Push to change Mario Cuomo Bridge back to Tappan Zee hits dead end
Northbound lanes of the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Tappan Zee Bridge enter Rockland County. Credit: STAR MAX/IPx
ALBANY — Despite a petition with nearly 300,000 names and rare bipartisan support in the State Legislature, an effort to change the name of the state’s major suburban span from the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge back to the Tappan Zee Bridge has hit a dead end, again.
The latest bill to name the Westchester-Rockland span, like its predecessors, failed to win approval by the Democrat-controlled Assembly Transportation Committee.
The committee vote last month means the bill won’t get a floor vote in the full Assembly this year.
“It’s done,” said Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman William Magnarelli (D-Syracuse).
Forever?
“I hope so,” said Magnarelli, who said new signs alone would unnecessarily cost millions of dollars.
Some lawmakers backed the bill at least in part to punch back at former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat who six years ago jammed the honor for his father through the Legislature. Many lawmakers of both parties had bristled for years under Andrew Cuomo’s hardline political tactics and governing style.
The Assembly committee vote makes the glimmer of hope for the bill in the Senate moot. It can’t become law without approval in both chambers, not that Senate approval was a sure thing.
“There’s not a zero chance,” said the bill’s co-sponsor, Sen. James Skoufis. “But it’s an uphill fight for obvious reasons … it is obviously a sensitive issue within my party. Some see it as being in the rearview mirror, and, ‘Why are we dredging up old stuff?’ ”
Skoufis (D-Woodbury) and supporters of his measure rattle off several reasons to go back to the old name.
They said the renaming occurred without public input and was approved in Albany’s notorious dead-of-night dealing.
Backers of returning to the old name also said the Tappan Zee name is historic and appropriate. Tappan Zee refers to the tribe known as Tappan, who lived in the area, and “zee” is the word Dutch settlers used for sea, referring to the 25-mile wide stretch of Hudson River.
“It was done with literally zero community input,” Skoufis said. “People woke up and saw the name was changed … it left a bad taste in people's mouths.”
One of them is Monroe Mann, a local lawyer who continues to lead the “SaveOurTappanZee.org” group. He said the group’s message was about saving a piece of New York State history.
“I don’t think anyone has gotten used to it,” Mann said. “I still hear ‘Tappan Zee’ … You can try to ram something down peoples’ throat, but if you don’t have buy-in, it’s not going to stick.”
“Mario Cuomo just isn’t as important as the founders of the state,” Mann said. “I don’t know what Andrew was thinking when he said, ‘My dad deserves it.’ No, he does not.”
The Republican sponsor of the bill, Assmb. John McGowan of Rockland County’s Pearl River, blames the younger Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 amid sexual harassment accusations.
“The disgraced former governor does not deserve to have his family name on a major piece of infrastructure that connects Nyack to Tarrytown any longer than it has been,” McGowan said.
McGowan also questioned the cost estimate.
“Where are the old signs?” McGowan asked. He said he hasn’t yet gotten any answers to suggestions that the old Tappan Zee signs or that new name plates be used to cover the Cuomo name on existing signs.
“If there is any hope for it, that remains to be seen,” McGowan said. “I’m not giving up.”
A spokesman for Cuomo didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Mario Cuomo died in 2015. He was a liberal lion in New York and nationwide in the 1980s and 1990s. A star in the party, he was urged by his supporters to run for president.
Opponents of renaming the bridge argue it’s not about renaming at all. The original Tappan Zee Bridge was built between 1952 and 1955. In 1994, the bridge was renamed the Gov. Malcolm Wilson Tappan Zee Bridge by then-Gov. Mario Cuomo. Wilson’s name, however, was rarely used in referring to the bridge.
In 2011, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo drove the state to replace the aging span rather than continue to repair it.
The result was the $4 billion new bridge later named the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. Cuomo made the bridge a personal priority and a display of his can-do ability.
“It’s not the renaming, it’s the naming of a new bridge,” Magnarelli said. “And Mario Cuomo was the governor of the state of New York for three terms and deserves the recognition, as far as I am concerned. But the overriding reason is that it would cost millions of dollars to rename it. Some may feel very strongly … but I think most of the people in the state have no stomach for spending millions of dollars to repurpose signs.”
The bridges — old and new — were built as a critical route for passenger and commercial traffic to and from Manhattan and New England as well as between the suburban counties of Westchester and Rockland.
The new span was named for the elder Cuomo on June 29, 2017. It was part of one of Albany’s notorious “big ugly” bills that linked other politically thorny and disparate bills in a midnight deal. The approval pushed aside a bill approved that year by the then-Republican-controlled Senate to name the new span The Purple Heart Memorial Bridge, which would be 37 miles from the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor.
Another bill would have named the bridge for Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and another would name it the Pete Seeger Memorial Bridge, after the folk musician and environmentalist. Both bills died in 2018. A compromise to name it the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Tappan Zee Bridge went nowhere.
Instead, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who was running for a third term at the time, drove over the Gov. Mario Cuomo Bridge on Sept. 8, 2018, at the wheel of the 1932 Packard limo purchased by former Gov. Franklin Roosevelt, after the state paid $10,439 to restore it.
That day Cuomo said the bridge, the biggest infrastructure in the nation, was a metaphor for bringing people together, regardless of their politics, and a “thank you” to his father.
ALBANY — Despite a petition with nearly 300,000 names and rare bipartisan support in the State Legislature, an effort to change the name of the state’s major suburban span from the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge back to the Tappan Zee Bridge has hit a dead end, again.
