By Alex Stanton
City of Cincinnati
City of Cincinnati officials say they are honored to announce Brookline Ave. at the intersection of Jefferson Ave. in the Clifton neighborhood shall hereby receive the honorary, secondary name of 鈥淟ouise Spiegel Way鈥 in honor of Louise Spiegel and in recognition of her influence in the Cincinnati community. 鈥淪ue Wilke brought the idea of honoring Mrs. Spiegel to our office,鈥 said Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney. Mrs. Spiegel, wife of Federal Judge Arthur Spiegel, challenged the status quo, and strived to empower African Americans, the Appalachian community, and women from all backgrounds.聽
She was an early supporter in the 1950s of Cincinnati鈥檚 Appalachian population, a founder of the Urban Appalachian Council (UACC), and a recipient of the Urban Appalachian Council鈥檚 Kinship Award. 聽 聽
She was equally concerned for the Black community, especially for equal opportunity in housing and education. Mrs. Spiegel also was a leader and builder of the Women鈥檚 City Club, promoting advocacy for social justice and civic improvement.聽
She felt public policy was dominated by corporate interests while the civic sector was dormant. She teamed up with the consulting firm Applied Information Resources (Air, Inc.) to found Citizens for Civic Renewal (CCR).聽
Mrs. Spiegel brought together diverse gatherings of activists to introduce them and their ideas to each other. Well into her 80s, she continued to gather diverse people for lunch on Egbert Avenue to talk about how to move power 鈥渇rom the suites to the streets.鈥 聽 聽
Join in the unveiling of the street sign on December 1 at 2 p.m. at the intersection of Brookline Avenue and Jefferson Avenue in Clifton.
There will be remarks by Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney, Councilmember Mark Jefferys, Sue Wilke, Mike Maloney, Maureen Sullivan, Harriet Kaufman, Jeff Dey (President, Women鈥檚 City Club), Bill Woods (Co-founder, Applied Information Resources), Ed Burdell (Co-founder, Applied Information Resources), Terri Spiegel and Andy Spiegel.