Trump Avenue? Hialeah Mayor Proposes Naming Street After Ex-President

The last time Hialeah considered renaming a street, “Donald J. Trump Avenue,” it did not go smoothly.

By Theo Karantsalis

On November 9, 2023

During Donald Trump’s Tuesday night rally, Hialeah Mayor Esteban “Steve” Bovo took the stage to announce he’ll be pushing to name a local street after the former president. He held up a large green street sign with Trump’s name on it, to the delight of the crowd in the heart of Hialeah, a conservative Cuban stronghold for Trump.

“You always kept your promises to the residents of this great nation, and we’re appreciative. And I will be asking next week the city council of Hialeah…to be able to authorize and vote affirmatively as we name a street after you,” Bovo said.

Trump insisted he had no idea the nod was forthcoming, saying, “It was an honor, a great honor. I didn’t know that.”

What else might Trump not know?

Last year, Hialeah previously considered a resolution to name a street after him, and it was met with public outcry and denied by the Hialeah Historic Preservation Board in a 3 – 0 vote.

Audio of the Historic Preservation Board’s June 2022 meeting was obtained by New Times through a public records request.

“Naming a Hialeah street after him is a slap in the face to every woman, immigrant, person of color, and LGBTQ member that calls Hialeah home,” a local artist said at the 2022 board meeting. “If you vote to rename Palm Avenue to Donald J. Trump Avenue, you are telling us that you stand behind this man, all of it.”

Trump’s rally last night incidentally was held at Ted Hendricks Stadium on Palm Avenue, the street that the 2022 resolution tried, in vain, to rename “President Donald J. Trump Avenue.”

Hialeah resident Robert Gewanter, known for the political commentary on his M&M Package Store marquee, got into a heated exchange with the board at the 2022 meeting.

“By naming the street after Trump, you not only dishonor yourselves and our city, you dishonor my friend, Pete Cainas, who died fighting to protect our peace and safety,” said Gewanter, referring to a Hialeah police sergeant killed on duty in 1992, whose name appears on a Hialeah street.

“If we get this wrong, it’s an embarrassment to the city,” one member of the Historic Preservation Board said at the 2022 meeting.

Bovo appears to be pushing for the introduction of a new resolution to create a Trump Avenue during Hialeah’s next council meeting, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, November 14.

Gewanter tells New Times he is working on a speech for the meeting.

“It’s gonna be a zoo,” Gewanter says. “It’s going to be hard to condense Trump’s life of crime in just three minutes.”

Named after the Seminole word for “high, level prairie,” Hialeah is a 26.5-square-mile city with a population of roughly 222,000 that is more than 95 percent Hispanic, mostly Cuban.

Trump has amassed strong support in the municipality in west Miami-Dade County. His rhetoric describing Democrats as communists resonates in the community, where Cuban exiles and their family members have a strong disdain for anything equated with the Fidel Castro regime. In 2020, the Miami Herald reported, Trump secured roughly two-thirds of the vote in Hialeah.

Trump, who is facing four criminal cases, including two over his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, endorsed former county commissioner Bovo in his run for Hialeah mayor in 2021. Bovo won with 13,058 votes, nearly 59 percent of the votes. At the November 8 rally, the former president called Bovo “one of the best mayors in the country.”

“I heard about him. I got to know him,” Trump told the crowd before the proposed street renaming was introduced. “I gave him an endorsement, and it went on to a tremendous victory.”

This piece was republished from the Miami New Times.