Persia was the name of Iran until 1935, and many Iranians still describe their ethnicity and culture as Persian.

"Obviously we didn't do our homework," said Anita Gunsagar, secretary and co-founder of the Hindu Temple and Community Center, at the meeting. "We should have talked with members of all the involved communities before starting on this."

The approximately 90 community members who spoke at the meeting were residents and business owners on and along Persian Drive as well as members of both the Indian and Iranian communities.

Gunsagar said that she, along with the other temple officials, started this campaign almost a year ago. She said at the meeting that the intent was to gain recognition for the Indian community's accomplishments in Sunnyvale and make the temple more visible to the community at large. She added that their facility, located at 450 Persian Drive, is not only a place of worship but also a community center that holds activities, gatherings and classes for people of all ages and cultural backgrounds.

Wanting to change the name of the area of Persian Drive between Mathilda and Fair Oaks avenues to Mandir Drive was not a religiously motivated issue, Gunsagar said. "Mandir" means temple in many Indian languages.

More than 40 members of the Iranian community expressed their disapproval over changing the street's name, claiming emotional distress at the thought of losing their identity.

"I feel a sense of pride—I point the street out to my kids," said Majid Yekan at the meeting. "Don't take this sense of belonging away from us."

According to a staff report, when the street was named in the early 1950s, it could have been named after the Persian Gulf, which is consistent with the street names in that area that bear names of bodies of water. However, many of the Persians said at the meeting that the street could have been named after Persia.

"I am very proud of this street," said Nilou Salehi at the meeting. "This street has been here even before I came here."

Members of the Indian community pointed out that temple officials want only a part of the street to be renamed, to recognize the significance of the Hindu temple and the contributions of the Indian community to Sunnyvale.

"We're not asking to take the name 'Persian' away," said Nagesh Mehra at the meeting. "We just want to share it—to be a part of it."

Several Indians spoke about ethnic diversity in Sunnyvale and communities being able to live together in harmony. There were suggestions from the Indian community about using a split name, Persian/Mandir Drive, for the street.

"We're talking about accommodation and co-existence," said Nitin Shroff at the meeting.

However, many of the Iranian-Americans at the meeting said they view the issue differently. A large population of immigrants from Persia has lived in India peacefully for many centuries, and many Iranians work and live among Indians in the Bay Area, they said. However, although there is no physical presence of anything Persian on Persian Drive in Sunnyvale, many said at the meeting that just the name conjures up strong emotions.

At the Iranian community's request, a meeting was held on Nov. 11 between Sunnyvale Mayor Fred Fowler, Councilman John Howe and more than 30 members of the Iranian community at the Sunnyvale Community Center. Iranian-Americans voiced their concerns about the justification of the street name change and suggested alternatives for recognizing the Indian community's contributions. They also stated at that meeting that they were not aware of this request by the temple and found out about it just a week prior.

"Only because the name is 'Persian' are people getting involved and mobilized," said Sunnyvale resident Aram Azadpour after the Nov. 11 meeting. "There must be a non-religious way of doing this with less impact."

Quoting instances where Iranians have been the targets of persecution, many members of the Iranian community said Persian Drive makes them feel they have a home in Sunnyvale and taking that away would be a slight.

Darab Ghaffary, a member of the Sunnyvale board of building code appeals, said he has experienced a lot of prejudice in the United States since 1972, when he first moved here from Iran. Ghaffary explained he was fingerprinted and questioned by U.S. officials during the hostage crisis in Iran in the early 1970s and feels insecure even now.

"As Persians—as Iranians—we have experienced a lot of bad feelings because of what our government is doing—especially after Sept. 11," he said at the meeting. "Changing this street name would be another incident of prejudice."

Members of the Iranian community said at the meeting that there isn't enough justification to make a change of this significance. All involved parties should also benefit from the change, they said.

"Whenever a change is proposed, there have to be compelling reasons for it," Bijan Dastmalchi said. "And the result has to be a win-win situation. Do not trade off one respectable part of this community at the expense of isolating or rejecting another respectable part."

Azadpour asked at the meeting whether, by recognizing one community's request, the city might not "harm or cause emotional distress" to other communities.

"This is not a good precedent," said Shannon Liaghat at the meeting, adding that approval of this request could spark a slew of other street name change requests from other communities.

Business owners from Persian Drive, including Bruce La Fountain, owner of SpinPro Inc., and George Crisel, general manager of the Brass Rail, said changing the street's name would have a huge financial impact on their businesses. City staff stated at the meeting that the Hindu temple officials have offered to take financial responsibility and reimburse the city and the businesses for all costs incurred as a result of this change. However, a financial assessment has not been made so far, and costs could run well into several thousand dollars, Crisel said.

Although there was no recommendation on this issue by city staff, there were a number of options for council members to consider. They included creating a private driveway for the temple, improving signage for more visibility, changing the name of all of Persian Drive to "Mandir Drive" or working with temple officials to change the temple complex to a Morse Avenue address.

But, at the end of the public hearing, even before council members could discuss alternatives, temple officials requested a withdrawal of their application, which was welcomed with applause by the audience.

"The idea was not to step on anyone's toes or hurt any other community in any way whatsoever," said Anita Gunsagar after the meeting. "Had we known that the Iranian community felt so passionately about this issue, we would have come out differently," she said.

"The temple committee feels strongly about this request," said Annie Dandavati-Chandra, founding member of Coalition 2001, at the meeting. "But nothing is worth splitting up our community."

Members of the Indian community said that they feel strongly about living in harmony with their neighbors and other community members.

"We thought the application withdrawal would be in the best interest of our community," said Naranji Patel, president of the temple, after the meeting.

Gunsagar said the next step will be to work closely with all the other involved communities, including the senior residents, businesses and the Iranian community, and come up with some kind of a resolution.