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Yesterday, the Triborough Bridge was renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge to honor former Attorney General and Senator from New York. Former president Bill Clinton, Mayor Bloomberg and Governor David Paterson joined RFK's children and widow, Ethel Kennedy, for the event. Paterson said, "Robert F. Kennedy was a champion of social justice and human rights and his spirit is kept alive by his family’s continued commitment to those causes. I am particularly pleased to have had the opportunity to sign this bill into law, making possible the renaming of the Triborough Bridge as the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, which is a fitting tribute to the man and his legacy.” The idea was proposed earlier this year by former governor Eliot Spitzer.
Ethel Kennedy told the NY Post, "It's spectacular, so wonderful. I love that now people will be crossing over the bridge and thinking of Bobby's life." There's been talk that the cost to change roads signs could be up to $4 million, but the Post reports that the "city says changing its signs will cost $100,000, and the MTA say its signage costs will be around $3,200."
Additionally, Paterson announced that public school students in the 4th, 8th and 12th grades will have a set of "RFK Lesson Plans" added to their curriculums, to teach them about RFK's "commitment to helping others." Today would have been RFK's 83rd birthday; you can read more about his legacy at the RFK Memorial website.
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How about the Bobby-boro bridge as a nick name?
wait a sec...aren't we all supposed to tighten our belts here?
"city says changing its signs will cost $100,000, and the MTA say its signage costs will be around $3,200."
Yeah, like we all need this very important significant name change. Meanwhile the city says: we can't write check for property tax rebates cuz we have no money, and the most shitty agency in the world (THE MTA) stil can't get their shit together and we have to bail them out.
sickening at the very least.
so the mta wants to raise prices and cut service, loads of people in nyc are out of jobs, our economy is crumbling, but someone decided politiking and unnecessarily re-naming a bridge that costs 4 million dollars was appropriate and timely.
what is going on?
im disappointed in patterson. he has seemed like somewhat of a straight shooter on these issues so far. he should have refused to attend the ceremony in protest.
The Kennedys couldn't have paid for this with their own money?
I got stuck on the f'n RFK and missed my plane out of f'n JFK!!
Why would anyone want something named after them that people will invariably curse about?
So it is now offically the RFK Bridge...
But people will still call it the Triborough for the next 20 years.
Officially
I don't quite get the point of naming a landmark after someone who's been dead over 40 years.
In other news, the MTA had to make RFK into a whore and sell the bridge to Eliot Spitzer because they can no longer afford to be in charge of it, nor do they have the competence to do so.
I hear the steamroller will do wonders for the driving surface.
aprilnyc:
LOVE IT
Take the Kennedy Bridge!! Take the Kennedy Bridge!!
Damn cabs, they always miss the RFK.
One thing for sure. Nobody will ever name a bridge after Teddy.
Triboro Live!
If Patterson was serious about the whole budget crisis thing he would have scrapped this waste of money. Thanks for wasting our tax money on this useless bit of political masturbation.
RFK was Senator from New York for three years. There are much more appropriate things that could have been named after him, say a highway that comes from Massachusetts.
It's just a hunk of gray metal. Might as well name it after a sanitation chief. How about close Park Ave to traffic and make it a park, then name it RFK Park. That would be fitting.
Wasn't RFK a supporter of public transportation? Wouldn't it be more fitting to name a part of the subway after him?
Oh well. At least I get to pay more to ride the train in a few months.
Not bad for a guy who became Attorney General through blatant nepotism.
Too bad Ted Kennedy couldn't have downed a half bottle of Chivas then driven a Buick off the bridge and into the East River as part of the re-naming ceremony.
"He needs a three hundred-dollar Bruline to beat Ethyl Kennedy?"
Name each of the different spans there after a Kennedy and call the whole thing The Dead Kennedys and be done with it.