Dump 'Ed Koch' from Queensboro Bridge: Vallone

This article was written by Matthew Hampton.

A man who was famous for asking "How'm I doin'?" probably would have taken this as a bad sign. 

Telling the New York Post he wanted to "take our bridge back," City Councilman Peter Vallone, D-Astoria, said he is drafting legislation to strip the former mayor's name from the Ed Koch Queensborough Bridge.
Vallone also told the paper that the decision to rename the bridge was a slap in the face to Queens, comparing it to renaming the Manhattan or Brooklyn Bridges.

Vallone unsuccessfully lobbied to stop the renaming while Koch was alive. The former mayor died last year.  

Not everyone on the council shares Vallone's view. City Councilman James Gennaro, D-Fresh Meadows, released a statement Monday morning defending the bridge's renaming, and saying it does nothing to belittle the borough.

"Mr. Vallone’s position seems to rest on the notion that the status and the future of the great borough of Queens will rise or fall based on whether or not the words ‘Ed Koch’ are joined with ‘Queensboro’ as the name on this bridge," Gennaro said. "This is, of course, preposterous in the extreme."

The former mayor was obviously thrilled with the name change. He once appeared in a tongue-in-cheek video prior to a 'State of the City' address, standing at the foot of the Queensboro shouting "welcome to my bridge!" 

What do you think? Is Vallone right? Or should it remain the "Ed Koch Queensborough Bridge?"