The dream of renaming the Lower East Side intersection of Ludlow and Rivington "Beastie Boys Square" was emphatically deferred by Community Board 3 last night. After being dealt a preliminary rejection earlier this month, the man behind the proposal, Leroy McCarthy, was under the impression he would have more time to gather signatures and make a second presentation to the CB Transportation Committee in February. Instead, the full board voted 24-1 to reject the application—and the rules essentially prevent McCarthy from applying again for another five years.
The board requires that an honoree be deceased (in this case that would be late Beastie Boy Adam Yauch) but also that the honoree demonstrated 15 years of service to the community. McCarthy, who chose the intersection because it's the location of the iconic Paul's Boutique cover, would never be able to meet the second requirement, according to the Community Board.
McCarthy, who had received an email just last week confirming his February date with the CB subcommittee, didn't even attend the meeting because he had no idea the full board would be voting on the proposal. "I was blindsided," McCarthy tells DNAinfo. "Once again I was blindsided and not given the opportunity to present the full material they [CB3] requested. They did not given me a chance to be heard at the committee, which was the arrangement that had been made."
In an email to McCarthy, CB3's district manager Susan Stetzer said the board decided to vote last night out of a concern "that you not put in many hours of work and then have the board deny in February."
