Photo: Ed Reed
On Saturday, November 25, Mayor Bill de Blasio was at Nevins and Flatbush avenues for the street co-naming ceremony for the corner as "Jon Kest Way."
Jon Kest, was the founder of the Working Families Party and the executive director of New York Communities for Change, an organization based in Brooklyn that advocates on behalf of poor and working-class New Yorkers on issues like wages, housing and education.
Kest sought to improve conditions for the city's often unseen stratum of low-wage workers: the men and women who wash the cars, bag the groceries and mind the children of better-off residents.
Kest was best known for organizing the November 2012 strikes by the city's fast-food workers, among many other initiatives. He died of cancer on in December 5, 2012 at his home in Brooklyn. He was 57.
Mayor Bill de Blasio called John Kest a "dear friend who inspired a generation of us to fight for real, progressive change."
"I applaud the City Council, led by Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, and all the City Council members who introduced these new street names this year."
