Downtown

Adams throws RBG a birthday bash. Her present? A city building

Boro Pres renews mission to name city building after Supreme Court justice

March 12, 2019 Rob Abruzzese
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams wants to rename the Brooklyn Municipal Building after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. AP Photo/Rebecca Gibian
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Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams made news in September when he started a campaign to rename the Brooklyn Municipal Building after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and he is not giving up now. Adams, who is expected to run for mayor in the next election, plans to host an 86th birthday party for Justice Ginsburg on March 15, where he will renew his call to name the Downtown Brooklyn building after the justice.

“This is definitely a 50 Cent ‘It’s your birthday’ moment,” Adams told the Daily News. “[Ginsburg] has reached an iconic status equivalent to Serena Williams and Beyoncé’s fame.”

The party will have a cake, and there will be a card for Ginsburg for guests to sign. Attendees will watch “RBG,” the Oscar-nominated documentary about the justice.

“She is a symbol of strength, a cancer survivor who has fought for women’s rights her entire life,” said Adams. “We’ve talked about this and asked, ‘How do we honor such an icon?’ and it was simple — we make statues and name buildings after her.”

“History can’t just be history, it has to be our story with [the borough’s] diversity and ethnicity,” he explained.

The Brooklyn Municipal Building sits on the corner of Joralemon and Court streets in Downtown Brooklyn. Eagle file photo by Rob Abruzzese
The Brooklyn Municipal Building sits on the corner of Joralemon and Court streets in Downtown Brooklyn. Eagle file photo by Rob Abruzzese

Justice Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn, raised in Flatbush and attended James Madison High School on Bedford Avenue before she left the borough to attend Cornell University and Columbia Law School.

Adams’ petition to rename the building, which he created in September, is still online with more than 50,000 signatures. Locally, the petition has the support of the Brooklyn Bar Association and the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association, who would love to see a building named after one of Brooklyn’s most famous judges.

“As only the second woman appointed to the Supreme Court and currently still sitting, in the current climate it does seem appropriate to recognize her contributions to the legal community,” said Carrie Anne Cavallo, president of the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association. “As one of Brooklyn’s most well-known legal minds I cannot think of someone more deserving of this tribute.”

The Brooklyn Municipal Building is located at 210 Joralemon St. It was built in 1924 and today houses many city offices, including the City Clerk, the Department of Buildings, Probation, Finance, and Environmental Protection.

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