Queens mourns the loss of its longtime voice in letters.
Larry Penner, a mass transit expert, transportation advocate, and historian, died in hospice care on Jan. 16 after a year-long battle against pancreatic cancer. He was 71.
Although he lived much of his life in Great Neck, LI, he was deeply enmeshed in transit issues in Queens, the rest of New York City, and the tri-state region.
“We lived in Great Neck, but just a block from the Queens border,” his wife Wendy told QNS. “He never had a driver’s license and he truly believed that communities could not survive with cars alone. There had to be some way for the senior citizens who could no longer drive or people without a car to get around.”
In 1981, Penner joined the Reagan Administration as a special assistant to a regional assistant of the Urban Mass Transit Administration, later known as the Federal Transit Agency. Originally a political appointee, Penner remained with the agency for three decades, eventually becoming a civil service employee and highly respected expert on transportation issues.
After he retired, Penner became a prolific writer of op-ed pieces and letters to the editor frequently published in the Queens Chronicle, QNS, and other sister Schneps Media publications such as amNY and the Brooklyn Paper.
He advocated for transit riders from the Rockaways who faced some of the longest commutes in the nation, as well as subway riders on the congested 7 train from Long Island City to Flushing, where his future wife lived after moving from Philadelphia, PA.
“I was writing for Business Week and other publications when I met Larry in Little Neck,” Wendy recalled. “We got married in May 1979 on the Skyline Princess that sailed from the World’s Fair Marina to the Statue of Liberty.”
After retirement, Penner wrote about the development, review, approval, and oversight of billions in capital projects and programs at the MTA, NYC Transit bus, New Jersey Transit, and the Long Island Rail Road.
His funeral was held on Jan. 19 at Sinai Chapel, next door to the Long Island Rail Road station in Great Neck.
“Neither Larry nor I planned that; it just happened to be the location of the Sinai Chapel,” she said with a laugh. “Larry was a true transit advocate. When a neighbor offered him the use of his car so he could get his driver’s license, he said no thanks, ‘If I need to get anywhere, Wendy could drive me,’ but he also said that we were within walking distance of the Queens bus lines and the LIRR.”
He was a fan of the LaGuardia Airport redevelopment but thought the proposed LaGuardia AirTrain was a boondoggle for developers. He had disdain for former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposed $2.7 billion BQX project, a 14-mile streetcar line that would link Astoria to Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Penner noted that the proposal was dependent on $1.4 billion from the federal government.
“The odds are slim to none that the project will get out of the barn,” Penner wrote in 2019.
The proposal was ditched by the de Blasio administration and a prototype of the street car that was shipped from Nice, France still sits in the Brooklyn Navy Yard where it was put on display for supporters of the light rail project in 2017.
“He was a true believer that money should go to improving train and subway stations rather than on fancy projects,” Wendy explained. She added that she would proofread his op-eds and letters to the editors. In a letter to the Queens Courier in December, Penner mentioned that recent surveys revealed that letters to the editors in one of the most widely read and popular sections of newspapers, and he gave some helpful tips to writers who would follow his example.
“Most Newspapers will print letters submitted by any writer regardless of where they live so long as the topic is relevant to readers,” Penner wrote. “It helps to have a snappy introduction, good hook, be timely, precise, have an interesting or different viewpoint to increase your odds of publication.”
He also suggested that “papers welcome letters commenting on their own editorials, articles or previously published letters to the editor.”
Penner was also a lover of animals and became a foster dad to a variety of local cats in his Great Neck neighborhood.
“I had three cats when we first met when I was living in Flushing,” Wendy said. “He felt if he could win them over, he could win me over too, and he did.”
In much of his correspondence, beneath his signature, Penner would write “Your Friendly Neighborhood Retired Federal Transit Man.” In his final letter to Queens Courier, he changed it to: “Long Time Reader and Frequent Letter Writer.”
*QNS invites readers to send their Letters to the Editor and share their opinions on issues and topics covered in our publication. Letters should be clear, respectful, and concise and must include the writer’s full name, neighborhood, and a daytime phone number for verification purposes (contact information will not be published). Submissions may be edited for length, clarity, and adherence to editorial standards. Please send your letters to editorial@qns.com for consideration.
