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Read the press release here.

Vallone Drafting Bill to Get Ed Koch's Name Off the Queensboro Bridge

 The late former mayor Ed Koch at the re-naming of the Queenboro bridge in 2011.
The late former mayor Ed Koch at the re-naming of the Queenboro bridge in 2011.
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DNAinfo/Jill Colvin

QUEENS — For City Councilman Peter Vallone, the bridge that connects Queens to 59th Street in Manhattan will always be the Queensboro — and he wants it back that way.

The longtime Astoria rep and candidate for Queens Borough President says he's drafting a bill that would drop the late Ed Koch's name from Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, according to a press release.

"A landmark so closely linked to the history of our borough should never be renamed after anyone," Vallone said in statement, which

The former mayor Koch died in February. The city added his name to the Queensboro Bridge in 2011, when he was still alive.

"That they would honor me this way at a time when I can actually be here was very, not only thoughtful, but very, very generous," Koch told reporters at the time.

Vallone fought the re-naming from the start, and claims the change was made "despite overwhelming opposition from the residents of Queens."

"The people of Queens have spoken, and they want their bridge back," the councilman said in a statement.

"Manhattan had no right to take the Queensboro Bridge away in the first place — I am just trying to correct this injustice."