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As a Citizen and Resident of Brooklyn who has given over 100 years of service to the City of New York, I agree wholeheartedly with Boro President Eric Adams and Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo that street co-naming is about service that uplifts and empowers our community, often abandoned by political types and those who could make a difference. And so, this signature recognition is not about politics, but community empowerment through service. Underscoring such, as Chairman of Community Board 8’s Transportation Committee, over the last 20 years I have, with help of a wonderful group of members, co-named a number of streets in my board for deserving residents who not only gave service, even their lives, more often for the betterment of other residents of our community.
Sure we co-named Washington Avenue (Atlantic to Eastern Parkway) for Mary Pinkett; Park Place and Kingston Avenue for Shirley Chisholm, and yes, these were political stalwarts, but they empowered not simply our community but the City of New York as well. However, we also co-named streets for James Davis (Nostrand Avenue from Atlantic Avenue to Eastern Parkway); Damon Allen (St. Marks and Nostrand Avenues); and Benny Lyde (Lincoln Place at New York Avenue), all murdered in the prime of their lives.
Before I assumed Chairmanship some 20 years ago, I voted to name a part of Pacific Street Michael Griffith Street, for he too was tragically killed, in Queens. Park Place and Nostrand Avenue was co-named for Sly Williamson, the “Trophy Man,” who for some 30 years helped encourage and empower the aspirations and efforts of young men and women who made outstanding contributions in academics, track and field and sports, and this was “Sly Williamson’s Way” of Service. We co-named Prospect Place and Nostrand Avenue for Dr. Susan Smith McKinney Stewart, the first Black woman to practice medicine in New York State and who moved to become physician to the Buffalo soldiers of the US Army.
We co-named Brooklyn Avenue at St. John’s Place for Carlos Lezama, the man who brought merriment, economic largesse and festivity to Brooklyn in the West Indian Day Parade and this has remained a singular and unique contribution. These all did it Frankie’s way!
Even most important, we co-named Washington Avenue at Lincoln Place as “Fireman’s Corner” for the 10 firemen our board lost on 9/11. This was the ultimate form of service. While Ethelin Dubin received recognition at Washington Avenue and Lincoln Place, Ruth and Lois Goring got nothing and where would the handicapped be without Helmut Lesold advocating for accessibility on buses and trains via elevators. Don’t get me started on Helmut’s service in Eastern Parkway Reconstruction, the fight to save the Franklin Avenue Shuttle and the Shuttle Gardens and pitifully he got nothing!
When “whites” abandoned Crown Heights and Bed Stuyvesant, Ann Marie Blynn remained not simply to serve as “Fire Commissioner” but to uplift the Crown Heights Community, helping to bring Pathmark onto Fulton Street as part of Bed Stuy Restoration Revitalization. This is why, even before her death, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani determined Ann Marie’s contribution was exemplary service and hence Brooklyn Avenue at Pacific is co-named Ann Marie Blynn’s Way!
Today, street co-naming, certainly in Community Board 8 exemplifies the highest form of commitment and contribution a vetted individual can make to the betterment of his fellow man and this is what we honor when we recommend to the City Council an individual has been exemplary in supporting the highest ideals of the City of New York.
