Sonny Carson

The unofficial street renaming for black nationalist Sonny Carson is going forward in Brooklyn this Saturday at 4 p.m., according to a City Hall source. And leading the unofficial event will be Charles Barron.

The fact that the City Council already rejected this plan isn't stopping supporters. In fact, I'm guessing this is going to end quite well, politically speaking, for Barron and the Carson supporters: The event is going to draw a crowd, and reporters. The attention could be used to strengthen supporters' claims that the will of the people is being crushed by City Hall. And the (inevitable?)images of the sign being removed by city officials or the police will only add to that perception.

That is, unless Barron's chief of staff Viola Plummer steals the show. Again.

Councilman Alan Gerson of Lower Manhattan was among a handful of lawmakers absent when the City Council voted on whether to co-name four blocks of Gates Avenue after the black nationalist activist Sonny Carson.

I called Gerson's office to ask how he would have voted.

No, according to an aide. And to explain why, they sent over a lengthy statement from Gerson, in which he says, "I could not explain to the Asian-American community I represent how we could co-name a street for an individual who personally led the campaign of boycott against Korean-owned delis with signs that read, 'Don’t Shop With People Who Don’t Look Like Us.' "

The full statement is after the jump.  read more »

Yesterday at City Hall, I ran into Councilman Tom White of Queens, one of the Council members who was absent the day of the emotionally charged vote over whether to rename a stretch of street for black nationalist Sonny Carson.

I asked him how he would have voted if he was there.

"You don't want to ask me that," he responded.

He said he was at a doctor's appointment and hadn't taken a position on it yet.

Why, I asked?

"Because I don't live in Brooklyn," he said.

But after hearing all about it, how would he have voted?

"I don't know," he said, and walked away.

Here’s a picture of Police Commissioner Ray Kelly after a town hall meeting on West 125th Street last night featuring the mayor and some top commissioners.

Most of the questions directed at Bloomberg at the event were about zoning, housing, police relations and job development. No one asked about the street renaming effort for Sonny Carson that seemed to dominate proceedings in the City Council earlier this week.  read more »

For the record, here’s the exact breakdown of who voted for, against, abstained or was absent for a proposal yesterday to reinsert the name of black activist Sonny Carson into an omnibus street renaming bill.

Affirmative: 15
Negative: 25
Abstentions: 7
Absent 4:

Notably, John Liu, the only Asian-American in the Council, voted to honor Carson, as did Tony Avella. Bill De Blasio, who worked on the David Dinkins mayoral campaign around the time Carson was registering voters to help elect Dinkins, voted no.

A complete list is after the jump.  read more »

The City Council has voted down a proposal to co-name four blocks of a street in Brooklyn after black nationalist Sonny Carson. The vote was 15 for and 25 against, with seven abstentions. Notable votes: Bill De Blasio, who worked on David Dinkins' mayoral campaign with Carson, voted no. Oliver Koppell, who voted no, said "we are not voting on the civil rights movement." Mathieu Eugene, in one of his first votes, abstained. Mike Nelson of Brooklyn voted no, and retold a story of how Carson came into the classroom where she was teaching and said he didn't want a white Jew teaching his children.

It's been a while since Al Jolson was in the news this much, I'm guessing, but... Christine Quinn today defended her support for a street renaming for Jolson, who, for you youngsters out there, famously performed in blackface in The Jazz Singer. Critics have asserted that it is hypocritical of Quinn to rename a street after Jolson, but to speak out (as she has recently) against naming one after black nationalist Sonny Carson.

“If you look at the totality of Al Jolson’s record, he took significant steps, he tried to increase the number of African-Americans who performed on Broadway,” Quinn told reporters at a press conference before a Council meeting today. The Council is about to vote on an amendment to reinsert Carson's name into an omnibus street renaming bill.

Quinn went on to say she’s open to reviewing previously approved street renamings.

“If people think mistakes have been made in the past, we can go back and look at those," she said. "But that’s not--and I don’t believe we have made mistakes. And I don’t believe the Al Jolson renaming was a mistake.”

Here's one unusual perspective on the argument for naming a small piece of New York City after black nationalist Sonny Carson:

“My quandary is made easier because I actually knew Sonny Carson and knew that in his last days and knew that he rued some of the stuff that he did,” Councilman James Sanders of Queens told me.

In the clip above, Sanders says that Carson privately repudiated the controversial comments he made.

Sonny Carson is being honored at 1 p.m. today with the renaming of a park on Linden Boulevard and Vermont Avenue in Brooklyn.

Which is weird since a plan to co-name a street after him has stalled in the City Council. Did the Parks Department authorize the Carson renaming?

“No, we’re not waiting for approval,” Charles Barron told me today. “We’re exercising self-determination. We’re going to put up a sign and if they take it down, we’re going to keep putting it up until they leave it up.”

Barron also said he has the support of about twenty members of the Council’s Black, Latino and Asian Caucus leading up to the May 30th vote to co-name a street after Carson in Brooklyn. There is also an amendment to remove Carson’s name from an omnibus co-naming bill.

Critics of Carson point note that the outspoken civil rights figure declared himself “anti-white” and played a prominent role the boycotting of Korean stores that polarized parts of the city.

“Let's say all of that is true," Barron said. "We still have a right.”  read more »

On Union Street in Brooklyn this weekend, I came across a poster that said the “black community said yes” and “4 white people said no” to renaming a street after controversial activist Sonny Carson. (My mostly failed attempts at cell phone pictures of the poster are here and here.)

There is also a rally this morning in Foley Square in support of the Carson renaming.

And a bill that excludes Carson from a list of streets to be renamed will be discussed by the City Council on the Wednesday.

Sydney Beveridge has more on this stuff over here.

A bill to remove the name of controversial activist Sonny Carson from an omnibus street renaming bill passed the Parks and Recreations Committee earlier today. Several people who tried protesting the vote were escorted out of the City Council chamber, where the meeting was held, according to a source.

On Monday, the full Council will vote on the bill.

More details later.