‘What would Lew tell me to do?’
Southern Brooklyn street co-named for late Councilmember Lew Fidler
COURIER LIFE, JULY 2-8, 2021 3
BY BEN BRACHFELD
The late former Councilmember Lew
Fidler’s name now adorns a southern
Brooklyn intersection, after the street
was offi cially co-named in his honor on
June 28.
Where Haring Street meets Avenue
R in Sheepshead Bay is now known as
Lewis A Fidler Way. The intersection is
right outside his former political club,
the 41st Assembly District Democrats
Club, which still includes his name in
large letters on its signage.
Fidler represented southern Brooklyn’s
46th district, which includes Canarsie,
Flatlands, Marine Park, Mill
Basin, Bergen Beach, Gerritsen Beach,
and part of Sheepshead Bay, in the City
Council from 2002 to 2013. He died in
2019 at the age of 62.
The co-naming event attracted a
large number of the borough’s pols, including
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams,
Councilmember and comptroller
candidate Brad Lander, Councilmember
and borough president candidate
Robert Cornegy, Councilmembers Alan
Maisel, Justin Brannan, Mathieu Eugene,
and Kalman Yeger, state Sen. Andrew
Gounardes, and Assemblymember
Helene Weinstein, among many
others.
Even some pols from other boroughs
showed up, including Manhattan Borough
President Gale Brewer and Queens
Councilmember Karen Koslowitz, a display
of Fidler’s wide respect among the
city’s political class.
“I always tell everybody when they
get mad at me, for being in politics and
what I’m doing, to blame Lew Fidler,”
Williams said at the event, noting that
the late politico took him under his
wing, and that he considered Fidler a
mentor.
Gounardes, another mentee of Fidler’s,
said that he has a picture of himself
and Fidler saved on his phone that
he looks at when he needs a pick-me-up
or guiding light.
“I had it saved as a favorite on my
phone,” he said. “And whenever I feel
down, I kid you not, whenever I’m just
perplexed, confused, or I’m just looking
for some kind of inspiration in the
day-to-day of this business that we call
government and politics, I actually look
at that photo. And I look at him, and I
say, ‘What would Lew tell me to do right
now? If I could call him right now, what
would he tell me to do?'”
Maisel, who succeeded Fidler in the
46th District and was a close friend of
his, noted what was perhaps Fidler’s
most prominent legacy in the Council,
which was rallying for shelter beds for
homeless youth, particularly those that
are LGBTQ+.
“If Lew is not remembered for anything
that he ever did in this district, or
anything that he did anywhere, it’s his
fi ght for the homeless youth of this city,”
Maisel said.
Speaking with Brooklyn Paper after
the event, Maisel said that despite the
event being a celebration of Fidler’s life,
it was bittersweet, because at the end of
the day, Fidler is still no longer around.
“It was very very sad, frankly, because
Lew was a friend of mine for 40
years,” Maisel said. “And the last thing
in the world I would like to do is to be
naming a street after him. I would much
prefer that he was around. But it is what
it is, it was very sad for me and all his
friends and family.”
Politicos from far and wide came to honor the memory and legacy of late former Councilmember
Lew Fidler at the June 28 street co-naming. John McCarten/NYC Council
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