New Jersey Is Naming Rest Stops After Jon Bon Jovi And Whitney Houston — Bruce Springsteen “Respectfully Declined”

Larry Busacca/Getty Images

New Jersey Is Naming Rest Stops After Jon Bon Jovi And Whitney Houston — Bruce Springsteen “Respectfully Declined”

Larry Busacca/Getty Images

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority recently announced plans to rename the rest stops on the Garden State Parkway. The rest stops be named after some of the most famous people who have come out of the state in the past century. Some of those stops will be named after musicians, including Perth Amboy’s Jon Bon Jovi, Newark’s Whitney Houston, Hoboken’s Frank Sinatra, and Celia Cruz, who was born in Havana but who lived in Fort Lee when she died. Bruce Springsteen won’t be among the Jersey luminaries honored with their own rest stops, but that’s by his own choice.

NorthJersey.com reports that the New Jersey Hall Of Fame will put displays about all the prominent Jersey residents in these rest stops. They’ll include posters designed by Michael Graves — the prominent New Jersey architect, not the former singer of the post-Danzig Misfits. (The Misfits, one might argue, are a New Jersey institution deserving of their own rest stop. So is Redman. Give Redman a rest stop!)

Jon Bon Jovi Service Area will be in Cheesequake, Whitney Houston in Vauxhall, Frank Sinatra in Atlantic, and Celia Cruz in Forked River. Other rest stops are being renamed for James Gandolfini, Judy Blume, Larry Doby, Connie Chung, and Toni Morrison.

New Jersey Hall Of Fame spokesperson Natasha Alagarasan claims that Bruce Springsteen opted out of the whole rest-stop thing: “Bruce Springsteen respectfully declined to have a service area named after him. It should be noted, though, that Bruce has been very supportive of the New Jersey Hall of Fame over the years, and is very much a part of the fabric of the Hall.”

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