Peter Stuyvesant, the last Director General of the Colony of New Amsterdam, was not a nice man. He may have been irritable because he got half a leg shot off when he tried to take the island of St. Martin from the Spanish. Apparently they had screwed up his reservation at Sandals, and Stuyvesant was not one to have is vacay ruined. Whatever the cause, he was left with a peg leg and those things tend to chafe.
The resulting irritability was focused on Indians, Jews, Quakers, and people from Connecticut. (Lord help you if you happened to be a Friendly Hasidic Mohegan from Pigscomsuck.) To say that he was not particularly racist for his time is like saying John C. Calhoun was not particularly racist for his time. But Stuyvesant did have a catchy name, so if you want something to have the ring of Olde New Amsterdam, call it Stuyvesant.
Such was the name of the High School my Sweet Lady attended. Beastie Boy Ad-Rock wears a Stuyvesant PE t-shirt in the video for “You Gotta Fight for Your Right to Party!” although he did not go to school there. There is also a Stuyvesant Road in the Forest just south of Altamont. Having been laid out by New Yorkers, it is not surprise to find the name there. I would suggest, however, that the time has come to replace this anachronistic moniker with something more embracing of our diverse community.
In coming up with an appropriate new name for the Road Formerly Known As Stuyvesant, I remember back to an episode of the Chris Rock Show, in which he pointed out that few black community leaders were honored with road names outside of traditionally black neighborhoods. His solution was to attempt to change the name of Cross Bay Boulevard in Howard Beach, Queens. While his efforts have not yet been successful, it is my hope to see the nation’s first Tupac Shakur Boulevard in the place of the road now named for Old Silver Leg. Here’s hoping we can be more successful than Mr. Rock (Chris, not Ad):