I'm not against it because I care about street addresses. Chavez' son said it best:

"If it's just the street signs and holidays, that's nice, it's how you honor people; but it's got to be more," Paul Chavez said. "If you have an educational component, then it would represent who he was and (then) I could see (my father) say, 'Yes, let's do the street renaming.'"
Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009...

The renaming effort is obviously an easy way for the politicians involved to garner support, without having to actually do much.

Something more meaningful would have been improving/building and/or dedicating a road, or library, or school, in an area with a significant Latino population, such as the areas east of 82nd. Which of course, the City already constantly neglects in favor of projects in close-in Portland, and I'm sure will continue to.