Coming Soon: Adam Yauch NYC Park?
Yauch in 2007 Image by Getty Images
You’ve got to fight for your right — to rename a New York City park for the late Beastie Boy Adam “MCA” Yauch.
That’s the message from a fast-growing movement of fans who are urging legislators to rechristen Brooklyn’s State Street Basketball Courts — and possibly State Street Park — after the fallen Jewish rapper, who succumbed to cancer this month.
A May 16 comment on the Brooklyn Heights Blog apparently sparked the renaming campaign. A reader called “She’s Crafty” responded to a post about New York State Senator Daniel Squadron’s tribute to Yauch by calling for a rebranding of the neighborhood’s Squibb Park. “MCA boarded in the Heights as a kid so what better memorial? Would be nice to also have it right across from Chapin Park: 2 musical geniuses side by side,” she opined.
But as gossip site Vulture reported today, city officials “weren’t keen on the group’s original choice… on account of it already being named for someone else (pharmaceutical manufacturer Dr. Edward Robinson Squibb).” According to the renaming movement’s Facebook page, the effort then shifted to State Street Park in Brooklyn Heights. The page has snowballed to nearly 1700 “likes” since launching a few days ago.
In a post yesterday, the Brooklyn Heights Blog also revealed that fellow Beastie Boy Adam “AdRock” Horovitz and his wife Kathleen Hanna have committed to repairing the basketball courts at State Street and renaming them after Yauch. “I just wanted to let you know that Adam ‘Adrock’ Horovitz has already begun working with the Parks Commissioner to fix up and rename State Street Park where Yauch actually played as a kid to Adam Yauch Park. It would be great to get people behind THIS idea as it won’t hurt the Squibb family….Thanks, Kathleen Hanna,” she said in an email.
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