Street Renaming Honors Residents
City Pays Tribute To Public Servants
by Robert Pozarycki
A former Bushwick police officer, a Long Island City restauranteur, a Jackson Heights gay advocate and a female baseball player from Williamsburg are among numerous individuals set to be honored with the renaming of streets throughout the city.
In a bill-signing ceremony at City Hall last Thursday, June 14, Mayor Michael Bloomberg penned his signature to Intro. No. 556, which officially renames 51 “thoroughfares and public places” in the five boroughs.
Locally, the following six locations will be renamed to recognize the achievements of distinguished residents:
• The northwest corner of Palmetto Street and Wilson Avenue in Bushwick will be renamed NYPD Police Officer Marlene Rivera Walk. The life-long resident of Bushwick served with the 103rd Precinct before she died on Sept. 22, 2006 in a fatal car accident in Wantagh, L.I.
• The northeast corner of 47th Avenue and Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City will be renamed Joe Imp’s Place, honoring longtime resident Joseph Imperato, who died on July 24, 2005 at age 60. A veteran of the U.S. Army, Imperato was a member of the Department of Sanitation prior to opening the neighborhood restaurant bearing his nickname.
• The southeast corner of 77th Street and 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights will be renamed Edgar Garzon Corner. A native of Columbia, the 35-year-old resident and member of the Columbian Lesbian and Gay Association died in September 2001 from injuries sustained in an Aug. 15, 2001 bias attack.
• The stretch of Orient Avenue between Metropolitan Avenue and Olive Street in Williamsburg will be renamed Betty “Moe” Trezza Way, honoring the Brooklyn native who died on Jan. 16, 2007 at age 81. The former embroiderer achieved success as an infielder/outfielder with several teams in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League between 1944 and 1950.
• The stretch of Ainslie Street between Manhattan and Graham avenues in Williamsburg will be renamed Thomas Guidice Way, honoring the lifelong resident who died on Jan. 23, 2007 at the age of 79. Guidice was a detective with the NYPD’s Citywide Auto Squad and president of the Conselyea Street Block Association as well as an active member of a number of other organizations including Community Board 1, Brooklyn.
• A stretch of Pine Street in the vicinity of Euclid Avenue and Crescent Street in City Line will be renamed Officer Timothy M. Hurley Way.
The 32-year-old area resident and member of the 103rd Precinct was killed in the line of duty while attempting to apprehend armed robbers in Jamaica on Mar. 9, 1974.
