Mario Cuomo Bridge plan facing Hudson Valley pushback

...Gov. Andrew Cuomo's effort to name the Tappan Zee Bridge and its $3.9 billion replacement after his father is not being received warmly by some officials representing the communities the span connects, who are questioning the haste in which the current governor has tried to push it through.

Among them are Rockland County Executive Ed Day, a Republican who said the bridge shouldn't be named after a politician, and Assemblyman Thomas Abinanti, D-Mount Pleasant, Westchester County, who said the proposal should be given a more thorough public vetting.

...Tappan Zee was the name Dutch settlers gave to the area below Haverstraw Bay. It's a reference to the Tappan tribe, early inhabitants of Rockland land, and zee, the Dutch word for sea.

Of more than 70 calls to a phone line set up for Rockland Journal-News readers to sound off on Mario Cuomo's proposal, only one caller supported it, according to the paper at the time.

Mario Cuomo's proposal, however, kept the Tappan Zee name, rather extending it to add Malcolm Wilson. Andrew Cuomo's proposal would strip the Tappan Zee name entirely.

Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski, D-New City, Rockland County, said he's not opposed to naming the new bridge after Mario Cuomo or leaving it named after Malcolm Wilson.

But he said he wants to keep Tappan Zee on the bridge one way or another.

"Being from Rockland, I respect the history of the Tappan Zee," Zebrowski said. "I think it's sort of a universal name, so I would like to see that stay whether it's the Malcolm Wilson Tappan Zee Bridge or the Mario Cuomo Tappan Zee Bridge."

http://www.lohud.com/story/news/politics/politics-on-the-hudson/2017/06/27/mario-cuomo-bridge-plan-facing-hudson-valley-pushback/103240772/

Comment: Fully agree with Zebrowski and I hope there is a compromise. Naming bridges after politicians with a tenuous connection to the structure is lame. Americans need all the help they can get with their own history and "Tappan Zee" is the rare name that informs.