Council Member Brewer on Intro 859A and Cecile Richards Way
Council Member Gale Brewer speaks on Intro 859A, explaining its purpose to update the DORIS digital map with bios for 9/11 first responders, and celebrates the co-naming of Cecile Richards Way.
Thank you very much, Chair, and I am here about 859A.
This is about the omnibus street co-naming bill.
It is a long history.
We have a long history in New York.
And we need tools to remember those who came before us, whether their name is on a building or a street sign or anywhere.
These folks shaped our neighborhoods and future generations.
In 2023,
The council passed my local law 104 requiring the Department of Records and Information Services, known as DORIS, to create an interactive digital map of these co-namings.
Every single person we had names of up to that point is in that digital map.
Yet between 2002 and 2003, more than 400 streets were co-named for first responders killed on 9-11, and the city lacked biographical information to update the map.
I remember going to a lot of funerals at that time.
And to the credit of Doris, particularly former Commissioner Pauline Toole and her staff, they researched all 400
of the individuals lost on that terrible day because they could not until then get their bios.
Into 859A allows Doris to update the map so New Yorkers and visitors can quickly learn the stories behind these heroes without having to search through years of records.
I want to say that to the credit of Doris, they felt that it should go through the council to be official and not just go up on the website.
I want to thank Committee Counsel Chris Sartori, Senior Legislative Policy Analyst Patrick Mulville for their work on this, as well as Local Law 104.
I think we're also ecstatic that Cecile Richards will be Cecile Richards Way on the corner of 83rd Street and Central Park West.
She was a civil rights, women's rights leader of her generation, head of Planned Parenthood for many, many years, and the daughter of Ann Richards, who was governor of Texas for many years.
I want to thank Deborah Maherans and Carol Portlock for their persistence, and also to thank her husband, Kirk Adams, for his support of this co-naming.
Thank you very much.