The latest bill to name the Westchester-Rockland span, like its predecessors, failed to win approval by the Democrat-controlled Assembly Transportation Committee.
The committee vote last month means the bill won’t get a floor vote in the full Assembly this year.
“It’s done,” said Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman William Magnarelli (D-Syracuse).
WHAT TO KNOW
- Legislation to change the name of the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge back to the Tappan Zee Bridge has hit a dead end, again.
The bill failed to win approval by the Democrat-controlled Assembly Transportation Committee, which means it won’t get a floor vote in the full Assembly this year.
Despite a petition with nearly 300,000 names and rare bipartisan support for the change, legislators on both sides of the issue questioned the cost of new signage, which could be in the millions of dollars.
Forever?
“I hope so,” said Magnarelli, who said new signs alone would unnecessarily cost millions of dollars.
Reasons for support
Some lawmakers backed the bill at least in part to punch back at former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat who six years ago jammed the honor for his father through the Legislature. Many lawmakers of both parties had bristled for years under Andrew Cuomo’s hardline political tactics and governing style.
The Assembly committee vote makes the glimmer of hope for the bill in the Senate moot. It can’t become law without approval in both chambers, not that Senate approval was a sure thing.
“There’s not a zero chance,” said the bill’s co-sponsor, Sen. James Skoufis. “But it’s an uphill fight for obvious reasons … it is obviously a sensitive issue within my party. Some see it as being in the rearview mirror, and, ‘Why are we dredging up old stuff?’ ”
Skoufis (D-Woodbury) and supporters of his measure rattle off several reasons to go back to the old name.
They said the renaming occurred without public input and was approved in Albany’s notorious dead-of-night dealing.
Backers of returning to the old name also said the Tappan Zee name is historic and appropriate. Tappan Zee refers to the tribe known as Tappan, who lived in the area, and “zee” is the word Dutch settlers used for sea, referring to the 25-mile wide stretch of Hudson River.
“It was done with literally zero community input,” Skoufis said. “People woke up and saw the name was changed … it left a bad taste in people's mouths.”
One of them is Monroe Mann, a local lawyer who continues to lead the “SaveOurTappanZee.org” group. He said the group’s message was about saving a piece of New York State history.
“I don’t think anyone has gotten used to it,” Mann said. “I still hear ‘Tappan Zee’ … You can try to ram something down peoples’ throat, but if you don’t have buy-in, it’s not going to stick.”
“Mario Cuomo just isn’t as important as the founders of the state,” Mann said. “I don’t know what Andrew was thinking when he said, ‘My dad deserves it.’ No, he does not.”
The Republican sponsor of the bill, Assmb. John McGowan of Rockland County’s Pearl River, blames the younger Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 amid sexual harassment accusations.
“The disgraced former governor does not deserve to have his family name on a major piece of infrastructure that connects Nyack to Tarrytown any longer than it has been,” McGowan said.
McGowan also questioned the cost estimate.
“Where are the old signs?” McGowan asked. He said he hasn’t yet gotten any answers to suggestions that the old Tappan Zee signs or that new name plates be used to cover the Cuomo name on existing signs.
“If there is any hope for it, that remains to be seen,” McGowan said. “I’m not giving up.”
A spokesman for Cuomo didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Costs questioned
Mario Cuomo died in 2015. He was a liberal lion in New York and nationwide in the 1980s and 1990s. A star in the party, he was urged by his supporters to run for president.
Opponents of renaming the bridge argue it’s not about renaming at all. The original Tappan Zee Bridge was built between 1952 and 1955. In 1994, the bridge was renamed the Gov. Malcolm Wilson Tappan Zee Bridge by then-Gov. Mario Cuomo. Wilson’s name, however, was rarely used in referring to the bridge.
In 2011, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo drove the state to replace the aging span rather than continue to repair it.
The result was the $4 billion new bridge later named the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. Cuomo made the bridge a personal priority and a display of his can-do ability.
“It’s not the renaming, it’s the naming of a new bridge,” Magnarelli said. “And Mario Cuomo was the governor of the state of New York for three terms and deserves the recognition, as far as I am concerned. But the overriding reason is that it would cost millions of dollars to rename it. Some may feel very strongly … but I think most of the people in the state have no stomach for spending millions of dollars to repurpose signs.”
History of bridge
The bridges — old and new — were built as a critical route for passenger and commercial traffic to and from Manhattan and New England as well as between the suburban counties of Westchester and Rockland.
The new span was named for the elder Cuomo on June 29, 2017. It was part of one of Albany’s notorious “big ugly” bills that linked other politically thorny and disparate bills in a midnight deal. The approval pushed aside a bill approved that year by the then-Republican-controlled Senate to name the new span The Purple Heart Memorial Bridge, which would be 37 miles from the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor.
Another bill would have named the bridge for Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and another would name it the Pete Seeger Memorial Bridge, after the folk musician and environmentalist. Both bills died in 2018. A compromise to name it the Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Tappan Zee Bridge went nowhere.
Instead, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who was running for a third term at the time, drove over the Gov. Mario Cuomo Bridge on Sept. 8, 2018, at the wheel of the 1932 Packard limo purchased by former Gov. Franklin Roosevelt, after the state paid $10,439 to restore it.
That day Cuomo said the bridge, the biggest infrastructure in the nation, was a metaphor for bringing people together, regardless of their politics, and a “thank you” to his father.
Michael Gormley has worked for Newsday since 2013, covering state government, politics and issues. He has covered Albany since 2001.
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