Last year, Jackie Connor’s Corner was dedicated early one Saturday morning in July.

Early Saturday morning, Fonda Sera, owner of Zuzu’s Petals, was
standing on a ladder attaching long, flowing puple ribbons to the lamp
post on Seventh Avenue and Carroll Street. As I walked by, a Zuzu’s
employee said, "Come back at 11 for the dedication."

An hour later, Council Members David Yasky and Bill DeBlasio,
Bernard Graham, members of the NYPD, FDNY, shopkeepers, and many
familiar Park Slope faces gathered to witness the unveiling and
dedication of Jackie Connor’s Corner, a street sign in honor of a very
special resident, which was covered with white paper until the moment
it was dramatically pulled down with a string.

Jackie Connor, who died in the spring, was sometimes called the
Mayor of Seventh Avenue. She used to sit on the steps of Old First
Church or push a shopping cart up and down the avenue. Some thought she
was a street person but she was really organizing, agitating, fighting
for the rights of the little guy, the streets, and the community of
Park Slope.

Civic minded doesn’t even begin to describe Connor, who cared deeply
about this neighborhood, which was where she was born and raised.
Everyone knew her and she knew everybody; she kept the police abreast
of what was going on on Seventh Avenue by cell phone. And she had her
pet peeves like flyers on lamp posts, which she waged a one-woman
campaign to remove.

Two years ago, Connor was on the street in front of Zuzu’s Petals
minutes after  fire that ravaged that store, Olive Vine and a Korean
market early one morning. Fonda will never forget Connor’s unswerving
support during what was a devestating time for her and her business.

Connor lived with with her husband in a Park Slope apartment and
raised her family here. Her daughter is a reporter for the New York
Daily News. She was at the ceremony on Saturday with her newborn baby.

After the ceremony, the event quickly became a photo op for the
politicians posing together and with members of the community. You
can’t blame them for trying to take the credit for getting the
approvals necessary to make this street sign a reality so soon after
her death. But the real credit goes to her family and friends who were
eager to memorialize Connor in a meaningful way.

But talk about immortality. In the years to come, people will walk
by that street sign and wonder who Jackie Connor was. Maybe there
should be a plaque that tells the story of her life. Then people will
know the person behind the name on the northwest corner of Carroll
Street.