Scranton honors native son Biden with street in his name
The Scranton street that honors the nation’s first president now also bears the name of its soon-to-be 46th.
The city where President-elect Joe Biden was born 78 years ago Friday, celebrated the occasion by unveiling a sign designating North Washington Avenue outside his childhood home as “Joe Biden Way.”
Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey did the honors, pulling a black cover off the green and white street sign at North Washington and Fisk Street at the conclusion of a sun-splashed ceremony as about 200 people looked on and cheered.
The program outside 2446 N. Washington, where Biden lived until his family moved to Delaware when he was 10 years old, had a decidedly celebratory air.
All of the speakers kept their remarks brief, with the focus mostly on city and neighborhood pride and the president-elect’s calls for unity.
Cognetti, who explained the city wanted to do something to recognize Biden before the holidays, said the president-elect’s story shows children from Scranton that they can be anything they want to be.
“That is something that is nonpartisan, cross-partisan, bipartisan, whatever you want to call it. It is not political,” she said. “This is something that people are proud of from Scranton, and every kid should know that.”
Casey, a Democrat, said Biden’s election transcended party and politics and was “really a victory for decency and for leadership and integrity at a time of crisis.”
It is noteworthy and important, he said, that one of the most searing experiences of Biden’s young life in Scranton is when his father lost his job. The president-elect is someone with a deep understanding of what it
means to suffer and have loss, he said.
Difficult challenges lie ahead, but Biden is prepared to take them on, Casey said.
“He is ready because of his character. He ready because of his experiences, and, yes, he is ready because of his wonderful roots here,” the senator said.
Sister Mary Persico, president of Marywood University, said she hopes Joe Biden Way might take on more meaning than just a street sign and come to symbolize for the world “a way of peace, a way of truth, a way of unity, a way of beauty and life.”
Similarly, she said she hopes the sign’s placement at an intersection would be symbolic “of taking the high road and taking a turn from violence and hatred and disunity and all the things that are dividing us as people.”
“Certainly that is symbolic of this neighborhood and all that this neighborhood brings to the world — the reflection of those good things,” Persico said.