Oh, all those honorary street signs...

I believe Lew Rudin was a real estate developer and had something to do with being a City Commissioner or something...

Some of the names on these signs are well known, others-- like Kudirat Abiola or the name of a Fire Dept. Captain killed on September 11-- are just there because someone asked for them to be placed there. 

No matter how broke the City claims it is at any given moment, there is always some money there somewhere for trying out a "new look" for street signs somewhere or another of these memorial signs.

Being a somewhat jaded New Yorker, I always assume that the people chosen to make these signs are paid well enough and chosen because of whom they know in City government at the time.

The little apples on the Lew Rudin sign is just another reminder how much this City loves little decorative flourishes ( these of course for The Big Apple moniker for New York and also hastening back to the earliest days when New York City began to try and counter negative publicity about itself with public relations campaigns -- like the still running " I love (instead of the word love, a heart sign) New York"--which are of course still on some of the T-shirts sold to tourists.

Los Angeles was probably the first American City to really aggressively promote itself-- New York tended to sit on its laurels until it realized that it was not attracting tourists like it used to.

Of course today, tourism is such a major part of the City's economy that it is kind of frightening..
It has resulted in the Disney World atmosphere of Times Square and all the pedestrian areas made out of blocks of streets where traffic once flowed and countless tables and chairs and plantings at strategically chosen locations...even a couple of outdoor toilets ( one of the most common complaints tourists have always had about New York was this lack of public facilities. So now places like Grand Central Terminal have well kept ones ...and you will find most bars and restaurants in Midtown will let tourists use their restrooms free of charge ( there was a time when the City had all these pay toilets in places-- the owners of places said they needed the money for upkeep, and keeping out homeless people who would try to sleep there ( no longer a problem) but the wishes of tourists finally won out, their needs being more important to the City's image as a good host.