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City honors Griffin with street named in his memory

March 8, 2012 Heather Chin

Photo courtesy of City Councilmember Vincent Gentile

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The corner of Third Avenue and 88th Street has been named in honor of the late founder of The Home Reporter newspaper.

On Wednesday, March 7, Mayor Michael Bloomberg put his signature on City Council legislation dedicating the corner where the newspaper is headquartered to the memory of Frank Griffin, who died in March, 2011, at the age of 83 after a brief illness. Besides starting the paper in 1956 and later purchasing rival paper The Brooklyn Spectator

He stepped into the headlines himself, becoming a civic leader, serving on Mayor [John] Lindsays Urban Action Task Force as well as the local school board, [and] serving as grand marshal of the Ragamuffin Parade, said Councilmember Vincent Gentile. Frank was our Joseph Pulitzer and it seems only right that we say thank you by dedicating a portion of New York City after a man who served the community in such a remarkable way.

Griffins legacy continues today, noted former Home Reporter telemarketer Robert Manse, who is now a business owner and jewelry designer and one of this papers 2012 Rising Stars. He was a great man, very dedicated to the newspaper business and Bay Ridge especially, said Manse. He was a great guy to work for. It was fun working here.

Jim Griffin, one of the elder Griffins seven children and The Home Reporters sales manager, first made the case for a street renaming at the September, 2011, meetings of Community Board 10 and its Traffic and Transportation Committee, both of which voted unanimously to support the effort.

I think he really deserves it and its something I can give him, said the younger Griffin of why he spearheaded this effort. The fact [is] that weve been on this corner for nearly 40 years; its almost an institution.

As publisher of The Home Reporter and Spectator newspapers, [my fathers] contributions literally speak volumes in the recorded history and day-to-day life of this corner of our great city, said Griffin. He was never one to be showy and he would have been a little bit shy, [but] he would have been very proud.