We are NOT the Mohawk Valley

[tanouryjr]

Check out this GREAT post by StrikeSlip...

strikeslip.blogspot.com/2008/11/we-are-not-mohawk-valley.html

Hope you don't mind Strike, I put a link to it on my website.

[Clipper]

Thanks Larry for the link. I meant to post it earlier and got busy with other things and forgot.

Excellent post Strike. We are part of the "UPPER" Mohawk Valley and preferably described as you describe the area, UTICA/ROME! The Mohawk Valley runs all the way from a point where the river drops into the valley North of Westernville from up on he tughill plateau to the Hudson River near Albany if you want to be entirely technical about it, but our area is the HEART and SOUL of the Mohawk Valley.

Utica/Rome cannot be confused with any other city, town or village. Our history and our identity is our own, and rich in culture and beauty. No other area of the Mohawk Valley can compete with the benefits of living in our area.

Thanks for the continued support for our city and our valley Strike. The clouds will clear and Utica will shine again in the not too distant future. Utica is not unique in it's problems, and has strong and well trained people to bring it back to a picture of success again.

[strikeslip]

Thanks guys!
But, Clipper, I lived for 13 years in Amsterdam . . . I think there may be some people there who think THEY are the heart and soul of the valley! :-)

[bobbbiez]

One can always have a mighty big soul. ;D

The more the merrier!!!!!!!

[bobbbiez]

I believe the name, Mohawk Valley, originated from our Native Americans the Mohawk Nation with many clans reaching out as far as Canada. The Mohawk Valley reaches out further then most want to admit.

I am in the process of reading the book "Iroquois Teachings" written by Tom Porter a Bear-Clan Elder of the Mohawk Nation
Very enlightening about our area. ;D

Remember, even Utica's city symbol honors a Native American Clan of the Mohawk Nation.

[tanouryjr]

Great points bobbie and those are great historical teachings. The problem with labeling us as the Mohawk Valley is that it is a terrible marketing plan. When is the last time someone saw the "Mohawk Valley" on a map? What's funny is that even people anywhere east of Herkimer don't know us as the "Mohawk Valley." I was talking to a member of the Senate from somewhere around Yonkers in 2006. It was a lady and we were in Albany to meet some people when Leon was running for Senate. He mentioned that we were from the Mohawk Valley and she said "where?" I then said "Utica/Rome" and she immediately replied, "oh yeah, Oneida County."

The point is that we need to market ourselves to people outside the area and not just to ourselves. These groups and agencies seem too concerned with trying to brainwash US into thinking we are a great area. We already know that, but what we also know is that we need jobs and a rebirth here. That can only come from selling the area to private businesses and people that WANT to come here, and people that aren't just looking for government handouts and to take advantage of overzealous "economic gurus." Basically, we need to put ourselves on the MAP.

[boomer]

As usual Strikeslip puts things in perspective. I'm glad for the local 'blogosphere' as they call it. I think ours is pretty amazing actually. Good job Strikeslip!

[Ralph]

Those that can, such as EDGE, use us for what we could be.
Most that live here don't even know where we/they are.
Those that don't live here, don't know we exist as part of the "Mohawk Valley".
The worst thing is that the people we want to notice us have no clue where or what we are.

Nail on the head as always Strike!

[dgriffin]

To me, this is all silliness, brought to us by what Mr. Tabor (coment in Fault Lines) quite aptly calls a "gaggle of dolts." It's an expansion of a "marketing area" by those who will profit from such, whether they're a chamber of commerce executive fresh out of PR school, or a quasi-govermental-barely-legal-probably-not-thinly-disguised-legislative-left-hand outfit like EDGE, or a media group. I remember feeling the same sentiment when WKTV years ago began to label itself "Utica-Rome" in an effort to get Rome businessmen to spend their advertising dollars on the Utica channel. When our local newspaper down here starts running a lot of stories about happenings in the county lying across the river and calling themselves "the Valley's newspaper" instead of "your hometown newspaper," I know their advertising department has mounted a news sales campaign over in Dutchess County.

