George Carlin Officially Has His Way

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On Wednesday, the New York rain held off long enough for the city to honor legendary comedian George Carlin. At a naming ceremony, the the 400 block of West 121st Street and Amsterdam Avenue officially became known as “George Carlin Way”. Now due to some construction and scaffolding going on in the neighborhood, the “George Carlin Way” street sign will hang temporarily at 121st Street and Morningside Drive.

The drive to name a city block after George Carlin started 3 years ago when comedian Kevin Bartini decided that George should be honored by NYC and on the block where he grew up on and went to school.

George’s daughter Kelly Carlin told SiriusXM radio host Ron Bennington about the honor given her father and the fight that went along with it. She discussed the opposition from the Corpus Christi Catholic church and school in that neighborhood which George Carlin actually attended and what Kevin Bartini was up against.

“He (Kevin) started doing all the things you need to do, petitions, stuff like that, show up at the neighborhood committee meeting or whatever the hell it’s called here, and he showed up by himself. And the man who runs Corpus Christi showed up with about 70 elderly women who were all saying that they did not want not want this street sign of ‘Jim Carlson’ on this street.They didn’t even know who he was! And so there was like all these people against it and then there was just Kevin, and so the City Council is like, ‘Well, you’re going to have to talk to the church about this.’ So, Kevin went out and got a petition. He put a petition online. He got almost 10,000 signatures, came back, had some ammunition and they said, ‘Okay, we’ll do it, but you’re going to have to compromise’. And so the compromise was we don’t get to be the 500 block, we get to be the 400 block. So, what are you gonna do?”

According to the New York Times, after the ceremony when the crowd had left, George’s brother Patrick crossed Morningside Drive, sat under a tree and lit up, just off George Carlin Way saying, “This is how you honor George Carlin.”

Dave Attell shows off the new George Carlin Way.

 

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