Turlock street may get 2nd name
Modesto Bee 4/10/07
San Francisco has Army Street/César Chávez. Why can't Turlock have Monte Vista/University Avenue? Mayor John Lazar will bring the question to the City Council today, which likely will refer it to the Planning Commission for community input.
Stanislaus State President Hamid Shirvani advocated the name change last year as a way to better integrate the university with the city and increase the school's Highway 99 visibil-ity. But business owners voiced dismay over the idea of changing stationery, signage, advertising, computer systems and customer associations with the Monte Vista name. City officials planned to hold a town meeting on the issue, but it never materialized.
With a joint name or "rider," the university can market the area any way it wants and business won't be saddled with change-of-address costs, Lazar said Monday. Both names would appear on street signs.
"It's a good approach to this contentious issue until the community decides to change the name or decides not to," Lazar said. Another option would be renaming just the strip of Monte Vista in front of the university.
The Planning Commission will feel out community interest through its public meetings, the mayor said.
Larry Speer of Speer Floors in Monte Vista Plaza said in September that changing Monte Vista Avenue to University Avenue would hurt his business, but he's not opposed to the two-name solution.
"I can't think of why I'd have a problem with that, as long as I didn't have to change my business address," he said.
Other business owners in the plaza agreed: Ifit doesn't affect the postal address, they wouldn't oppose the addition.
"It could make for a very long name, but Ihave no problem identifying with the uni-versity," said Debbie Curtis of Curtis Insurance."My question would be if I went into MapQuest or Google, what would my address look like?"
Shirvani said incorporating a University Avenue into the city street system is a symbolic tip of the hat.
"It's a signifier for the town, that there's a major university in this town," Shirvani said. "But this way it doesn't affect the address, it doesn't affect businesses."
Whenever Davis or San Luis Obispo is mentioned, people think of those city's universities. Shirvani wants Turlock to produce the same effect.
"We don't want Chico," he said, referring to how Califor-nia State University, Chico, is viewed negatively by some.
Shirvani cited the new bus lineconnecting the university to downtown, his plan to locatefutureuniversityprograms in downtown buildings, the school's assistance to the homeless community through aBroadway Avenue resource center and the Fourth of July fireworks show as examples of the ongoing integration.
Will that integration go so far as a university name change, say to California State University, Turlock, as Lazar and other candidates mentioned during the November elections?
Shirvani laughed.
"You know my metaphor, that the city and the university are just dating and we want to be married?" he said. "Well, we're almost married. Let us be together for awhile."