City council gets an earful over name change study
Some residents strongly oppose changing 'Persian' to 'Mandir'
By Jana Seshadri
"Leave it alone," the crowd shouted in unison when Sunnyvale Mayor Fred Fowler asked residents of Willow Ranch Mobile Home Park for suggestions for the "right way" to change the name of Persian Drive to Mandir Drive.
There wasn't one dissenting voice among the packed hall during the Sunnyvale City Council outreach neighborhood meeting on May 4; they clearly stated in no uncertain terms that they did not want the name Persian Drive to be changed.
Officials of the Sunnyvale Hindu Temple, first established in 1994 and situated on Persian Drive, submitted an application to the council requesting that the city change the name of the street to Mandir Drive. The word "Mandir," of ancient Sanskrit origin, means "temple" in several Indian languages, the officials explained at the council meeting on Feb. 12. The issue is under study, as per the council's vote.
"They know what the name of the street was when they moved in many years ago," said Bruce Alexander, a resident of neighboring Foxhollow Mobile Home Park, located at 690 Persian Drive, who attended the Willow Ranch meeting. Willow Ranch is located at 1111 Morse Avenue.
"I would be very much against the name change," Alexander said.
Residents of the temple's surrounding neighborhoods cited several different reasons while expressing their disapproval of the name change.
Philip Santos said he first moved to the United States with the idea of blending in with the American way of life. Santos--an immigrant from the Philippines, a country that is 97 percent Catholic--has been a Sunnyvale resident for 25 years.
"The mere idea of changing the street name is revolting," said Santos, who resides in the neighboring Cape Cod Village.
Santos even went so far as to suggest that city officials might have indulged in unethical practices--which is not uncommon in the Philippines--and would succumb to the temple officials' request.
"If somebody has passed something under the table, then pass it back," Santos said.
Fowler immediately responded, "Nobody has passed anything to the council ... at least not to me."
To allay the residents' fears that the issue has already been resolved, Fowler explained the process under which the city staff is currently working.
"We are in the study phase now," Fowler added. "No decision has been made yet."
Vice Mayor Julia Miller explained that staff is working on developing criteria for public and private street name changes, after which the study of this issue would continue. It might take another few weeks for the Persian Drive study to be completed, Miller added.
There were suggestions of religious intolerance by some residents, who speculated that the Indian community would like to change the name Persian because of its Iranian, and therefore Islamic, origin.
"We have accepted the temple here," one resident said. "Why can't they accept the Islamic street name?"
One resident brought up the fact that Sunnyvale is a city with great diversity. In a city with many residents of Chinese, Vietnamese, African, Korean and Latino origins, one resident asked, "Are we going to accommodate all of these other communities?"
"What are we going to do when they want to change the name Sunnyvale to Bombay?" one resident asked.
Councilman Manuel Valerio spoke about his Portuguese heritage and the need for all Sunnyvale residents to be accepting and respectful of one another's' religions and customs.
The Indian community could consider alternative options, a few residents suggested.
" 'Temple' signs could be placed all around the area, at major intersections near the temple," suggested Victor Schimmelfenning of Willow Ranch.
Fowler suggested that the council could consider changing the name of just a portion of the street, which would not adversely impact the communities surrounding the temple. One resident suggested that the city could consider naming the temple area and the adjoining shopping center Mandir Plaza.
Joe Eick, a resident of Foxhollow, said the temple could consider other names besides Mandir, which is not an English name.
"We should adopt only English names and no foreign names," Eick said.
"It's not that it's a Hindu name," said one resident. "It's the impracticality of it--costs for all the changes, etc."
Miller added that the city recently established policy guidelines for public and private street name changes that cover the financial aspects of the issue. Although the temple would incur all the application costs and fees, the financial responsibility for the physical street signs could fall on the residents of the surrounding neighborhoods if the council votes to change the street name, Fowler added.
"Why should the taxpayers pay for all the sign changes?" asked Joan Abela, a resident of Cape Cod Village.
Another resident pointed out that most of the people living in the three mobile home parks are senior citizens on fixed incomes, unable to afford extra expenses.
Ron Swegles and his wife, Gail, have lived in Willow Ranch for 10 years and are the community administrators at the park. According to Gail, there are approximately 350 residents in Willow Ranch, 275 in Cape Cod and 125 in Foxhollow.
"These residents did a lot of venting and some of them were personal attacks," Ron said. "But I thought the end of the meeting was positive."
"I love Hindus--they always have good manners," said Pete Lowe, manager of Foxhollow Park. "But this is different. Personally, I'm against the name change."
Neighborhood meetings such as the one in Willow Ranch give residents opportunities to talk unreservedly about their issues and concerns in an informal setting, Councilman John Howe said.
Howe, the newest member on the city council, was instrumental in starting the council outreach program, in which neighborhood associations can invite city council members to their meetings.
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
