Push for ‘Obama Ave.’ outside ‘Troll Tower’
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
Dozens of protesters “trolled”
President Trump on Wed.,
Aug. 21, by gathering outside
Trump Tower and calling for the one
block of Fifth Ave. between 56th and
57th Sts. to be renamed President Barack
H. Obama Ave.
The protest comes after an online
petition on moveon.org calling for the
avenue’s renaming received more than
430,000 signatures.
“It started as a joke,” Elizabeth
Rowin, the petition creator, said at the
event. “It’s a way to poke the giant in
the eye.”
In response to the mass support
the petition received, Rowin sent the
document to every single New York
City Council member. A few got back
to her and said that if enough people
signed the petition, the renaming could
become a reality. According to Rowin,
several signers are planning on attending
a Sept. 12 City Council meeting to
push for the renaming.
In order to get a street named in New
York City, an individual needs to obtain
signatures — either online or in person
— from at least 75 percent of the
residents and/or business people on the
block. After getting the signatures, the
applicant needs to bring the petition
Critics of Donald Trump “trolled” the president by calling on the city
to rename a block of Fifth Ave. President Barack H. Obama Ave.
to a traffi c and transportation committee
meeting of the area’s corresponding
community board. The next step is to
get that full community board’s approval.
If approved, the petition needs
PHOTO BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
to be sent to the City Council. The City
Council will then evaluate the streetrenaming
application. Prospective honorees
should have at least 10 years of
community involvement and must have
been dead at least two years before the
petition submission. The Council votes
on street name changes twice a year.
Even if the street can’t be renamed,
for protesters the occasion was a good
excuse to voice their disapproval of the
president’s comportment and policies.
“He is crumbling our democracy every
day,” said Liza Trinkle, a 39-yearold
speech language pathologist from
Brooklyn. “It shouldn’t be normalized
like it’s unfortunately becoming. So
we need to confront him in humorous
ways, more protesty ways, just every
way that we can every day.”
The demonstrators cited the president’s
stance on immigration, in particular,
the migrant detention centers
at the border. They also blasted his
personalized attacks on critics, his previous
call for the death penalty for the
Central Park 5 and the alienation of
America’s allies, among other issues.
All of these make him worthy of the
moniker “Troll King,” they said.
Rowin believes that Obama deserves
recognition for helping the country
recover from the Great Recession of
2007/08 and for the killing of Osama
bin Laden, the man responsible for orchestrating
9/11. She is hopeful that
the city will be able to make a special
exemption since Los Angeles has already
renamed a stretch of a street in
the 44th president’s honor.
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