Queensboro Bridge to Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge
Naming a bridge after an ex-politico is not uncommon, but when New York's City Council voted to rename the Queensboro Bridge the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge last week, residents of Queens, one of five of New York City's boroughs, took it personally. It wasn't that they didn't like the three-time former mayor, Koch, it was that they took the renaming as adding salt to their already wounds. Queens is famously disrespected by residents of Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx, giving Queens residents a bit of an inferiority complex. Queens is often thought of as the borough you have to go through to get somewhere, as two of the city's three airports reside in the borough. Aside from the airports, many New Yorkers only know Queens for one single neighborhood: Astoria, home to Greek town and other ethnic populations that have put Astoria on the map with myriad restaurants that pay homage to their home cuisines. (Even Mayor Koch himself once told The New York Times he enjoyed traveling to Astoria for Greek food.) But for those folks who call Queens home, the borough boasts much more than an airport and cheap Greek food — they only wish people would cross the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge and find out.