UWS School Hopes To Name Its Street For 'Champion' Teacher

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Desiree "Didi" Ford traveled to the same Upper West Side street for over 40 years for her work at a neighborhood school, and now that block might bear her name in the near future.

In the most recent Community Board 7 Transportation Committee meeting, a secondary street renaming in honor of Ford was proposed for the northeast corner of West 94th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.

It is the same block where the River Park Nursery School at 711 Amsterdam Ave. is located, and where Ford first began working in 1969.

Ford was both the first Black teacher at the school and its first Black director.

"Her old students are now coming back in their own children, looking for Didi," Maria Nunziata, the school's current director, said in an emotional presentation of Ford's life to the Upper West Side community board. "It becomes sadness when they hear she's passed, but knowing the existence of the school means her presence will always be there, and knowing that she had such a positive impact on the community."

"She was a champion, I wish you could have known her like I did," she added.

Ford retired in 2012 but continued to volunteer at the school until the pandemic made it too dangerous.

She died in July 2022.

Many of the board members thanked Nunziata for her in depth retelling of Ford's impact.

"This woman sounds extremely deserving of the street sign," committee member Barbara Adler said. "I think the signs make our neighborhood a little bit richer."

However, not everybody shared the same love for secondary street names.

"It's confusing to drivers, a bad use of public space, and we're basically doing these on a first come first serve basis," committee member Ken Coughlin said while also emphasizing that his stance on the street signs wasn't meant to take away from the impact of Ford's work on the Upper West Side.

In the end, though, the committee voted to approve the resolution with five yes votes, zero no votes, and four votes to abstain. Additionally, the non-committee board members voted unanimously in favor of the secondary street naming.

The vote will now go to the next full board meeting.

"I just wanted to say, may her memory be a blessing and I'm really delighted you did this," board member Susan Schwartz said as Nunziata was signing off the meeting. "It's very touching, there's not enough humanity in the world."