NEW YORK — New Yorkers have been finding more and more ways to protest President Donald Trump, from stripping his name off buildings he once built to holding demonstrations outside his midtown Manhattan home/office.
The latest effort: an online petition signed by more than 369,000 people seeks to officially rename one block of Fifth Avenue — where, you guessed it, Trump Tower is located — as President Barack H. Obama Avenue.
Sounds like a simple enough request, considering how unpopular Trump is among the city’s residents. It’s not.
The local community board has a long-standing moratorium against renaming streets.
The councilman who represents the area said he opposed the petition.
And Corey Johnson, the City Council speaker and a progressive Democrat who can muscle through legislation he favors, said he opposed the renaming, too.
Johnson, who effectively determines whether the renaming will happen, said in a statement, “As much as I love the idea of celebrating President Obama, I am not positive this is the best way.”
“The Obamas epitomize class, dedication to public service and respect for the Oval Office,” he added. “I’m pretty confident we can find a better way to honor the greatest president of my lifetime than by trolling the worst president of my lifetime.”
Councilman Keith Powers, a Democrat, said, “While this is a fun and clever idea, the best way to protest the president is to go back and win the White House.”
Powers also cautioned against losing focus of more important matters.
“I feel like we’re engaging in the game that the other side wants us to play if we start doing this tit for tat thing,” he said. “I think we should find the next Obama, and put them in the White House.”
Besides, Powers said, “I actually think Obama wouldn’t like it.”
The petition to rename this part of Fifth Avenue was started a few months ago by Elizabeth Rowin, 56, an artist and retired legal secretary from Los Angeles who is currently in New York accompanying her husband, a filmmaker.
“I understand that it’s petty and it’s trolling,” Rowin said in an interview. But, she said, “I think people who actually live in the district would like it.”
A wide range of people have been honored by having their name added to a street sign in the city.
City officials said there was a long-standing practice of reserving that honor for people who are deceased.
Two former mayors had their names added to public structures — but not streets — during their lifetime. In 2010, Queensboro Bridge was renamed after Ed Koch, who died three years later. In 2015, the Municipal Building across the street from City Hall was named after David Dinkins.
Last month, the City Council voted to add names to 86 streets and public spaces in the city. Among those honored were Audre Lorde, the state’s first female and first black poet laureate, in Staten Island; Police Officer George Scheu, in Queens, and rapper Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace of Brooklyn.
One street on Staten Island was also named for the Wu-Tang Clan rap group; nearly all of its members are still alive. A City Council spokeswoman said groups and organizations can be honored before they are defunct.
Renaming usually requires the support of local residents and the City Council member, before it is presented to the 51-member New York City Council for a vote. To streamline the process, the names are collected into a single bill presented to the Council once a year for a vote.
Still, Rowin stands behind her idea: “It’s fun to poke fun at someone who you find to be a poor representative of your city.”