Governor Spitzer may be growing up. That’s the message we take from the report of our Jacob Gershman of Mr. Spitzer’s intention to propose that the Hudson River Park, the 550-acre, five-mile stretch on Manhattan’s West Side, be renamed after Governor Pataki, who did so much to bring the park to fruition and to clean up the river.

Naming the park after Mr. Pataki says a lot about Mr. Pataki. He is from farther up the Hudson in Peekskill but his policies redounded to the benefit of Manhattan, where Mr. Pataki’s tax cuts unleashed economic growth and a real estate boom and his tough-on-crime policies worked with those of Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg to make the city safer. The park is evidence of the way the Pataki administration benefited Manhattan. It also speaks to Mr. Pataki’s environmental priorities — we remember seeing an image of the governor kayaking the Hudson one morning. What struck us was that Mr. Pataki seemed comfortable and looked like he was having a terrific time in what for another politician might have felt like an awkward or forced political photo opportunity. If the river is someday restored to its status as a local swimming hole for New York City residents, we will have Mr. Pataki to thank for it.

We now hear that Mr. Spitzer has pulled any mention of the proposal from tomorrow’s State of the State address. The governor may be waiting for a more appropriate occasion given that Mr. Pataki will not be attending the speech. Honoring the former governor would be a gracious move by a Democrat who came into office classlessly deriding his Republican predecessor as a Rip Van Winkle. It would be a welcome change of tone for Mr. Spitzer to keep in mind as he goes forward if the second year of his administration is to be an improvement over the acrimonious first.