By David W. Dunlap

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has declared that the $4 billion rebuilding planned at La Guardia Airport in Queens will amount to replacing the airport "in its entirety." So is it time, after 76 years, to replace the name, too? Patrick J. Foye, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs New York City's airports, said this week that there were no plans to do so.

But in the era of brand consciousness and corporate sponsorship, when stadiums and arenas change names as often as people change socks, it is worth asking whether the La Guardia brand has outlived its usefulness. If an entirely new airport emerges in the coming years, will its 1939 name even be relevant? No matter the historical value of La Guardia, it is a sullied brand. As a video promulgated by the governor's office would have it, La Guardia has become synonymous with "dirty," "cramped," "hot" and "delayed."

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/