naming-rights

It's Not Charity If You Want Your Name on It

Hamilton Nolan · 10/27/15 10:42AM

Very rich people sometimes make very large donations to educational or cultural institutions. In return, they ask for their names to be plastered atop buildings. These donations have no moral worth.

Some Other Things We Could Name After William McKinley Instead

Alex Pareene · 08/31/15 01:30PM

Today there is one less large thing named after a man from Ohio, and the other men from Ohio are hopping mad. “Our beloved Ohio man needs his name on the large thing,” they cry. Their cries fall on deaf ears: Alaska’s Mt. McKinley is now Denali.

Seventh Avenue Was Wiped Off the Map Today

cityfile · 01/13/10 05:05PM

In the esteemed tradition of murdered mob boss Paul Castellano (East 46th Street between Second and Third!) and gun-toting former Giant Plaxico Burress (Lexington between East 47th and East 48th Streets!), Seventh Avenue was renamed "Project Runway Avenue" today. It's just a one-day thing, though. Tomorrow you can go back to calling it Seventh Avenue. [OK!, NYT]

Steve Schwarzman Has a New Enemy

cityfile · 12/16/09 01:33PM

Last May, billionaire financier Steve Schwarzman made a $100 million donation to the New York Library. The gift, which followed more than a year of blistering press coverage (remember: never let a Journal reporter into your home and allow him/her to interview the household help!) wasn't without one big string: The library's Beaux-Arts main branch on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue had to be renamed in the Blackstone Group co-founder's honor. It's been more than a year since then, but clearly some people have no intention of ever calling it the "Schwarzman Building."

Jackson Gets Denied

cityfile · 08/28/09 03:08PM

The MTA won't be renaming Brooklyn's Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station after Michael Jackson. City Councilwoman Letitia James first proposed the idea a few weeks back, since the station is where Jackson filmed his "Bad" video in 1987. But the MTA has taken a pass—even though it recently sold off naming rights to another subway station to Barclays for $4 million.