The more I think about this Ed Koch - Queensboro Bridge renaming, the more I think this is a stupid, disgusting waste of time as well as an embarrassment and insult to the people of Queens. The sad thing is that this effort is being led by our own council members who can't or won't think for themselves because they are afraid of Council Speaker Christine "Bends over for Bloomberg" Quinn, who, I'm ashamed to admit, grew up in Queens but won't hesitate to sell the borough out in return for an endorsement. The info about the yays and nays comes from yesterday's edition of the Queens Tribune:Council Member James Van Bramer
Let's start with Council Member James Van Bramer. The bridge is in his district, yet he is "undecided"? Generally, the council votes with the home rule member, who lobbies the other members to vote his or her way. In this case, Jimmy is silent, which is unusual for him as he is probably the biggest attention whore on the City Council.
Council Member Leroy Comrie
Leader of the Queens Delegation. It is within his power to call a vote of the Queens delegation on the record and then ask for a delay of the full council vote. But he won't do that. He'll just offer passive resistance and allow Bloomberg and Quinn to do as they please. He wants to be Borough President someday but has no cojones whatsoever - which is just how City Hall prefers the BPs to be. Hello...how about some leadership?
Other Queens Council Members in favor of the "Koch Bridge":
Council Member James "Sleazeball" Gennaro
Council Member Karen "I stole Ronald McDonald's wig" Koslowitz
Council Member Eric "Conservative Altar Boy" Ulrich
Council Member Elizabeth "I'm a Crowley!" Crowley
Council Member Mark "I'm not David!" Weprin
Council Member Peter "Dennis Gallagher's sock puppet" Koo
"Undecided" Council Members:
Council Member Danny "Quinn's Lapdog" Dromm
Council Member Julissa "I'm with EDC" Ferreras
Council Member James "Let's build a culinary school in a public park" Sanders (More on that coming soon)
Council Member Ruben "Deadbeat Dad" Wills
Council Member Diana "Where's Ridgewood?" Reyna
In case it is unclear, undecided = YES. They are just too cowardly to go on the record before they absolutely have to. How could ANYONE representing Queens and in their right mind be in favor of this? These are destroyers of our history and identity. And we KNOW they have more important work to do than rename public property after their cronies.
These losers would probably vote to rename the entire borough "Bloombergville" if the Mayor and Council Speaker told them to. Can Donald Manes-Queens Borough Hall be far behind?
Also, ask yourself where all of the following are:
Queens Civic Congress - the collective mind of civic groups in Queens; not one of their members support the name change
Queens Historical Society - the supposed protector of the entire borough's history and its landmarks
Greater Astoria Historical Society - the supposed protector of LIC's history and the group that wrote a book about the history of the bridge
Borough President Helen Marshall - expressed weak opposition but is doing absolutely nothing about this
You CAN do something.
Call our council members and give them a piece of your mind.
Sign this petition. Hundreds of others already have within a few days.
Join this Facebook group.
Ask your friends and family members to do all of the above.
Don't let these slobs get away with this like they did with term limits.
This editorial from the Trib sums it up:
“They wouldn’t do it to the Brooklyn Bridge,” was Councilman Peter Vallone Jr’s first phone call to me. I was sold before hearing from Peter but was excited that perhaps the Council wouldn’t go along with the Mayor’s proposal. Vallone has bravely taken on the Mayor who has proposed the name change and his seemingly acquiescent colleagues at the City Council ready to allow Queens to be diminished. Councilmembers Leroy Comrie and Dan Halloran have joined in opposition. The rest of the Queens delegation is woefully silent or pathetically supportive of this shameful act.
The Speaker of the Council would not be moving this bill if the Queens delegation opposed it. The entire Council would not be backing this measure if the Queens delegation spoke up in opposition. It is the silence of inaction that will take our Bridge and hand it over to the Manhattan-centric City to name for a Manhattan hero.
If everyone who represents Queens was united against this, do you think this idea would ever have gotten this far? Just think, it may have even gotten us some RESPECT and the tweeders would have thought twice before pulling something like this again in the future.
41 comments:
I signed the petition and joined the Facebook page. This issue should touch a raw nerve with everyone in Queens who is sick and tired of the Mayor and the City Council. They DO NOT serve us well - remember the Blizzard of 2010??? It disgusts me how the city council is always there to vote themselves raises, extend their term limits, and pat themselves on the back for a part-time job done half-assed.
This is symbolic of Bloomberg's distain for everything Queens. Any Queens council member who votes for this travesty should be voted out of office.
Maspeth Mom say....
No one will ever call it the Koch Bridge. Even 1010 WINS radio still call the Triborough Bridge, the Triborough not the RFK Bridge.
The city can afford this...I thought we are laying off teachers and closing firehouses en masse.
Bloomberg is a selfish sham.
I like Koch today as a commenter on Bloomberg Radio but never in the past when he was Mayor.
If Bloomberg want to honor Koch so badly, why not rename the Bloomberg building to the Koch building - that would be fitting,no?
Donald Manes:
"Queens has nothing but land and I intend to develop every bit of it"!
With this kind of attitude, supported by machine politics, Queens (as we know it) is dead!
So we don't need a bridge named after it any more.
Better to call it the Koch (sucker) Bridge.
After all Eddie was one of the chief protagonist/crooks in the book, "City For Sale".
This is all very appropriate!
Am I bitter?
Sure I am...with a damn f-----g good reason!!!!
Note the big difference between our dull witted follower Helen Marshal and Marty Markowitz.
If they dared try to rename the Brooklyn Bridge...Marty would personally raise a company of militiamen to march on Bloomberg's mansion!
Actually it was originally known as the East River Suspension Bridge.
