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| Stripey |
New York City has suddenly gone in a fever of name changes. The Triboro Bridge is now the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge. The Queensboro Bridge (59th Street Bridge) is now the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. I thought nobody would want a hole in the ground named after him or her but it turns out the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel had been rechristened the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel after the governor who died last year. "Society Carey" Jimmy Breslin called him, but he helped New York City make it through its late 1970s bankruptcy (remember the Daily News headline: "Ford to City: Drop Dead"?
It's inevitable that the Queens-Midtown Tunnel go next so I've been thinking of politicians who might receive the dubious and posthumous honor of having their own tunnel. Bella Abzug? She deserves it. And it would break up the Boys Club of bridge and tunnel names. But she was born in the Bronx and made her career in Manhattan. Donald Manes? The disgraced head of the Queens Democratic machine? I doubt the suits at the DOT (or whoever makes the decision) would go for that. How about John Lindsay? It would give him one last chance to reach out the voters of Queens.
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| His Waterloo: Mayor Lindsay in Queens 1969. |
It is a little sad that you can only think of one female politician who might be up for the honor. Not a criticism of your ability to name NYC female politicians but our ability to elect them. Also...not sure if the whole imagery thing would be very appropriate for a tunnel and a female politician, from a Freudian perspective.
ReplyDeleteDo we have to go all the way back to Anne Hutchinson to find a major piece of infrastructure named for a female leader? We've got the FDR--why no Eleanor Roosevelt expressway?
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