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[UPDATE] Queensboro Bridge Is Now The Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge
By
Jaya Saxena
Published Mar 23, 2011
Modified Mar 23, 2011
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By
Jaya Saxena
Published Mar 23, 2011
Modified Mar 23, 2011
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[UPDATE BELOW] In December the Bloomberg administration announced plans to rename the Queensboro Bridge after former mayor Ed Koch. Koch was for it, Vallone wasn't, and today the City Council will vote to determine whether the name will be official. But not if Queens' Philip Tatel has anything to say about it!
Tatel has started a petition on Change.org to protest the renaming of the bridge, which the City Council seems enthusiastic about, arguing that the bridge is a voice for Queens in a Manhattan-centric city. Tatel writes, "On September 11th, 2001, my father, an immigrant resident of Queens, had only one means of getting home. So, like many that day, he crossed the Queensboro Bridge by foot. I too crossed the bridge that day and when I did, I knew exactly where I was going. I wasn't feeling groovy. I never once thought about Ed Koch. All I knew was that I was on my way home." He also links to another petition, which says that Koch "has no roots in the borough of Queens whatsoever."
Queens councilman Peter Vallone Jr. continues to speak out against the bridge, telling CBS 2, “Some of the people in Manhattan may call it the 59th Street Bridge, but the people in Queens, for the most part, get very upset when you don’t call it the Queensboro Bridge." And according to a Qunnipiac University poll, 64% of New Yorkers agree the renaming would be a bad move.
[UPDATE] Get used to saying the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge...or not. NY1 reports that the City Council voted 38-12 to rename the bridge. Mayor Bloomberg wrote on Twitter, "The Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge: a fitting tribute to a mayor who brought #NYC back from the brink. All new signs will be covered by private $"
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