Quantcast

LIC post office to be renamed for Ferraro

LIC post office to be renamed for Ferraro
By Jeremy Walsh

A pioneering Queens politician will soon get a very public tribute after U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Astoria) announced last week that the U.S. Senate passed a bill to rename the Long Island City Post Office as the “Geraldine Ferraro Post Office Building” in honor of the former Queens prosecutor, congresswoman from Queens and first female vice presidential candidate.

The House of Representatives passed the bill in May. The post office, at 46-02 21st St., is not the Long Island City branch slated for possible closure by the U.S. Postal Service.

“Geraldine Ferraro is a trailblazer and an exemplary public official,” Schumer said. “She has been an honorable and hard-working elected official who had a profound effect on Queens, New York City and … on the country. Naming the Long Island City Post Office after her is a fitting tribute to a woman who devoted a good part of her life to the Queens community.”

Maloney called Ferraro a “pivotal figure in American history.”

“The Long Island City Post Office, a truly lovely building, will soon serve as a fitting tribute to her legacy as a trailblazer, role model and leader,” Maloney said. “Geraldine has never forgotten where she came from and her constituents have never forgotten her.”

Ferraro was born in Newburgh, N.Y., in 1935. In 1974, she became a Queens County assistant district attorney, serving for four years and helping create the Special Victims Unit and the Confidential Bureau.

In 1978, Ferraro was elected to Congress as the representative for the Ninth Congressional District of New York. She served in Congress for six years, with seats on the House Budget Committee and Public Works and Transportation Committee and on a select Aging Committee.

In 1984, Ferraro relinquished her seat in Congress to accept the vice presidential nomination for Democrat Walter Mondale’s presidential campaign.

Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e-mail at [email protected] or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.