Comments on: City to spend $4M to rename a bridge

By: rhywun

rhywun — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:59:40 +0000

Myself, I wouldn’t support it either way, but it would be slightly less distasteful.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 22:20:00 +0000

So if he had been a homegrown New Yorker, you’d have supported spending the 4 million on him?

By: Marsha

Marsha — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 15:52:24 +0000

I was just about to point out Kennedy’s carpetbagger status. And Triborough Bridge is such a perfect name for this. As I heard on the radio yesterday, unless the traffic reporters start referring to the Triborough by its new name, and I can’t imagine they will, then the name will never stick.

By: Benjamin Kabak

Benjamin Kabak — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 23:08:18 +0000

Again, no disrespect to him, but what gets me too is that he was a carpetbagger and a New York Senator for the purposes of making himself an attractive Presidential candidate (cough cough Senator Clinton cough cough). He did a lot for the country, but this bridge just doesn’t need to bear his name.

By: rhywun

rhywun — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:36:01 +0000

I hear ‘Jackie Robinson’ on TV, but neither I nor anyone I know owns a car so I don’t know what’s more common. I would be likely to call it ‘Interboro’ myself if only that’s because what all my maps say.

PS. I agree that this is a total waste. No disrespect to the guy, but he’s been gone a loooonnng time. The only people who care is that organization with his name on it that pushed for the renaming.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:11:38 +0000

I’d put his name on a jail cell, in the same way San Francisco renamed its waste disposal site after George W. Bush.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 21:50:02 +0000

And yet everyone will still call it the Triborough Bridge…yet another waste of money.

The only thing I can remember sticking is the Jackie Robinson but there are still plenty out there who still call it the Interboro.

By: Skip Skipson

Skip Skipson — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:04:15 +0000

I think RFK would have liked to see this $4mil be diverted to other other pressing issues like lifting people out of poverty and a quality education for all.

By: Kid Twist

Kid Twist — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:47:06 +0000

Our last two major renamings were the Joe DiMaggio Highway and the Jackie Robinson Parkway. If we have to change the names of things that already have perfectly good names, why not call it the Babe Ruth Bridge? How is it that nothing major in this city is named for the Babe?

By: Benjamin Kabak

Benjamin Kabak — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:46:33 +0000

Well, yes. His legacy permeates the city in name and not. But my point — which I did not do a good job of making — is that this bridge has no connection to RFK. Why are we bothering naming something so iconic after RFK?