Citing racist connection, SF changes Phelan Avenue to Frida Kahlo Way

A sign on Ocean Avenue directs where to turn for Phelan Avenue. San Francisco supervisors voted Tuesday to rename the street in the Ingleside as Frida Kahlo Way. A sign on Ocean Avenue directs where to turn for Phelan Avenue. San Francisco supervisors voted Tuesday to rename the street in the Ingleside as Frida Kahlo Way. Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Citing racist connection, SF changes Phelan Avenue to Frida Kahlo Way 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Phelan Avenue, a short stretch of roadway lining the west side of City College of San Francisco’s Ocean Campus, will be rechristened as Frida Kahlo Way following a unanimous vote by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

The street extends for less than half a mile from Ocean Avenue north to Flood Avenue in the Ingleside neighborhood. It was named after James Phelan, a 19th century real estate and wheat mogul, around 1906. But over the years it has become more closely associated with Phelan’s son, James Duval Phelan, who served as San Francisco’s mayor from 1897 to 1902 and later in the U.S. Senate.

The younger Phelan promoted racist and anti-immigrant policies throughout his career, including the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Immigration Act of 1924, which limited immigration from China and Japan to the U.S. During an unsuccessful run for a second term in the Senate, Phelan ran on a slogan of keeping “California white,” proclaiming the need to save the state from “Oriental aggression.”

To some, having the Phelan name on the street was a tacit endorsement of a racist stain on San Francisco’s history.

“We must know our history in order to not repeat the mistakes of our past,” said Supervisor Norman Yee, who represents the Ingleside and introduced the resolution to change the name. Yee’s office also organized an outreach campaign soliciting public input on what the street ought to be called.

Stripping the Phelan name is the latest instance of San Francisco taking steps to remove reminders of the darker side of its history.

Last year, the city scrubbed former redevelopment Director Justin Herman’s name from the plaza across from the Ferry Building because of his role in bulldozing the Fillmore’s African American neighborhood in the name of urban renewal. City panels are also considering removing a 124-year-old statue from Civic Center, “Early Days,” that shows a vaquero and Spanish friar standing over a supine American Indian.

Kahlo, a Mexican artist who died in 1954 at age 47, is seen by her supporters as a fitting contrast to Phelan’s racist legacy. In addition to being a woman of color, Kahlo is celebrated in the LGBTQ community and has become an inspirational figure for people living with disabilities because of her struggles stemming from childhood polio and injuries from a car crash.

Kahlo was also married to the muralist Diego Rivera, whose “Pan American Unity Mural” hangs in City College’s nearby campus. Rechristening the street after Kahlo, Yee said, was appropriate for a city that prides itself on values of “inclusion and respect for diversity.”

Now that the board has signed off on the name change, the Municipal Transportation Agency can begin installing new street signs. Under city law, the signs will contain both names for five years before Phelan’s name is shed entirely. “Frida Kahlo Way” will appear in large letters on the interim signs, with “Phelan Avenue” in smaller letters below it.

The 22 residents who live on the street have five years to change their addresses. Some Phelan Avenue residents wrote to the board to oppose the name change.

“Our history is full of good and bad, and we don't tolerate racism and hatred, but abolishing the name Phelan from our street is only erasing history and perpetuating hate,” said Bonnie White, a Phelan Avenue resident who opposed the name change.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa