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HERALD $1.00
Cub Scouts move up to Boy Scouts
Dems host Meet the Candidates
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Vol. 33 No. 13
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VALLEY STREAM
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MARCH 24 - 30, 2022
Locals shrug off price hikes; pantries suffer while prices may be increasing, they’re still buying at the same rate as before. Walking down your local gro“It’s a little bit more [and my cery store aisle, you may notice budget] has changed, in a sense, some changes. A food item may but I’m still keeping everything be there one week, then gone the the same,” said shopper Lenny next. You can blame pandemic- Benbick. induced supply-chain woes and Shopping for her three chillabor shortages for the short sup- dren, Ogunleye Janet said she ply of your favorite spends about $40 per foods and drinks. week providing for L at e ly, h oweve r, h e r f a m i l y, a n d what consumers are although surging paying closest attenprices have affected tion to is the rising h e r, s h e a d d e d , cost of that food. “because I have chilT he consumer dren, I don’t have a price index for Januchoice. I have to ary, which measures shop.” the costs of everyday The reason many consumer goods, consumers are stickoGUNleye rose 7.5 percent since ing with what they last year, as reported JANet know may be attribby the Labor Depart- resident utable to brand loyalment in its Consumty. Food companies er Price Index Sumtread a fine line, as mary in February. Prices of cere- they raise prices high enough to al, baked goods, dairy products, offset increased production costs fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and while making sure their prodeggs have all gone up. The only ucts remain within consumers’ category that did not see an means. increase in January was nonalMeanwhile, food-insecure coholic beverages. families on Long Island have Take a trip to the Food World been hit especially hard, accordgrocery store on West Merrick ing to Jessica Rosati, chief proRoad in Valley Stream, however, grams officer at Long Island and shoppers will tell you that Continued on page 16
By KARINA KoVAC kkovac@liherald.com
B
Juan Lasso/Herald
VAlley StReAM MoRNING rush commuters get ready to board a train to the city on a cloudy day.
Riders fret return of peak fares LIRR ridership is still below pre-Covid levels By JUAN lASSo jlasso@liherald.com
It’s 7:30 on a Friday morning, and it’s rush hour. Passengers make their way to the Valley Stream train station platform, waiting for a lift — courtesy of the Long Island Rail Road — to Penn Station, more than 20 miles away. As the train barrels in, riders seem to forget about pandemic-era social distancing and crowd into the cars. Some fill up quickly, others remain unused. But for the moment, the railway station resembles its old self again, without any people. By the time the next rush hour train rumbles into the station, commuter traffic has
thinned to a trickle, a grim reminder that despite efforts to bring back a sense of normalcy to the commuter rails, the effects of the pandemic still remain. That hasn’t stopped Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials from trying, however. Ridership has grown enough in recent months to convince riders that it’s time to once again pay peak fares. Commuters looking to get into New York City each weekday morning, or come back to Long Island each weekday evening, can expect to pay a premium up to 27 percent. But while peak-hours pricing has long been a fixture of rush hour travel, it’s one that many riders seem to have been perfectly fine Continued on page 14
ecause I have children, I don’t have a choice. I have to shop.