(rshsdepot) Corona (Queens), NY

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From today's Daily News.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
 
Justice is pulling in to station 

By MICHAEL DALY
DAILY NEWS COLUMNIST 
Posted Tuesday, June 12th 2007, 4:00 AM  
 
The wheels of justice may soon cause the Long Island Rail Road to resume  
stopping in Corona after nearly five decades of blowing past it with an upturned  
nose.
The wheels of justice may soon cause the Long Island Rail Road to resume  
stopping in Corona after nearly five decades of blowing past it with an upturned  
nose. 
For almost a century, the LIRR stopped regularly at the modest little station 
 at what was then National Ave. in Queens. Residents were able to reach Penn  
Station in little more than 15 minutes.  
Then, railroad officials decided to spare the suburban commuters an  
unnecessary stop that cost them a precious minute and brought aboard scruffier  types 
for whom work was not just a noun but a verb. Never mind how many minutes  the 
closing cost people in Corona. In 1963, the station in Corona was shuttered  
and the steps to the platform were dismantled. Officials also closed the  
Elmhurst station in what was presented as a cost-saving move.  
Never mind that this was the same year the LIRR announced plans to build a  
new station "of pure Colonial design" in suburban Islip, in keeping with "local 
 preference." The inside would be done with ceramic tiles.  
"Commuters will be asked to choose from four colors for the interior walls,"  
a reporter noted.  
That was also the year the LIRR developed a special new cocktail for suburban 
 commuters, the "Dashing Dan," consisting of 1.6 ounces of vodka on the 
rocks, a  triple dash of orange bitters and a sliver of fresh orange. The drink 
cost 95  cents, but you got to keep the Dashing Dan glass emblazoned with the 
same logo  painted on all LIRR trains. The logo depicted a man in a suit and tie 
running as  he checks his watch.  
"The Route of the Dashing Commuter," the logo read.  
Real-life Dashing Dans sipped the new cocktail or whatever else they fancied  
as they now roared on past what was demoted from National Ave. to National 
St.  The route of the Corona commuter was now the packed No. 7 subway, where the 
 travel time to and from midtown was tripled and where having so much as an 
open  beer would get you a summons. But even the relatively cushy LIRR was not 
good  enough for commuters who remained Driving Dans. They began and ended 
each  weekday by making the traffic and air in Manhattan all the more 
intolerable.  
Along came Mayor Bloomberg, who is not averse to riding the subway and who  
wants to charge people each time they bring a car into Manhattan. In his effort 
 to make "congestion pricing" a reality, Bloomberg has secured the backing of 
 several politicians, including Rep. Joe Crowley, the Democratic boss of 
Queens.  
On his part, Bloomberg has said some of the proceeds from congestion pricing  
could be used to build new LIRR stations in Corona and Elmhurst as well as 
new  Metro-North stations in Parkchester and Co-op City in the Bronx, all of 
which  happen to service Crowley's district. Bloomberg has indicated construction 
could  begin soon after his congestion plan is approved.  
All of which gave you a sense of impending justice yesterday as you traveled  
nearly an hour by subway from Penn Station to Corona, then walked the six 
blocks  to the former LIRR station. You watched an LIRR train roar overhead, the 
people  aboard having made the same trip in a quarter the time.  
The concrete abutment was inscribed with "1930," the year the tracks and the  
station were elevated. The only other vestiges of the old stop were the faint 
 outlines where the stairs once stood. "As you can see, there are no steps,"  
82-year-old Frances Rienzo said from her tidy home and its splendid garden  
nearby. "They took the stop away."  
Rienzo was uncertain why the station was closed. She is too deeply decent and 
 dignified a person to imagine that officials would turn their nose up at 
her.  She noted that a local boy was killed playing on the tracks shortly 
beforehand,  though such accidents have not led to closings on Long Island.  
"Maybe they felt this stop wasn't necessary," she said.  
More likely, LIRR officials were so intent on coddling the Dashing Dans they  
did not want to bother losing a minute at Corona, however many minutes it 
cost  the people there.  
All these years later the money from the Driving Dans just might get the  
trains stopping there again and once more whisking people to Penn Station in  
less than a third of the time it takes by subway.  
I'll drink to that.  
_mdaly_@_nydailynews.com_ (mailto:mdaly@nydailynews.com)  



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