The stories behind the honorary street names in the East Village and Lower East Side (New York: living)

[Aeran]

That was my question.

https://www.amny.com/news/the-storie...wer-east-side/

Back in 2003, the corner of 2nd St and the Bowery became ‘Joey Ramone Place’. If you’re a New Yorker, you know who Joey is. And if you don’t, please don’t admit it in public. There are almost 1,700 streets in NYC with honorary names, the results of City Council enacted bills that have been signed by the Mayor.

While many of the names will be familiar (we hope), such as Bob Marley, Gilda Radner, Humphrey Bogart and Harriett Tubman, there will be many others that make even the best repositories of trivia say, “Who the heck is that?”

[elnrgby]

Originally Posted by Aeran

That was my question.

https://www.amny.com/news/the-storie...wer-east-side/

Back in 2003, the corner of 2nd St and the Bowery became ‘Joey Ramone Place’. If you’re a New Yorker, you know who Joey is. And if you don’t, please don’t admit it in public. There are almost 1,700 streets in NYC with honorary names, the results of City Council enacted bills that have been signed by the Mayor.

While many of the names will be familiar (we hope), such as Bob Marley, Gilda Radner, Humphrey Bogart and Harriett Tubman, there will be many others that make even the best repositories of trivia say, “Who the heck is that?”

Joey Ramone lived just up the block from CBGB, and used the club pretty much like his living room (I saw him there, in the audience. I did not see the Ramones performing at CBGB, but I saw them multiple times in the early/mid-1980s elsewhere, they played all the time in places like various Upstate SUNY campuses).

[Wells5]

He's one of the truly greats for whom a NYC street was honorably named.

[charmed hour]

Honorary street names are in areas where that person had connections- like Joey Ramone and Dave van Ronk in the Bowery and the Village respectively.

Often most people in that particular community would have name recognition for the honoree. Most of the folks being honored with a street name started as a grassroots community effort.