Rename Burlington St. to Nikola Tesla Expressway

Update Oct. 14/15: Hamilton City Council today approved the name change, to "Nikola Tesla Boulevard", conditioned on NTEC raising the funds to pay for the costs of the sign changes. See today's Hamilton Spectator article. The change to "Boulevard" was necessary to address a concern of the local Councillor, who felt that with an "expressway" designation, people might assume that they can drive faster then the road was designed to handle safely. Currently it is designated as a "Road", and we accept "Boulevard" as a reasonable compromise. Thank you everyone for your support so far.

Next, we will start a campaign to raise the necessary funds. Let's correct the great injustice to Tesla, and recognize him for what he contributed to humanity, and let's start rebrading Hamilton as a centre of education, technology and innovation.

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Update Oct. 6/15: Great news! Today NTEC made its presentation to the City of Hamilton Planning Committee, and the Committee approved the proposal! See today's Hamilton Spectator article. Next the proposal goes to the City Council, on October 14/15, for approval. Council typically approves the recommendations of the Committees, but this is not guaranteed. Please keep promoting the Petition, and try to get as many additional people to sign as possible by October 14'th, so that when it goes in front of the Council, we will have even stronger support!

Let's not ease up, and let's not let this success lower our guard and resolve. Let's keep working hard, right through until the new signs are up and proudly displaying the Tesla name! Thanks everyone for your continued support.

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Original: The City of Hamilton was once know as The Ambitious City! It was the industrial heartland of Canada. It was the Steel City of Canada, as Pittsburgh was once the Steel City of America. But, as the steel industry, and other manufacturing, declined, so has the City of Hamilton. It is time for Hamilton to reinvent, and re-brand itself. Just like Pittsburgh, it is time to embrace education, technology and innovation.

What better way to start than to re-establish links and association with Nikola Tesla. This man was a world famous inventor, innovator, and genius who changed the world, and influenced the industrialisation of Hamilton. His name and ideas continue to be relevant today, and are associated with creativity, education, invention, innovation, technology, wireless, electric cars, renewable energy, sustainable development, etc. Let's associate Hamilton with Tesla, and those attributes, and reinvent this city. Let's be "The Ambitious City" once again!

The Nikola Tesla Education Corporation (NTEC), is a Registered Canadian Charitable organisation, with the mission to educate the public about Nikola Tesla’s work and to inspire the youth to understand his work, and to pursue his innovative spirit and higher education. NTEC, in an effort to raise awareness of Tesla, has committed to raise funds and pay for the costs of highway and street sign changes required for the name change, so that this can be done at NO COST to the City of Hamilton. Our goal is to inspire youth, but for that we need the youth to be aware of Tesla, his inventions, and to be informed of his significant contributions to the world, to Hamilton, and to the way we live today! Think how much electrical distribution, the electric motor, and wireless transmission have made our life better. This is all attributable to Tesla. We want to make sure the youth know that, and are inspired by him. See more at NTEC

Why Hamilton? Why Burlington Street? As mentioned before, Tesla helped Hamilton become industrialised in the first place! The city of Hamilton was the 1'st major city in Canada to have AC electrical power, which was received from DeCew Falls, Generating Station No. 1. Built in 1898, DeCew Falls 1 is the oldest continuously running hydroelectric power generating station in Canada, and one of the first to recognise and implement Nikola Tesla’s 1888 invention, “Polyphase Alternating Current”. The station was built by the “Five Johns” of Hamilton (Dickenson, Gibson, Moodie, Patterson, and Sutherland). The Cataract Power Company, assembled the hydro-electric generating plant about 35 miles from Hamilton in 1898. Current flowed to the city for the first time on August 25, 1898. See The Hamilton Spectator August 26, 1898 article “Power Turned On”

The City of Hamilton prospered immensely in the early 1900’s, with major manufacturing companies being established or opening branch plants in Hamilton. The massive investments in plants in the east end of Hamilton resulted in an increasing need of workers. The population doubled in the first 14 year of the 20th century. The Five Johns were successful in transmitting the power over a great distance, the second longest transition in the world at the time. Hamilton reaped the rewards of their achievement and was known a “The Electric City”. The city advertisement of “Hamilton’s cheap electricity” attracted even more industries. The existing steel related plants quickly converted to electrical power as it was cheaper than other forms and sources of power. With the abundance of the steel from the mills, other plants that required the steel established plants in Hamilton, in the North End, around Burlington Street. And, the rest is history!

Hamilton can once again become a prosperous, relevant and growing city, an ambitious city, by embracing education, innovation, and technology. Tesla's ideas remain relevant, and even futuristic. His name is associated with creativity, education, invention, innovation, technology, wireless, radio, x-ray, electric cars, renewable energy, sustainable development, etc. Let's re-establish our link with Tesla, through this initiative, and re-establish a link with these attributes to the City of Hamilton.

Let's reinvent and re-brand the City. If we start looking at our city differently, so will others. Let's be the Ambitious City once again! Let's rename Burlington Street to "Nikola Tesla Expressway", so that millions of people that drive along the Queen Elizabeth Highway to Toronto, or to Niagara Fall, where Nikola Tesla built the first hydro electric generating station, can see our pride and ambition loud and proud!

As an added bonus, renaming only the upper portion of Burlington Street, and making it distinct from the ground level portion of the street, would also make the road safer for Emergency Service. We have been told that numerous times there was confusion as to where the emergency is occurring, on the upper or lower portion. This would help avoid confusion, save minutes when they really matter, and potentially save lives. With NTEC's stated goal of funding the costs of the change, this additional benefit would come FREE to the City of Hamilton.

The City Council of Hamilton is scheduled to hear the proposal on Tuesday, October 6'th, 2015. Please show your support by signing the below petition, and, if you can, make a pledge to offer financial help to pay for the street sign change. All donations will receive a Canadian Charitable Organisation Tax Receipt.

Please spread the word and let all your family and friends know about this initiative and ask them to sign the petition.

Thank you.