Could renaming Kipps Lane empower community change?

London Community News

By Sean Meyer/London Community News/Twitter: Newswriter22 If councillors accept the idea, a street know for gang problems could soon be renamed after one of Forest City’s Olympics heroes. During the Civic Works Committee meeting on Monday (Sept. 10), councillors will debate a suggestion made by Don Kerr, a professor in the Department of Sociology at King’s University College, to rename Kipps Lane to Damien Warner Avenue. Warner placed fifth in the decathlon during the recent Summer Olympic Games in London, England. In a letter to London Mayor Joe Fontana, Kerr makes his case for the name change. “You’ve heard of Kipps Lane Crew . . . I’m sure you would prefer to not have. Well, you’ve heard a lot of ‘lousy press’ for Kipps Lane right? Think of a community in London having a difficult time and Kipps Lane comes immediately to mind,” Kerr writes. “I say, rename Kipps Lane to Damien Warner Avenue. Sometimes a name change can help a community. What a wonderful role model for the young kids growing up in the neighbourhood.” Kerr goes on to write the conversation around the neighbourhood would change to, “Who is Damien Warner? Oh, he’s an Olympian who grew up around here,” while also making more irrelevant the name Kipps Lane Crew as the street address could no longer exist. The letter is included among the consent items on the Civic Works agenda that gets underway at 4 p.m. Find us on Facebook: London Community News