KEY POINTS:
Ten years ago, Anthony Sanchez was a police officer at Manhattan's 13th Precinct called to a robbery on the tenth floor of a residential building nearby.
He was in the stairwell on the ninth floor when a gunman opened fire from above, mortally wounding him in the neck. His killer was arrested in the basement.
I know this because my apartment is directly opposite the 13th Precinct. More than that, this particular block of East 21st Street has a second name. There it is, printed in white on a green street sign, right outside my bedroom window. In future, please send all correspondence to Anthony Sanchez Way.
There is a long and generous tradition of honouring the distinguished dead of this city by naming sections of street after them. Over the years, tribute has thus been paid to figures as varied as Joey Ramone of the Ramones - he has a "place" in the Bowery - David Ben-Gurion, Bob Marley and Katherine Hepburn. No fewer than 58 victims of the 9/11 attacks now have city blocks dedicated to them.
True most of us barely notice these secondary signs. (As far as the Post Office is concerned I still live on East 21st.) And not all of them recall remotely recognisable figures. There is a Seaman block on the Upper West Side that intersects rather unfortunately with Cumming. The Seamans were big landowners who came from England in the 17th century. But who knows who Mr Cumming was?
The process of christening blocks is usually entirely calm. Community boards make selections for their parts of town and all the names are submitted in an omnibus bill for rubber-stamping by the city council twice a year. Author Kurt Vonnegut, who died earlier this year, has just been nominated for a stretch of East 48th Street near my office where he used to walk his dog. He will sail through.
But this being New York, politics do sometimes intervene and nearly always it is about race and religion. Ben-Gurion got his street only on the second attempt after fierce objections of some Arab groups were overcome. Right now, the council is in a frightful fix over a request to attach the name of deceased radical black activist Sonny Carson to a stretch of Gates Avenue in Brooklyn.
Historians note how the choices made over the generations reflect changes in American culture. "Street names function as a barometer of social values at a given time and, as such, have historical significance that goes beyond a name," wrote Leonard Benardo, co-author of Brooklyn by Name: How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges and More Got Their Names. At least 70 New York streets are named after slave owners of yore while Corbin Place honours Austin Corbin, who ran a railroad when he wasn't too tied up as a member of the American Society for the Suppression of Jews.
Once a name is up, it is hard to take down. It is not overly difficult to understand the controversy in the case of Carson, who died in 2002. It is true he dedicated his life to defending the rights of African Americans in Brooklyn, securing voting rights for black ex-prisoners, exposing police brutality and helping form the Black Men's Movement Against Crack. For many in the community, he remains a hero. Others considered him a racist. When asked once about anti-Semitic comments he had made, he replied: "I am anti-white. Don't just limit me to a little group of people."
The proposal to give Carson part of Gates Avenue was defeated in the city council at the end of May and the recriminations were instant. Black activists in Brooklyn branded the vote by the white-majority council as racist and stuck up a new sign bearing Carson's name anyway. When that was taken down by the city, they named a nearby park after him instead. (Those signs have been removed too).
Historians of the future won't have difficulty understanding this street-name fight. Slavery is long over but race still divides this city. Better perhaps boards steer clear of controversy in nominating their heroes. Slain police officers like Anthony Sanchez are a better choice.
- INDEPENDENT
