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Home > Blogs > Hamilton News and Issues > Archives > 2010 > May > 17
Monday, May 17, 2010
Knightsbridge Drive name change before Planning Commission
I’m sitting in the Hamilton Planning Commission meeting Monday afternoon, May 17, where, among other topics, they’ll discuss whether Knightsbridge Drive should be renamed Technology Drive, per the request earlier this year by Miami Hamilton Dean Daniel Hall.
I’ll update the story as it unfolds Monday afternoon, and look for something more in Tuesday’s JournalNews.
Note: If Planning Commission approves the request, it then moves on to the Board of Revisions and Assessments to consider the economic feasibility of the change, and then finally back to City Council for a final vote.
Stay tuned…
Excerpt from the last story I wrote about this topic:
HAMILTON — The 47-year-old name of Knightsbridge Drive should be changed to represent an industrial and economic shift that embraces technology and future, rather than paper mills and past, according to a request submitted to City Council last month.
Dr. Daniel Hall, dean of Miami University Hamilton, says Knightsbridge Drive should be changed to Technology Drive. Residents of the street say otherwise.
A final decision — if Hall’s request proceeds along its normal course — is still likely months away, but even the idea has not been well received among the street’s inhabitants thus far. That’s unfortunate, some said, because enterprises like Miami University Hamilton and Vora Technology Park are an important part of marketing the city into the next generation.
In a way, those seeking the name change want to repeat history for the sake of the future.
“The Knightsbridge street name represents a bygone era and a corporation that no longer occupies the building or property for which the street is named,” Hall wrote in the Feb. 11 letter to council. “… I asked that you consider renaming Knightsbridge to better and more accurately label the area and to support the efforts of VTP to make Hamilton a more attractive location for technology businesses.”
The Knightsbridge name hails from the days of Champion paper and its trademark — a knight — according to local historian, educator and former JournalNews Editor Jim Blount’s account of the company’s history.
The city renamed South Avenue to Knightsbridge Drive on Oct. 17, 1962, as a way to honor Champion’s decision to house its headquarters in Hamilton.
It’s now home to 37 houses and eight businesses, including Harrison Elementary and the Richard Allen Academy.
The name change could potentially increase property values in the area, making the street attractive to future businesses looking to relocate, said Vora Technology Park CEO Mahendra Vora. Still, he said he wouldn’t be crushed if the city passed on the request.
“We’re talking Facebook here. We’re talking Twitter. This is technology, and we’re underselling what we have here in Hamilton,” Vora said. “We are proud of our steel and paper heritage, but we don’t want to be pegged to that.
“People don’t know the state of technology that is happening here,” he added. “The world is changing. So should Hamilton.”
But some residents of Knightsbridge — some who have lived there for decades — aren’t ready for that change.
Hamilton City Council voted 5-1 last week (early March) to accept Hall’s request, with Archie Johnson casting the lone dissenting vote and Robert Brown absent.
The request now moves on to the Planning Commission, which could consider it during their second meeting in April at the earliest. If it passes muster there, the request is sent to the Board of Revisions and Assessments — which has no regularly scheduled meetings — to determine the economic feasibility of the change. If both entities approve, the request moves back to City Council for a public hearing, and finally a vote. That could push any decision back until at least later this spring or early summer.
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News review: Monday, May 17
There are an estimated 70,000 Ohioans to have served in the U.S. military, and given their life while doing so.
If local resident Thomas Mitchell had his way, he’d like to give them each a symbol of thanks and recognition for the ultimate sacrifice. I’ll post some links at the bottom for more information.
I sat down with Mitchell last week, and among other perspectives, he had this eloquent comment: “We’re not about whether you support the war in Afghanistan, or the war on terror, or whether you believe the Vietnam War was right or wrong,” Mitchell said. “It’s about the fact that for the past 240 years, mothers and fathers have sacrificed their sons and daughters for our freedom.”
Excerpt:
HAMILTON — A local man is joining a national effort to ensure fallen service members are honored and remembered for the ultimate sacrifice.
Thomas Mitchell, of Hamilton, is the director of the Ohio Chapter of Honor and Remember, a nonprofit organization that began in 2005 in the wake of the death of a 25-year-old Virginia man at the hands of a sniper outside Fallujah, Iraq.
The serviceman’s father, George Lutz, found in the months that followed his son’s funeral he had been thrust into an unfortunate fraternity of families whose children died while serving their country.
That same year, Mitchell’s close friend’s nephew met a similar fate while serving in Iraq, a situation that left him wanting “to do something to remember him.”
After months prayer, Mitchell came upon the national organization, which at the time already had chapters in North Carolina, Alaska and Virginia. The purpose of Honor and Remember is two-fold: To have the organization’s symbol — a red, white and blue flag with a gold star and red flame — adopted nationally, and to get a personalized flag in the hands of every living parent of a child lost during military service.
Since January, Mitchell has started the push statewide, making Ohio the fourth chapter of Honor and Remember. On April 28, Hamilton City Council became the first state entity to adopt the flag and support its mission. A bill to do the same nationally is being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives.
“We’re not about whether you support the war in Afghanistan, or the war on terror, or whether you believe the Vietnam War was right or wrong,” Mitchell said. “It’s about the fact that for the past 240 years, mothers and fathers have sacrificed their sons and daughters for our freedom.”
An estimated 70,000 service members from Ohio have died since the Civil War, including 13 Butler County residents who served during conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mitchell said.
For more information, visit the national Honor and Remember organization, or check out Mitchell’s Facebook page for the state-based chapter.
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