Alex Headrick Suggestions to honor Michael Jackson at Hoyt-Schermerhorn Station, where his 1987 “Bad” video was shot, have gone viral.
How could Michael Jackson be memorialized at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station?
Not in many ways, apparently. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has shot down nearly every suggestion to honor Michael Jackson at the station where he filmed his 1987 “Bad” video, directed by Martin Scorsese.
Plaques? No. Memorials? No. Agency guidelines “prohibit plaques and memorials from being placed in stations,” transportation authority spokesmen have said.
They also have declined to rename the station after him, even though they just sold naming rights to another station for $4 million: the nexus of subway stops of Atlantic Avenue, Pacific Street and Flatbush Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn will be named after Barclays, a British Bank, for 20 years.
So if his fans could raise $4 million to “sponsor” the station in honor of Michael Jackson, could they also secure naming rights? (Or even a fraction of that, since Hoyt-Schermerhorn is arguably a smaller and less visible station with only the A, C and G lines, so perhaps only $2 million.) Given his fan base and the power of online fund-raising for philanthropy and politics, this is not an outlandish idea. (If that is successful, then next up: the Prince Street stop could become “the station formerly known as Prince.”)
What say you, M.T.A.?
“I would defer on commenting on any hypotheticals,” said Kevin Ortiz, a spokesman for the transportation authority. However, he said, “We are in the middle of developing some guidelines and protocols and helping us move forward with what we feel is a viable revenue source.”
The idea honoring Mr. Jackson at Hoyt-Schermerhorn began with City Councilwoman Letitia James of Brooklyn, who has been startled by how much attention an offhand comment has received. “It was conversation on a slow news day to a reporter, and it’s gone viral,” she said.
The question of whether the station should be renamed for Michael Jackson even came up at a Democratic mayoral debate this week. Both candidates — City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. and City Councilman Tony Avella — said yes. “And the camera panned to me and I was mortified,” Ms. James said. The station, which is in Downtown Brooklyn, is not even in her district.
The hope is that doing something to honor Mr. Jackson at the station would make it a tourist draw for the neighborhood, Ms. James said. After all, transit spots can become tourist destinations. The King’s Cross station in London has become a major draw, in large part because it put up a Platform “9¾” sign to honor Harry Potter (and he’s not even real).
A compromise proposal was raised by Jacob Morris, the director of the Harlem Historical Society, who has a lot of experience helping get places named in the city after black figures.”It could come under their Arts for Transit program,” he said.
Indeed, dozens upon dozens of stations around the city are adorned with murals, mosaics, stained glass windows and statues under the program, which generally allots 1 percent of the capital improvement budget to public art when a station is renovated.
There is even precedent for honoring musicians in subway stations. The 135th Street station on the No. 2 and 3 has depictions of Paul Robeson, Thelonious Monk and Billie Holiday. And the art in the station at 57th Street and Seventh Avenue under Carnegie Hall touches upon Leonard Bernstein, Marian Anderson and the Beatles. (There is even something that could be interpreted as a musical reference: a yellow submarine in a Roy Lichtenstein mural in Times Square. Though it has arguably little to do with the Beatles song, as it is depiction of the 1964 World’s Fair.)
Why not open the station up for a Michael Jackson-themed art commission? Sequined gloves, shoes frozen in a moonwalk position, military jackets: the iconography is limitless. There are a number of Michael Jackson artists out there who would surely clamor the assignment.
But currently the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station is not among the 14 stations scheduled for renovation or the 12 scheduled for rehabilitation in the transportation authority’s capital plan for 2010 and 2014. [pdf] But it certainly needs a rehab. So next time around, Mr. Jackson could be honored.
Contrary to reports, Ms. James is not circulating a petition. “I’m not associated with the petition,” she said. “I’m supporting it, but we have more pressing issues to deal with.” Among those: trying to raise $2,500 for the burial of a neighborhood man, Jessie Jones, who used to do odds and ends around the office.
Ruby Washington/The New York Times Roy Lichtenstein’s mural in Times Square is one of numerous art projects in New York City subway stations.
