City Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr. isn’t feeling groovy about the idea of renaming the Queensboro (aka the 59th St.) Bridge for former Mayor Ed Koch, because it’s unfair to its namesake borough.
“Mayor Ed Koch is truly a great man and deserving of an honor like this, but renaming a landmark so closely linked to our borough’s culture and history is not appropriate,” Vallone said in a statement today. “The city would not rename the Brooklyn Bridge and the Queensboro Bridge should be treated equally.”
, the city announced plans to rename the span, which links Manhattan and Queens (and, of course, was immortalized in the Simon and Garfunkel song) for Koch last year.
“Mayor Koch played a critical role in saving the City’s bridges,” Bloomberg said at the time. “When he took office, the City had no capital program to repair transportation infrastructure – an impact of the 1970’s fiscal crisis… The City’s East River bridges, including the Queensboro Bridge, had been turned over the New York State for stewardship, as the City was no longer able to maintain the structures. Under Mayor Koch, the City regained control of the bridges and began repairing them. Mayor Koch created the Bureau of Bridges within the Department of Transportation and fully funded the bureau.”
I’ll see what the ex-mayor, who’s been keeping busy with his
New York Uprising reform project
, thinks of this.
Update: Koch is currently out of the country, but maybe he’ll call in later…