Meanwhile, most of us continue to lead our lives and attend to our business while media outlets, with nothing more to report than crack house arsons and local political news that resembles "Who's On First," gives prominence to the nattering of the Dopey Cognoscenti who are always good for a few column-inches. And businesses make decisions to move to one area or another based upon hard facts, like taxes and distances and availability of employees. And a growing number of "Suits" make a living as modern snake oil merchants trying to sell ideas that sound good, but go nowhere. Rejected by most sensible citizens, the ideas are more often embraced by politicians eager to appear as if they have a solution.

[kim]

Ok. I suggest then, that Mohawk Valley Community College rename itself Utica Rome Community College! ;-)

Hmmmm. Doesn't have the same ring to it.

[dgriffin]

Since Oneida County pays for half of its operation, MVCC probably would have more suitably been named Oneida County Community College, as was Onondaga County CC and Monroe CC, etc. (I just wore out my "C" key!)
The reason they didn't, if I remember correctly (I'm an alumnus, '63) was because with Herkimer County just down the road (in the years before HCCC) they wanted to attract students from the Valley. And they did ... many of my classmates trekked up Route 5 each morning. MVCC (or as it was originally called, MVTechnicalInstitute, a name most of us techies missed) made a concerted effort to attract students from all over the New York State. Before the days of dorms at MVCC, they had phenomenal success with students from Long Island to Buffalo living in flats and apartments all over Cornhill and East Utica. (My wife shared a nicely converted attic with 4 other girls a few doors away from the old Campus Inn near Proctor HS.) Before that, when MVTI was down on State Street, students lived all over West Utica. The college's Housing Office was a bigger operation than the most of the academic departments!
Every time I see one of those British World War II movies about young people from all over England displaced by the war effort and living in attics and cellars and falling in love and doing what boys and girls do, I'm reminded of my days at MVCC. Hahahaha.

[Clipper]

Well, probably MVCC should be renamed Oneida County Community College. Most other community colleges are named for the county they are in, and there are a couple of others in the "mohawk valley", such Herkimer County Community College, and Fulton Montgomery Community College which is up the hill out of the valley, but serves Amsterdam, Fultonville/Fonda, Johnstown areas.

At one time SUNY Upper Division was labeled as "Utica/Rome. years ago when it was in the old Globe Mill building.

My Dad graduated from MVTI(Mohawk Valley Technical Institute). When I went there it had changed to MVCC. MVTI used to hold classes in a building in NH that was once something or other "day school" for the rich kids years ago. There are apartments there now, and the building is gone. It was just North of the former "utica mutual" ( I don't know what the insurance company is called now).

When I went to MVCC, I had a college jacket with the white naughahyde sleeves that had MVTI and another that had MVCC on the back. Instructors used to ask me where I got the MVTI jacket from.

[rrogers40]

If you look at a map we are in the worst place ever!- Really we are! We are too far west to really be considered the Mohawk Valley, at least Utica is sort of in the "mouth of the Valley".

But we are also too far East to be considered apart of Syracuse, which sort of considers it self to be CNY.

And we are too far south to be apart of the Adirondacks and too far North to be apart of the KattsKills. (I just like spelling in the "Old" Way).

So really we are caught between all areas- which is our biggest problem when it come to bringing people into the area. Why come here when you can go anywhere else and there is going to be more to do and see?

[dgriffin]

The New Hartford Country Day School was, I believe, was the name. Notre Dame High School used it during their first year of existence, 1960-61. I spent my senior year there as a member of the first ND Class of '61. It was a boys' school then. In June of '61, we trucked over to the new school on Burrstone Road and rehearsed for the graduation ceremony while the electricians were putting the finishing touches in the building. I have a photograph of myself and my parents standing outside of the Burrstone Road school building on graduation day, in my gown and mortorboard with piles of construction dirt in the background.

[bobbbiez]

I don't know about that, Ryan.

Having traveled a lot I disagree with you. I believe this area offers plenty to do and things to see.
People from out of state while visiting have often stated that they do love the sites and lakes in our area.

There are always popular activities offered if one wants to attend them.
I never have a problem finding things to do or see in our area.

I do know this, the few times I moved away, the areas I relocated to had things to do also but the drive to do them was ridicules.

Not so, in this area.