WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES FEBRUARY 20, 2020 27
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Democratic Party. In 1984, Democrats
nominated her for vice president on
a ticket with the party’s presidential
nominee, former Vice President
Walter Mondale. Ferraro became
the first woman in U.S. history to be
nominated to a presidential ticket of
a major party.
Though Ferraro shattered a glass
ceiling in national politics, the
Mondale/Ferraro ticket wound up
being trounced in the 1984 presidential
election by the incumbents,
President Ronald Reagan and Vice
President George H.W. Bush.
GLENDALE LOOKS FOR
ITS OWN
As for Ridgewood and Glendale,
neighbors were satisfied with the
new Queens-based ZIP code — but
over the last decade, Glendale residents
have made an effort to give
their community its own postal
identity.
This new ZIP code quest, however,
wasn’t borne out of a crisis but
rather needs created with the rise of
the internet and e-commerce.
Starting around the late 2000s,
Glendale residents began pointing
out that electronic shipping programs
used by online merchants
and companies did not recognize
the neighborhood within the 11385
ZIP code. Ridgewood and Flushing
were listed as communities based
within that area.
This, many residents said, led to
confusion among shipping outlets
that unnecessarily delayed shipments,
including prescription
medication.
Another complaint that arose
within the push for a Glendale ZIP
was the lack of an available post
office in the community. While the
area is serviced by a small postal
station, 69-36 Myrtle Ave., some
Search “Glendale NY” on Google Maps, and you’ll get an idea of what might be the boundary lines of a proposed
Glendale ZIP code area. Photo via Google Maps
packages for Glendale residents
were being shipped directly to
the Ridgewood post office at 60-60
Myrtle Ave., causing further inconvenience
for recipients.
Through the efforts of local lawmakers
such as Assemblyman Mike
Miller and then-Congressman Robert
Turner, as well as groups such
as the Glendale Property Owners
Association, the area got some assistance
in 2011.
That year, the U.S. Postal Service
agreed to provide Glendale
“preferred last line” status and
recognition in the 11385 ZIP code.
This would help solve the problem
of neighborhood recognition in
shipping programs and GPS devices
used by delivery truck drivers.
Still, the postal service rebuffed
requests for a separate ZIP code
over what were called “operational
factors.”
Congresswoman Grace Meng,
who began representing the Glendale
area after her election in 2012,
picked up the mantle for the Glendale
ZIP code fight. She was able
to have Glendale included in bills
creating new ZIP codes across the
United States that had passed the
House of Representatives in recent
sessions.
However, those bills never got a
final vote in the Senate, and thus expired
due to sunset provisions. Alas,
Glendale still remains attached to
Ridgewood in the 11385 ZIP code.
WHO WOULD GET THE
NEW ZIP?
If Glendale ever won its own ZIP
code, what would its boundaries
be? We believe it would follow the
neighborhood’s current unofficial
boundary lines, as recognized by
the Ridgewood Times for years.
The Glendale area, according to
the paper’s analysis, is bounded
on the west by the Long Island Rail
Road Bay Ridge branch (between
the Fresh Pond Rail Yard and the
Brooklyn/Queens border at Irving
Avenue); on the north by the LIRR
Montauk Branch (between the Fresh
Pond Rail Yard and Cooper Avenue)
and Cooper Avenue (between the
Montauk Branch and Woodhaven
Boulevard); on the east by Woodhaven
Boulevard (to Metropolitan
Avenue), Metropolitan Avenue (to
the abandoned LIRR Rockaway
Beach Branch near Trotting Course
Lane); and the LIRR Rockaway Beach
Branch (to Myrtle Avenue and Forest
Park); and on the south by Forest
Park, Mount Hebron Cemetery,
Cypress Hills Cemetery, Salem Field
Cemetery and Highland Park.
Sources: Ridgewood Times archives,
Bushwick Daily and the Feb.
21, 1979 New York Daily News.
* * *
If you have any remembrances or
old photographs of “Our Neighborhood:
The Way It Was” that you would
like to share with our readers, please
write to the Old Timer, c/o Ridgewood
Times, 38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY
11361, or send an email to editorial@
ridgewoodtimes.com. Any print photographs
mailed to us will be carefully
A block of homes in Glendale. Photo: Robert Pozarycki/QNS returned to you upon request.
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