Brooklyn was so proud of it that they named it after their own city.
That's right....Brooklyn was once its own city!
In Queens we have little left to be proud of.
We're a borough of sheep that continually bows down to our corrupt political shepherds.
Jimmy Van Bramer?
Why he is the former Queens Library official who is friends with the EDC and a certain local figure who also has ties to the library and supported moving the Dutch Kills millstones to the library.
Hey Jimmy, money for that and no money for librarians or buying books.
Ain't politics grand?
I'm rooting for Captain Ahab.
Moby Stavisky says she'll swim under the Koch Bridge to commemorate it.
"Ready your lances boys. Sharpen your harpoons. A golden doubloon for the lad who strikes Moby Slick"!
The problem here is that all you blabbers will go home and sit glaring at your flat screen and by next week all's forgotten.
Enjoy my bridge!
Eddie
Koch can have the 59th street bridge. The greater atrocity is the renaming the triborough bridge for Robert Kennedy. Huh?
Now who're we gonna rename the Queens Midtown Tunnel for...or should I have said "whore we gonna"?
The "Quinn Tunnel"?
She's open to that.
"That's right....Brooklyn was once its own city"!
Maybe it's time to re-examine that idea. And get Queens on board as part of a "Greater Brooklyn". "Greater New York", with its increasing emphasis on Manhattan is becoming more and more of an unworkable mess. Manhattan has never given a damn about the outer boroughs (aside from milking money from them of course) and it never will-let it be on its own! Pipe dream I know, but it should be given some consideration.
Where is QCC's president Pat Dolan on this issue?
Koch is a queen!
The "Quinn Tunnel"?
She's open to that.
--------------------------------------------------
W I D E open!
Suck my Koch!
Van Bramer ponders.
THAT'S FREAKING HILARIOUS!!!!
Was the first organization to go on record in December opposing the name as has been posted on this site previously.
http://www.amny.com/urbanite-1.812039/going-to-queens-you-may-soon-take-the-koch-1.2528174
Wow you gave a quote to a newspaper!
Congratulations! What else have you done to try to stop this?
Georgetheatheist~
Brilliant!
They had to wait to give you a chance to catch up, Crappy.
Only took four months.
Outstanding!
"Only took four months."
I repeatedly have called attention to this issue.
December 8
December 17
February 16
February 19
February 24
March 6
March 11
March 18
And it's been up in the sidebar for about a week.
Can you show me where this is on GAHS' website?
Brilliant! Peter Vallone is more of a preservationist than the Astoria funeral home society!
With apologies to Thomas Paine:
THESE are the times that try men and women's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their borough but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Bloomberg with an army to enforce his tyranny, has declared that he has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER" and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.
Yo, you cats of Queens. Get your asses in gear NOW. Call, write, email your Councilmember and express your opposition. OR Bloomberg's deal is done.
Here again:
Find my council member
Time is of the essence.
@ georgetheatheist
Too cerebral. How's Babs going to understand that?
Sorry Crappy, but you are going to get nowhere going after the folks in western Queens on this:
you started this thread asking where was Astoria without mentioning that you had full knowledge that both Peter Vallone and Astoria Historical went on record on the first city wide media outlets months ago(the evening news as well as AM NY have a bit larger circulation than Crappy) while everyone else in central and eastern Queens had their head stuck up there arse.
As a matter of fact, both facts were recorded here on this website repeatedly.
Didn't go after Vallone or Astoria. Went after GAHS. Why didn't they send out press releases or create a petition? Where are their open letters to the pols? Why did LICA only just wake up? Why is Mike Perlman the one stressing over this?
Three words: ice cream money
Nothing on GAHS website about bridge renaming. Like it's not happening. Hmmm.
Funny how QCC finally sent out a letter on this but GAHS didn't. When they had the hearing at City Hall, neither testified against it and pigs like Shulman testified in favor of it. That's why pigs get their way.
You can go after whom you wish in any fashion you wish.
The fact of the matter is Astoria was the only community that came out against this months ago - while the rest of you were - well being the way Queens usually is.
If you guys were such effective firebrands then go after your councilmemebers.
The Astoria community rank and file is on record.
Now line up behind us.
End of discussion
Where's the line?
"The Astoria community rank and file is on record."
So is Helen Marshall. What great company you keep!
You were so busy on your endless quest to find someone to sublease your space on the 4th floor of the Quinn Building that you shirked your duty in protecting Queens history. Shame on you. Once again, where is the topic on your website? Why not have an emergency meeting to discuss it? You had no problem doing that for the millstones.
Where are the letters to the editor? Where are the letters you sent to the entire city council? Why is Jimmy going to open the floodgate for the other council members to vote yes if you are such effective advocates for the bridge? You certainly have no problem making money off the bridge but you can't stick your necks out to protect it?
GAHS LOVES to dish out criticism but it appears they can't take it.
That Eric Ulrich, up to more no good.
"Where's the line?"
Indeed. They made an imaginary "line" months ago by making a feeble statement (see below) and then retiring to the confines of the funeral home. No alarm was sounded, no invitation to join them. But then they bash other preservation groups for not being effective leaders in educating their constituency. How hypocritical.
But Bob Singleton, author of “Images of America: The Queensboro Bridge,” said slapping a person’s name on a historic structure can erode its unique identity. “To glibly rename things is very sad,” Singleton said.
Doesn't even identify him as connected to GAHS. His statement doesn't address why this particular action is inappropriate, just a blanket statement about renamings in general.
I handed in a letter to Councilman Gennaro's district office a while ago, expressing my opposition to the Ed Koch Bridge.
The esteemed Councilman never replied to it. As a taxpayer, I pay his salary and I expect him to report to me.
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