Down in Amsterdam, Dan has no confusion over where he lives: Why, in the MOHAWK VALLEY, of course!
But up HERE at the western terminus of that valley, we seem to be going through an "Identity Crisis" of sorts. We don't know what to call ourselves. Are we Western Mohawk Valley? Upper Mohawk Valley? Greater Utica? Utica-Rome? Rome-Utica? Utica-Rome Metro ? The Utica-Rome Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area? . . . .
This is no trivial matter. It is particularly distressing for marketing purposes. People need to know where you are if you want them to find you. Stewart Airport finds itself in a similar situation, just to show you how important this is.
Utica-Rome or Utica-Rome Metro are the most accurate (to include both cities and surrounding suburbs into Herkimer County and to place the names in order of historical prominance) and are easily found on a map. "Utica-Rome" however, seems to have fallen out of favor, though it was commonly heard in the 70s. There seems to be a desire to eliminate the "Utica" portion of the designation, in spite of its long and prominant history. "Upper Mohawk Valley" replaced the "Utica" in the Water Board -- and then all that recently morphed into the "Mohawk Valley" Water Authority even though it serves no further east than Schuyler. The Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce has nonsensically rebranded itself as the "Mohawk Valley" chamber even though it is primarily Utica area businesses and is "bookended" by the Rome and Herkimer chambers. (If New Hartfordites are behind this, they should just forget it. We don't need to be confused with a city in Connecticut.)
While the president of the "Mohawk Valley" Chamber is correct when he says that the "Mohawk Valley" is "a name that's been developed and people take pride in" he doesn't realize that he's talking about people from Schenectady to St. Johnsville! [If our Chamber is supposed to be the local expert in marketing, are we in trouble!]
I wonder what people like Dan think of all this?
Technorati Tags: Mohawk+Valley Economic+Development Rome Utica
1 comment:
I thought MoVa was one of Jerry Seinfeld's old girlfriends. :P
Working Solutions treats this as a tri-county area with Oneida, Herkimer and Madison counties. That sucks for people who have to drive from Verona to downtown Utica for an unemployment meeting.
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