In early July, The Villager alerted the city’s Department of Transportation that the Jodie Lane Place street co-naming sign at E. 11th St. and First Ave. was missing. The honorary sign was put up in May 2005 in a ceremony with then-Councilmember Margarita Lopez and Lane’s financé and family members.
“The name of Jodie Lane is going to be there forever,” Lopez proclaimed, “for Con Ed to remember what they did — that they didn’t care about the residents of New York City — and for it not to happen again.”
Lane, 30, who lived a block away on E. 12th St., died Jan. 16, 2004, near the spot when she was electrocuted by stray voltage surging through a snow-slush-covered Con Ed junction box on the street while walking her two dogs.
It’s not clear why or when the honorary Jodie Lane sign was hacksawed off. A D.O.T. spokesperson denied it was because of the addition of highway-style, cantilever signs at First Ave. and E. 11th St. The spokesperson, Scott Gastel, assured The Villager the sign would be restored, however — and so it has been.
Lincoln Anderson