The City of New York will rename key streets in all five boroughs of the Big Apple to “represent the fundamental power of Black Lives Matter,” Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday.
The move comes as another official attempt to appease the international movement that spawned two weeks of riots that tore apart de Blasio’s city, damaging and in some cases completely destroying several dozen police vehicles. At least 300 NYPD police officers were injured as well.
The city will “rename streets in each borough and to paint the words on the streets of this city in each borough at a crucial location – one of which will be here near City Hall – that black lives matter,” de Blasio vowed at a news briefing.
“What will be clear – the street name and on the streets of our city – is that message that now this city must fully, fully deeply feel and this nation must as well, that Black Lives Matter,” de Blasio said.
The announcement followed Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s swift decision this past weekend to paint the words “Black Lives Matter” in gigantic yellow letters on 16th Street NW, the avenue leading directly to the White House.
The move came just in time for the hundreds of thousands of anti-White House demonstrators who streamed into the nation’s capital to stroll over and get their pictures taken on the new tourist attraction.
Bowser, who is also black, underscored her point in a post on Twitter, noting that a section of the street “in front of the White House” had also been officially designated the “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”
No other city in the country has yet followed suit.