Brooklyn Councilwoman wants to honor Jackson with subway plaque

August 24, 2:50 PMNY Filming Locations ExaminerAmy Oztan

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  AP Photo/Kevin Mazur, AEG/Getty Images

Many Brooklynites don't know that one of Michael Jackson's best known videos was filmed right in their own borough, but Brooklyn Coucilwoman Tish James wants to change that.  She would like the MTA to put a plaque in the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station, where the video for "Bad" was filmed in 1987.  However, she's run into an MTA rule that prohibits plaques in subway stations.

On the phone from her Brooklyn office, Councilwoman James told me that the idea was originally to have Jackson's name added to the station in downtown Brooklyn, but according to Crain's New York, that is unlikely to happen.  "The MTA had taken some money from Barclays in anticipation of the Atlantic Yards project, which I oppose."  So the least they could do is name another station after Jackson.

Barclays has made a deal with the MTA to pay $200k a year for 20 years for naming rights to a cluster of stations in the area where Barclays Arena is set to be built as part of the Atlantic Yards project. 

If the MTA won't put Jackson's name on the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station, Councilwoman James would at least like to see a plaque there commemorating the station's part in Jackson's legacy.  She contends that the transit system is full of trivia that the public doesn't even know about.  "This is a way that...the transit authority could mark this trivia.  I took some friends to the [Hoyt-Schermerhorn] subway and we paid a fare."  Ms. James said that there was nothing in the station to mark where the video was shot, and while she was able to show her friends the location, others could use some help.  "It would attract writers and tourists to the subway, at a time when the MTA is in the red."

Here's the entire video, directed by Martin Scorsese.  If you want to skip to the part filmed in the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station, go to 7:30.  The music video starts at 8:44.