Would Bobby Kennedy have wanted the RFK Bridge named after him?

Crossing the Triborough Bridge last night on the way home from LaGuardia airport, I smiled as my cab passed under a giant banner trumpeting today's renaming of the bridge in honor of Robert F. Kennedy.

RFK is one of my political heroes, so part of me is quite pleased to see such a prominent part of New York City bearing his name. On the other hand, as New York magazine points out, you've got to recognize the irony:

There's no reason to think Kennedy, an environmentalist before his time, would have wanted his name associated with the notorious bottleneck site. "He believed, appropriately, that cars didn't belong in New York," says Columbia historian Kenneth Jackson, who opposes the renaming. "And with the MTA facing a billion-dollar deficit, I think Bobby Kennedy would be calling for us to find ways to save the planet and run more buses and subways rather than spend money to change signage."

As a senator, Kennedy pushed for mass-transit funding. "We need to substitute mass transportation for individual cars if we are to obtain a significant reduction in the amount of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon in the atmosphere," he said in 1967.

Yep, RFK recognized more than 40 years ago that we needed to make major changes in our transportation habits, spending and infrastructure in order to fight pollution. We're still dealing with that same car-centric mentality today.

Overall, though, I'm happy to see Kennedy honored. His family supported the designation, including RFK Jr., a senior lawyer with NRDC. And transit advocate Gene Russianoff told New York mag: "I think Kennedy would probably have appreciated that the revenue from the tolls paid by every car that goes over his bridge will go to subsidize mass transit."

I bet he's right. Robert Moses, on the other hand ...

Photo: Triborough (now RFK) Bridge by Meg Cotner

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