END OF THE ROAD FOR 420?

Renaming Highway Proposal: New Name Suggestions Rolling into City
Hall

Would the Rainbow Expressway be the best way to get to the Queen
Elizabeth Way?

How about the Nikola Tesla Parkway? Father Hennepin
Highway?

Niagara Falls residents have offered up more than 40 suggestions for
renaming Highway 420 since Coun. Victor Pietrangelo first mused
publicly about changing the name of the provincial highway that
connects the Queen Elizabeth Way to the heart of Niagara Falls.

"Some people want it named after somebody. Some people wanted it named
after the natural beauty. And of course, there's the veterans,"
Pietrangelo said. The city's website, www.niagarafalls.ca,is taking
suggestions until the end of the week.

One recommendation was the "Vic P. Don't Like Weed Highway," a
reference to comments Pietrangelo made in April about marijuana smokers.

Retiring the number 420 would break the tie between Niagara Falls and
advocates for legalized marijuana, Pietrangelo said.

Many marijuana smokers consider 4:20 p. m., the optimal time of day to
toke up.

For six years, Niagara Falls has been the site of a pro-marijuana
rally organized by supporters, amused by the highway name, who hold a
pro-pot rally in Niagara Falls around April 20 -4/20.

But the biggest factor in Pietrangelo's mind was to consider naming
the highway after Canada's veterans because the city is planning to
decommission Niagara Falls Memorial and Stamford Memorial arenas. Like
many Canadian cities that built arenas in the 1940s and 1950s after
the Second World War, Niagara Falls named the facilities in honour of
its fallen soldiers. The arenas will be closed when the new four-pad
Bob Gale Centre opens next year, leaving the city with nothing named
in the veterans' honour.

"My main purpose for wanting to change the name is not a protest of
the people who hold the (marijuana) rally. It's to replace the
buildings that we're losing, as a municipality, and bring more
awareness and more deserved recognition to veterans," Pietrangelo said.

The Ontario government has a policy for renaming highways in honour of
historical figures or groups, but the change has to have the support
of the municipalities and of the local MPPs.

Pietrangelo suggested the "memorial" name could be moved from the
arenas on nearby Centre and Frederica streets and applied to the
highway. But he also asked for city residents to submit their ideas.
There have been about 40 submissions since the city's website started
accepting submissions.

"Half of them are humorous. Half of them are more heart-felt," said
city clerk Dean Iorfida. "In all likelihood we'll do a report to
council some time in June setting out what the submissions are."

Some people have suggested renaming it after Nikola Tesla, the
inventor of alternating current electricity, who built the first power
plant at Niagara Falls, N. Y., in 1895. Others give it to Father Louis
Hennepin, the 17th-century Belgian monk believed to be the first
European to write an account of seeing Niagara Falls.

Some want to pay tribute to the natural beauty of the Niagara
River.

"There were all kinds. The one that I liked was Canadian Veterans
Highway," Pietrangelo said.

Other suggestions included variations on words like peacekeeping,
veterans or remembrance.

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HOW TO SUBMIT NAME SUGGESTIONS

Who: City of Niagara Falls

What: Seeks suggestions for renaming Highway 420

When: Submissions accepted until Friday.

Where: www.niagarafalls.ca

Why: City council wants Ontario to change name of provincial highway