Candidates running for City Council rarely interest a major newspaper like The New York Times, but Ken Biberaj’s efforts to make a change in the Upper West Side of Manhattan drew again its attention.
This time, it was about his initiative to correct a street sign, which misspelled the name of a famous jazz musician that it was supposed to honor. When Thelonious Monk died in 1982, the City named after him a segment of the West 63rd street. However, the street sign said “Thelonius Sphere Monk Circle” dropping an “o” from his (not-so-common) name.
The missing “o” may mean nothing to most of the people, but it does to the fans of Thelonious Monk.
Biberaj who is holding an event next week where participants will listen to a jazz trio playing the music of Thelonious Monk was made aware of the error and wrote to the City in order to fix it. He also invited a local blog to support the initiative. Eventually the street sign was corrected.
Glad to have resolved the issue, Ken said that “no issue would be too small” for him if he becomes the representative of this neighborhood in the City Council. (r.a.)
