“Powsner Place” has a nice ring to it.
Community Board 13 voted last week to co-name a portion of Mermaid Avenue for legendary Courier columnist Lou Powsner, who died in April at age 93 after more than 60 years of serving Southern Brooklyn. Boardwalk hero Councilman Mark Treyger submitted a proposal to dedicate a local street honoring the iconoclast who lived, breathed, and served Coney Island for most of his long life, and now it’s up to the Council to give its nod.
We’re a bit biased, of course, but here’s why we think Lou’s name should live on forever:
Lou never left
Powsner strode the People’s Playground as if he owned the joint, operating a men’s furnishings store on Mermaid Avenue for 44 years, helping steer the colicky neighborhood through decades of blight, and assisting cops in 79 arrests after being held up at gunpoint multiple times.
Lou ‘Spoke Out’
Lou ignited our pages with his salty, sassy “Speak Out” column for more than 60 years, but he was also a fearless civic advocate who belonged to just about every local group in the community, among them, Community Board 13, Kings Highway Board of Trade, Progressive Democratic Club, Bensonhurst West End Community Council, Joint Council of Kings County Boards of Trade, and Coney Island Board of Trade.
His impeccable integrity demanded honest answers from giant corporations, public utilities, mayors, governors, and even former Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, whom he personally attacked with his bombardier buddies during World War II. Along the way he earned himself the nickname “The Mouth that Roared” for a flow of tart gems that included telling ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s mother why he wouldn’t vote for her “emperor son.”
Lou changed the landscape
Lou helped to bring affordable housing to Coney Island, fought successfully for brighter street lights to thwart nighttime crime, battled the city on parking meters that he said gave suburban shopping malls an unfair advantage over his beloved mom-and-pops, famously helped to repave Avenue P, and lobbied tirelessly for a wooden Boardwalk.
Lou never aged
Lou’s quick mind and mnemonic prowess blew away colleagues.
“Before the Internet and the information highway, before there were search engines like Google, there was Lou Powsner with his photographic memory and instant recall ability,” said Carmine Santa Maria, author of the Courier’s “Big Screecher” column and founder of the Bensonhurst West End Community Council, who will undoubtedly have a street named for him someday.
Lou never stopped fighting
Lou hailed originally from Crandon, South Dakota, (pop. 72), where he slept in an egg crate as an infant before moving to Brooklyn with his parents at the age of 2, but he transcended that continental divide to become a quintessential Brooklynite who personified his motto: “You fight for what’s right.”
We want the Council to do the same and support a “Powsner Place” on Mermaid Avenue between W. 17th and W. 19th streets, where Lou ran his store and lived for many years. It’s the least they can do to preserve the memory of a people’s provost in the People’s Playground.
