Sunnyside Chamber Creates Protest Buttons
April 25, 2011 By Christian Murray
Several members of the Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce are calling on the New York City Council to repeal the law that recently renamed the Queensboro Bridge the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge.
The chamber members are urging council members, such as Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, to introduce new legislation that would bring back the old name.
Rebecca Barker, the new president of the Sunnyside Chamber of Commerce, asked Van Bramer at the United 40s Civic Association recently, whether he would act on the community’s behalf to change it.
“If there is a way to reverse it I will look into it,” Van Bramer said. Van Bramer said the renaming of the bridge was “one of the dumbest things we [the council] have ever done,” adding that “Koch never lived in Queens and spent most of his life in the Village.”
Barker said the chamber will soon be selling buttons on its website that will read: “Save the Queensboro Bridge.”
Barker said she recalls celebrating the bridge’s centennial celebration in 2009, and how historians made it clear at the time that the bridge essentially gave birth to the borough. She said the bridge belongs to the people of Queens, not a former a mayor.
