Take it to the Bridge: Overwhelming Support for Sonny Rollins on the LES
In retrospect, it was apparently a race to name Lower East Side infrastructure after Jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins.
While Essex Crossing just anointed one of its luxury rental buildings in the name of Rollins (Site 5), the earlier effort at another area renaming remains underway. You remember – that months-old grassroots campaign to likewise rechristen the Williamsburg Bridge in his honor.
The mega-development beat the campaign to the punch. Yes. But that’s not stopping the push. There is a two-week-old petition afoot to help further along the cause, and it’s already netted more than 4,200 signatures from around the globe (60 countries and 49 states).
The petition, entitled “Rename the Williamsburg Bridge as the Sonny Rollins Williamsburg Bridge,” is addressed to the members of the New York City Council, the New York City Community Boards, the New York State Assembly, and the New York State Senate. The first major endorsement came from Councilman Stephen Levin back in October.
“We are releasing this [announcement] two weeks since we launched the petition, which also coincides with the 114th anniversary of the opening of the Williamsburg Bridge,” organizer Jeff Caltabiano told us in an email. “The petition is meant to generate further public support for our renaming initiative.”
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