Mayor signs bill to rename pair of identically named Long Island City streets

LONG ISLAND CITY (WABC) -- Every day, bewildered folks ask safety fire director Sam Jubril for directions because one section of Long Island City can be baffling.

"You can easily be lost," Jubril said. "And you don't even know where you're going."

The problem is that there are two streets named Court Square, and not only are they are both dead ends, but they also both flank the state Supreme Court building.

Longtime resident John Bruno says Access-A-Ride can never find him, and he fears, in an emergency, help would not arrive in time.

"If I fall in my apartment or if I have a heart attack or a stroke, ambulance wouldn't find me," he said.

In response to such concerns, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a bill Monday morning to rename the two streets Court Square East and Court Square West.

"It's a victory for government making sense of things," de Blasio said.

Some, however, argue that the names are not distinct enough.

"You're going to hear 'Court Square' and you might end up on the wrong one," area resident Dave Getfield said. "That could cause a problem, so preferably you would want to have two different named streets. So I don't think that's a good idea...to have east and west."

Zoe Morisette just spent hundreds of dollars on new business cards and stationery and will have to redo everything.

"It means changing my license, my passport, all of my credit card information," she said. "Every legal paper would have to be changed to get that 'west' on there. It's like moving, but I'm not moving."

To add to the confusion, there are corporate buildings named Court Square 1, 2 and 3 which are not even on Court Square. Court Square 4 is on one Court Square, while Court Square 5 is on the other Court Square.

The name changes will go into effect next week.