Members of CB3's Transportation & Public Safety/Environment Committee will hear a proposal this month to co-name Second Avenue between Seventh Street and St. Mark's Place after the two men who died in the gas explosion here on March 26, 2015.
Authorities have said that siphoned gas at 121 Second Ave. was to blame for the explosion, which killed Moises Ismael Locón Yac and Nicholas Figueroa, and injured two dozen other people.
Figueroa, 23, a recent graduate of SUNY Buffalo State, was at Sushi Park with a co-worker. Locón, an employee at Sushi Park, was 27. Locón sent most of his paycheck back to his family in Guatemala, where he worked as a school teacher before moving to the United States in 2008.
Here's more information about the street co-naming proposal via a petition:
In memory of these young men, we ask that our community honor their lives and demonstrate to their families who their loss was also our loss and that we share in their sorrow by co-naming these blocks.
The petition must be signed by a minimum 75 percent of the total number of residential units and 75 percent of the total number of businesses on these blocks. (We appreciate the support, but do not need signatures from elsewhere in the neighborhood. The petitions will be available at neighboring businesses.)
If approved, then City Council will vote on this in May or June. If passed in the City Council, we will set a date with the Department of Transportation for a street blade installation and have a street co-naming event.
Here's a document (PDF) with more information on CB3's guidelines for co-naming a street. (If you have any questions or want to get more involved, then please email nicholasandmoises [at] gmail [dot] com.)
The committee meeting is May 9 at 6:45 p.m. at Downtown Art, 1st Floor Theater, 70 E. Fourth St. between the Bowery and Second Avenue.
The committee is also expected to hear a request to co-name Second Street between Avenue A and Avenue B for Mary Spink.
Spink, a local business owner and member of CB3, was a community activist and later served as executive director of Lower East Side People’s Mutual Housing Association. She died in January 2012 at age 64.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Updated: 2nd Ave. explosion — landlord, 3 others charged with 2nd degree manslaughter; showed 'a blatant and callous disregard for human life'
Memorial for Mary Spink tomorrow
RIP Nicholas Figueroa
RIP Moises Ismael Locón Yac
15 comments:
That's a thoughtful proposal.
It was a tragic accident but do we really need to name a street after these poor souls that lost their lives? Why not legislate for all the victims perished on 9/11 or commemorate each individual who perished in shirt factory? Just sayin
There should be some permanent recognition of the victims, whether it's a naming of the lot, or a plaque or whatever. But there is a bigger question: It has been more than two years since the explosion--caused by the greed of the avaricious landlord Maria Hrynenko--killed Moises Ismael Locón Yac and Nicholas Figueroa. She and her other co-conspirators have been indicted, but why is the District Attorney moving so slowly in prosecuting this crime? Is it because real estate wields undue influence in city politics? Does Vance think that with the passage of time the charges will soften up, allowing him to launch a not-so-vigorous prosecution? Sure looks that way. In the meantime, Hrynenko walks around free, coming and going as she pleases. Not the case with Locón Yac and Figueroa, though. They are dead. Murdered by Hrynenko. They can't walk free.
@Anon 1:31PM: There is a memorial for all of those known to have perished on 9/11. That was legislated already, apparently.
While we are at it, some additional renaming:
Avenue A - F%ck Kushner
Avenue B - F%ck Croman
Avenue C - F%ck Toledano
Avenue D - "I would have killed for a D in high school" -Drumpf
A lot of people have died in tragic mishaps in the EV over the years. Why should these 2 be singled out?
Agree with Anonymous. I walk past this empty lot every day and see two small memorials that look like graves. Tourists actually think that someone is buried here. Pretty creepy really.
I am not insensitive to the families whose grief is real and whose loss is monumental. But people die every day in the city in bike accidents, car accidents, fires, explosions, crane collapses, bricks falling on heads, elevator shafts, crimes of hate, crimes of passion, random murders and on and on, the list is endless.
If we start naming streets after everyone who dies then we won't have any numbered streets or avenues left. It is already out of hand.
I suggest that we give streets temporary names as a memorial for a year....and then go back to the actual street name instead of any permanent change,
Couldn't agree more with Bill Koehnlein .... why are the criminal owners still walking the streets? More justice, fewer street names makes more sense.
Anonymous said...
Agree with Anonymous.
Someone's feeling rather vague
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg lived at 103 Ave. A in the 1940s. They were assassinated by J. Edgar Hoover and his partners in state crime in 1953. There should be a plaque on that building commemorating their lives and heroic stance against the criminal entity at Washington, District of Carnage.
"Secret agent man, secret agent man.
Agent orange man, agent orange man...." Someone else can complete the verse.
Bill
The threshold for co-naming is quite high. 75% of residential units of the block as well as 75% of businesses must agree, before community board will even consider. Try to get 75% of New Yorkers to agree on anything.
This is called co-naming, not re-naming.
Call cy Vance at 212-335-9000 and ask him what's taking so long! He's running for re-election this year.
Request a plaque http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/html/forms/plaque.shtml
I do care about the loss of these two men and live nearby so I think about them every day as I pass - but I don't think co-naming the streets is needed. A graffiti memorial would be good.
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