results might have

> turned out to be different. God bless you, all.

> Best of regards,

> Mehrdad, better known as Mikey Joon!

> P.S. Please, feel free to forward this message to anybody you see

> necessary. I apologize for missing many people, but I posted to all the available

> e-mail addresses, and the Sun Iranians alias.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

UPDATE NOV 12

Time and Location:
Tuesday Nov. 12, 2002 at 7:30 Sunnyvale City hall
456 W Olive Ave, Sunnyvale, CA 408-730-7500

Hello all,

It was so good to see so many Iranian get together on such short
notice.

This meeting is open to ALL concerned residents. Clearly, it will
make a persons point of view more effective, if they are a Sunnyvale
resident, but that is not a requirement. If you plan to attend, and
the more the better, please read this entire outline of our discussion
on Monday night. What is most important if you go to the podium to
talk and we can not over-emphasis this, is to:

-Not say anything that may be considered offensive, something
as simple as using language that would say "we are this way, and they
are that way" could be construed as such. Instead please emphasis on
what you think, without insulting the other side. We do not wish to
turn this to a battle of cultures.

Time and Location:
Tonight meeting is at 7:30 and that one is at city hall
456 W Olive Ave, Sunnvyale, CA      408-730-7500

Please be there by 7:00 so we can put our name on the list. If you
get there prior to 7:00 please still put your name on the list. If you
don't go to talk someone may need the slot.

So here's the plan of action:

As we discussed last night and reached a collective decision, we will
have 8 individuals, whose name appear on the "To" line, to each focus
on one or two aspects of why our community is against the propostion
to change the name of a section of a street known as Persian Drive.

Since the main reason by original petitioner to change the name had
an emotional argument, namely that her mother does not feel she is
part of the community so long as the part of the road in which her
place of worship is localted in, is renamed, it is equally important
for our group to counter this argument by stating that:

One groups recognition in a society should not come at the expense of
another group. For this several of our representatives will focus
on this aspect. To share our sentiment as Iranian living in bayarea
about this name change and the symbolic message that is conveyed to
our community if this change takes place. (meaning, if one community
feels more welcomed by this name change and recognized and the city
council is willing to go with that,

From a logical/rational point of view, another group will focus on:

1. Precdent that changing the name of a street will set
   Should every block of a road be called after the group of people
   who may happen to reside in that block?

2. The overhead and inconveninces this approach will cause in the future

3. Based on the reason this petion was filed, if one community
   feels more welcomed by this name change, doesn't that also imply
   another community should therefore feel less welcomed? How should
   this be interpretd by our community?

4. The impact of this on our VOTING Iranian-American residents of Sunnyvale. :-)

As a last resort, we also dicussed alternatives, for instance to rename the other end of
the Persian drive, as an exchange. My personal reservation about any proposed
exchange is that, it must take effect concurrently. It is important that if
we want to solve this issue with some sort of compromise, we should tie it all together.
That way the momentom our Indian friends are carrying can be leveraged to have a
fair solution.

If I forgot anything, it is due to the fact that the paper I wrote my note on along
with some email addressed were taken away, please feel free to add.

--hamid