It really isn't such a "Bad" idea.
Michael Jackson fans the world over would flock to Brooklyn and its Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station if the MTA did something to memorialize the fact that his classic "Bad" video was shot there, says one local pol.
But Councilwoman Letitia James says the transit agency isn't trying to hear it. The agency shot down her idea to rename or co-name the station after Jackson, and said plaques are against policy.
"After his death, I had heard about this, and I had approached them, and they told me basically to beat it," James told NBC NewYork.
"A lot of people were totally unaware of it," she said of the fact that the iconic music video was shot at the downtown Brooklyn station in 1987, and directed by Martin Scorsese. "There's a lot of trivia in the subway... I think one of the ways to attract more people into the subway is to have more trivia, that so-and-so lived here, or that this movie was filmed here. I think the tourists would like it and I think that New Yorkers would like it, and I know Brooklynites would love it."
James said she is considering starting an online petition, and will make a plea to the people at Saturday's Michael Jackson birthday party/tribute event in Prospect Park.
She said when she asked the MTA why they wouldn't acknowledge the King of Pop, who died on June 25, but they let Bruce Ratner pay $200,000 a year to put "Barclays Center" on the Atlantic Avenue station there was very little response.
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"Naming rights is a new kind of thing for us," said MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz. "We're in the process of developing guidelines for naming rights as sources of revenue."
As for their policy against plaques, Ortiz said there are no plans to change -- but he did point out that James' request was verbal and informal.
