This change is pure Common Sense.
An effort is under way to change the name of tony Barrow Street in the West Village to honor Thomas Paine, the 18th century writer who helped inspire the American Revolution.
“Thomas Paine is like the Founding Fathers’ founding father. He’s the one who made the convincing case for independence,” writes Dylan DePice in an online petition to the City Council calling for the switch.
“The guy who did as much as anyone to spark the creation of a country founded on religious liberty deserves to be honored for it.”
Barrow, which runs from Washington Place to the West Side Highway, was once called Reason Street, in honor of Paine’s 1795 “The Age of Reason.”
The street became city property in 1809 and was renamed Barrow to honor rich landowner Thomas Barrow, a vestryman at nearby Trinity Church.