The Cuo bros are a ‘Mario’ bridge apart
Chris to Andy: Dad woulda hated namingg Tapp for him
You know who really would have hated the new Mario M. Cuomo Bridge? Mario M. Cuomo.
CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, the younger brother of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, took to Instagram Friday to say he has mixed feelings about the opening of the bridge named after their ex-governor dad.
“Pop would not have liked this,” said the newsman.
“He would’ve loved the new bridge...he was a big believer in updating infrastructure. But he was very humble and thought having something named after him sent the wrong message abt public service.”
Chris added that the bridge linking Westchester and Rockland counties — which most motorists still think of as the Tappan Zee — would always remind him that his dad is gone.
“If his name is up there, it reminds that he is not down here with me,” he added. “And I still needed him, more than I was aware.”
Andrew Cuomo, with Hillary Clinton at his side, presided over a ceremony Friday to open the eastbound span of the bridge, a year after celebrating the opening of the westbound span, which initially carried traffic in both directions.
The governor agreed his father would have spurned the honor: “He would love the bridge, but he would reject the vanity of the name.”
At the opening, Andy rode across the eastbound span in FDR’s 1932 Packard, just as he did in August 2017 for the westbound lanes.
He had pushed the Legislature to name the $4 billion, 3.2-mile new bridge after his dad, who led the state from 1983 to 1994.
Thousands of New Yorkers signed a petition to retain the Tappan Zee designation — and some said Andrew just wanted voters to see the Cuomo name on the structure.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this is happening in the middle of an election season,” said Jadan Horyn, spokesman for government watchdog Reclaim New York.
Horyn criticized the governor for staging two ribbon-cutting ceremonies at the bridge, when motorists still don’t know how by how much tolls will have to increase to pay it off.
The current toll, $5 each way, is frozen until the end of 2020.
Cuomo, who will face Cynthia Nixon in Thursday’s Democratic primary, used the occasion to jab at President Trump.
He introduced Clinton as “the person who I believe who should be sitting in the Oval Office” and argued that the bridge “stands in defiant opposition” to Trump, who he said wants to divide people with his US-Mexico border wall.
Hours after the ceremony, Rockland County Sheriff ’s deputies and Westchester County police blocked boaters from navigating below the old bridge as engineers — fearing it could possibly collapse — checked its stability.
Pop would not have liked this. He would’ve loved l the new bridge . . . he was a big believer in i updating infrastructure. But he was very humble and thought having something named after him sent the wrong message abt public service. — Chris Cuomo (left), in message to sibling Andrew