While walking around New York City, you might have noticed that some streets are labeled with names other than their numerical or primary ones. These names, often located on signs directly under their primary ones, honor a variety of individuals, groups or organizations who have made lasting impacts or have special significance to a community. For instance, part of Church Avenue from Remsen Avenue to East 98th street in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, is called Bob Marley Boulevard. There’s also Joey Ramone Place in the East Village, Humphrey Bogart Place on 103rd and Broadway, two Harriet Tubman Avenues– one in Brooklyn and one in Morningside Heights, and Gershwin Way on West 58th and Broadway. About one-fifth of honorary street names are dedicated to 9/11 victims.
As reported by the New York Times last month, a retired city planner named Gilbert Tauber created an unofficial master list of these honorary street names in New York City, along with locations and descriptions for each. We decided to make a map of the streets from the list (1,672 of them), to make it easier for you to visualize, scope out, or find some that are in your neighborhood.
In order for a street to have an honorific name, the City Council must enact a bill in which the street name is authorized. It must also be signed by the Mayor. Each approved bill then becomes a “Local Law.” The list and this map includes all honorific street names in Local Laws enacted from the beginning of 1998 to the end of 2013. (Note that there were six locations we couldn’t find-DJ Scott la Rock Boulevard in the Bronx, Gregorio Luperón Way in the Bronx, Rev. Wenceslao Martinez Way in Brooklyn, Anthony Luparello Way in Queens, Gaetano Vincent Mangano Street in Staten Island, and Alfonso Ferrandino Court in Staten Island).
So here’s a comprehensive map of 1,672 New York City locations, ranging from streets, lanes, intersections, squares, triangles, parks and more, with honorific names. Since we located over 1,600 New York City locations from the list, the map is pretty crowded, so be sure to zoom in if you want to pinpoint specific streets or areas!
Next, read our History of Streets series to learn more about the New York City’s unique locales. Get in touch with the author @sgeier97
