Downtown-area thoroughfares may start to look thoroughly unfair after a neighborhood panel okayed co-naming a street for a former Council staffer who died at age 22, while rejecting a proposal to grant the same courtesy to a long-serving local businessman, says Borough President Adams.
“An accomplished 20-something has been recognized as worthy of a street co-naming, while an accomplished 70-something has been denied that honor,” said the Beep. “Something does not feel right about that.”
Community Board 2 on Wednesday voted 21-3 with 15 abstentions to approve naming a block of Bond Street in Boerum Hill for Hope Reichbach — a former rising political star and aide to Councilman Steve Levin (D–Boerum Hill) who died of a drug overdose in 2011.
In October, however, the board voted against naming a block of Putnam Avenue in Clinton Hill for Cecil Collymore — the father of former Democratic District Leader Renee Collymore, and who supporters say was a respected local African-American leader and business owner who invested in a rough neighborhood in the late ’70s when few others would.
Several members of the board thought the bid to name the street for Collymore — which was backed by Adams, Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo (D–Fort Greene), Public Advocate Letitia James, and Assemblyman Walter Mosley (D–Fort Greene) — was “politically motivated” and said they’d never heard of the guy, according to a report by Kings County Politics.
Adams, who was stationed in Clinton Hill during his time as a police officer, insists that Collymore, who passed away in 2003, was an “anchor” of the community and said that failing to recognize his and other old-timers’ contributions would be an insult to the history of the increasingly gentrified nabe.
“Displacing neighborhood pillars from our memory would be a serious mistake, salt in the wound that is the displacement of far too many from communities like Clinton Hill,” he said.
Name recognition with the panel was not an issue for Reichbach, who ran for a Democratic district leader seat in 2010, was the daughter of late Brooklyn judge Gus Reichbach, and whose funeral was attended by hundreds of mourners including a who’s who of Brooklyn pols and civil leaders. The directors of a neighborhood day care she had helped save from closure later renamed their facility after her.
Community Board 2 adopted rules in 2007 that it will only approve co-namings for people who are “historically or culturally significant” and have been dead at least three years.
It has in the past approved streets named for Mary Pinkett — the city’s first black councilwoman — and Rev. Timothy White — who founded Boerum Hill’s Bethel Baptist Church — in addition to Junior’s Cheesecake founder Harry Rosen and several residents who died in a 2000 gas explosion.
In light of the recent uproar, the panel will review its procedures at Tuesday night’s transportation committee meeting.
The board’s vote is ultimately only advisory, however. The Council will have to approve the Reichbach co-naming for it to go ahead, and Cumbo could also choose to take the Collymore proposal to Council, despite the Community Board’s rejection.
Cumbo and Levin did not return requests for comment by press time.
