No Sleep Till Brooklyn Park Is Renamed

Last week the folks behind Brooklyn Heights Blog launched a Facebook page called “Rename Squibb Park in Brooklyn Heights To Honor Adam Yauch.” The idea was brought up by a commenter on the blog as a way to pay homage to the rapper, film director, human rights activist and Brooklyn Heights native, who died May 4 at age 47 from throat cancer. Squibb Park is named after inventor and pharmaceutical manufacturer Edward Robinson Squibb.

The Brooklyn Heights Blog updated supporters May 22 with a post saying that the blog community’s efforts were going well. The Facebook page had more than 1,300 “likes” and the Squibb Park plan was getting attention in the media. The only issue was that there was already an ongoing campaign to get another Brooklyn park renamed after Yauch.

Musician/feminist activist Kathleen Hanna contacted Brooklyn Heights Blog via Facebook to say that her husband, Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz, had already been working with the commissioner for the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation “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.”

After checking with the Beastie Boys management to confirm the plan, the Brooklyn Heights Plan announced it would refocus its efforts and support Horovitz’s campaign to rename State Street Park’s basketball courts. The Facebook page has been updated with this news although the name of the page hasn’t been changed due to Facebook policy regarding pages that already have more than 200 likes. 

According to Brooklyn Heights Blog, “right now the effort is focused on the basketball courts and not necessarily adjoining Palmetto Playground.”

New York television station Fox 5 News reported May 23 that the New York City Parks & Recreation Department is “looking into” the idea of renaming the basketball courts.