The Advisors reviewed the issue of changing our organization's name from "Ruth Hardy Park Neighorhood Organization" to see if there were any overwhelming reasons to keep the name. While we have a bank account and a web site in the Ruth Hardy Park name, neither of these was felt to be significant.

That said,

...here are some of the reasons to change from "Ruth Hardy Park Neighborhood Organization":

• Ruth Hardy was a known to be anti-semetic, bigoted, and racist. We should not associate ourselves with her.
• Ruth Hardy Park is not in our neighborhood boundries. It is in the Movie Colony.
• Until fairly recently, this area was known as a part of the Movie Colony.
• No other neighborhood is named after a person.
• Many people do not know where the Ruth Hardy Park area is.

...and here are some of the reasons not to change:

• Ruth Hardy was an upstanding citizen and civic leader and was Palm Springs' first City Councilwoman (from 1948-60).
• If we changed the name, it would only end up being referred to as "The Old Ruth Hardy Park Neighborhood", anyway.
• In the context of the time and place during which Ruth Hardy was alive she may have not been considered a bigot then.
• Ruth Hardy Park is the name of the real estate section for our area.
• What Ruth Hardy was or did was common at the time, and American history is full of great and respected people who did things we would consider to be reprehensible today, e.g. owning slaves. The past is past, let's move on.
• the neigborhood is named for the PARK, not the person, and even though the park is not within our boundaries, it borders it and describes where the neighborhood is located within Palm Springs. The neighborhood is well known, even outside of Palm Springs, based on its name.