By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The City Council will decide Wednesday whether to rechristen the Queensboro Bridge the "Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge" in honor of the former mayor.
The council's Parks and Recreations Committee voted 6-to-1 Tuesday in favor of the legislation, which was first floated by Mayor Michael Bloomberg at Koch's 86th birthday celebration.
"Like Ed, it's a resilient, hardworking New York City icon that's been bringing people together for a long time — and will probably outlast us all," Bloomberg told the crowd at the time.
City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, a sponsor of the bill, said that she doubts that anyone will stop referring to the passageway as the 59th Street Bridge, as it commonly known, but that the honor was fitting.
"He's certainly a New York City personality," she said.
But not everyone is in favor.
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer, who represents the section of Queens where the bridge ends, voted against the plan Tuesday, arguing that the structure should keep the borough's name front and center.
"Ed Koch was a public servant for many years and while I honor his service to the City of New York, my love for the borough that I was born in and have lived my entire life is far greater," he said in a statement.
Another critic if the plan, Queens City Councilman Peter Vallone, has suggested renaming Gracie Mansion after Koch instead.
A recent Quinnipiac poll found that 62 percent of Manhattan residents oppose renaming the bridge, which Simon and Garfunkel memorialized in their 1966 tune "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)."
