Unfinished Cuomo Bridge now carrying all the traffic. Dismantling the Tappan Zee is underway.
TARRYTOWN – Transparency-in-government group Reclaim NY is calling
on the new session of the state legislature to allow New Yorkers, in particular
residents of the Hudson Valley who use the crossing between Rockland and
Westchester, to name the new twin-span over the Hudson River.
Group spokesman Douglas Kellogg said the “rush to backroom renaming” of the bridge as the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, after Governor Andrew Cuomo’s father and former governor, “cut taxpayers out of the process.”
Many believe “Tappan Zee” should at least be part of the name for the new span.
Kellogg said the way that was done was totally inappropriate.
“They still don’t know exactly how much that toll is going to go up by even though there is a task force that was supposed to be meeting and telling them how much it was going to be. We don’t have any of these answers. It makes the situation a complete insult that the bridge was renamed in this fashion,” he said. “It’s business as usual in Albany but there is no reason that that should not be outrageous to New Yorkers.”
Kellogg said lawmakers can go into the next session in the coming weeks and work on potentially changing the name back.
