Queens

This is about the New York City borough. For the monarchs, see monarch. For the many universities or colleges by that name, see Queen's.

Queens is the largest in area and second most populous of the five boroughs of New York City. It is coterminous with Queens County in the U.S. state of New York and is located on western Long Island. It is the most ethnically diverse county in the United States.

Established on November 1, 1683, it was named for the then-queen consort, Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II. As of 2000, the population is 2,229,379. Its county seat is the district of Jamaica^GR6, a neighborhood of New York City. The United States Postal Service divides the borough into five "towns": Long Island City, Jamaica, Flushing, Far Rockaway, and Floral Park; mail addressed to a residence or business in Queens includes the name of the applicable neighborhood (such as Ozone Park) on the next line below the street address—rather than "Queens, New York"—followed by the ZIP Code. Note that these ZIP codes do not necessarily accurately determine neighborhood names and boundaries, as "East Elmhurst" was largely coined by the United States Postal Service. Most neighborhoods have no solid boundaries and at times residents are left guessing to what neighborhood they belong.

The diversity of suburban and urban areas of Queens is striking. Neighborhoods in the eastern part of the borough are similar to towns in western Nassau County, having a more suburban look, while neighborhoods in the western and central sections loosely resemble The Bronx (particularly the eastern Bronx) and more closely, Brooklyn (particularly northeastern Brooklyn, which borders Queens), having more urban characteristics. Queens' characterization as a suburb is thus inaccurate, or has been so since the 1960s.

Geography

Queens County in New York State

Queens County is in the western part of Long Island and includes a few smaller islands, most of which are in Jamaica Bay and form part of Gateway National Recreation Area.

The tallest tree in the New York metropolitan area, called the Queens Giant, is also the oldest living thing in the New York metro area. It is located in northeastern Queens, and is 450 years old and 134 feet tall as of 2005.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 461.7 km² (178.3 mi²). 282.9 km² (109.2 mi²) of it is land and 178.8 km² (69.0 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 38.73% water.

History

The borough of Queens was originally named after Queen Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese wife of King Charles II of England. Originally, Queens County included the adjacent area now comprising Nassau County. It was an original county of New York State, one of twelve created in 1683. By 1870 Queens County consisted of six towns: Newtown, Flushing, Jamaica, North Hempstead, Hempstead, and Oyster Bay. In 1870, the city of Long Island City was incorporated, consisting of what had been the Village of Astoria and some unincorporated areas in the Town of Newtown. Long Island City, Newtown, Flushing, Jamaica, and the Rockaway Peninsula of the Town of Hempstead became the borough of Queens in Greater New York on January 1, 1898. The part of Queens County that was not annexed to New York City, consisting of the towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay and all of the Town of Hempstead except the Rockaway Peninsula, was constituted as the new Nassau County in 1899.

Neighborhoods

A typical residential street in Jackson Heights.

The borough of Queens is a patchwork quilt of dozens of unique neighborhoods, each with its own distinct identity. Residents of Queens have been known to identify more with their neighborhood than with the borough as a whole. Howard Beach and Middle Village are home to large Italian-American populations, Rockaway Beach has a large Irish-American population, Astoria, in the northwest, is traditionally home to one of the largest Greek populations outside of Greece, and is home to a growing population of young professionals from Manhattan, and nearby Long Island City, in the southwest, is a major manufacturing and commercial center, as well as being the location of the Queensbridge housing project, with its infamous Hip Hop history and large proportion of famous rappers; Jackson Heights, "Elmhurst" and Corona make up an enormous conglomeration of Hispanic and Asian communities; Flushing, in the north-central part of the borough, is a major commercial hub for Chinese and Korean businesses; Richmond Hill, in the south, has the largest population of Indian Sikhs outside of India; Forest Hills and Kew Gardens, in central Queens, have traditionally large Jewish populations as well as large Hispanic populations while Jamaica is a major business and transportation hub for the borough, and also home to large African-American and Caribbean populations. There are also middle class African-American, Filipino, Latino and Caribbean neighborhoods such as Saint Albans, Cambria Heights, Queens Village, Rosedale and Laurelton along East and Southeast Queens.Together, these neighborhoods comprise the most diverse county in the US, and easily provide the richest cultural experience found anywhere in the world. Some Queens neighborhoods, such as Ozone Park, Bayside, Maspeth and Woodside are home to a very diverse mix of many different nationalities.

ZIP Codes in Queens range from 11101 to 11120; 11351 to 11499; and from 11690 to 11697.

The borough is politically divided into 14 community boards :

• 1 : Astoria, Long Island City, Queensbridge, Ditmars, Ravenswood, Steinway, and Woodside
• 2 : Long Island City, Woodside, and Sunnyside
• 3 : Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst
• 4 : Elmhurst, Corona, Lefrak City, Flushing Meadows
• 5 : Ridgewood, Glendale, Middle Village, Maspeth
• 6 : Forest Hills and Rego Park
• 7 : Flushing, Bay Terrace, College Point, Whitestone, Malba, Beechhurst, Queensboro Hill and Willets Point
• 8 : Fresh Meadows, Cunningham Heights, Hilltop Village, Pomonak Houses, Jamaica Estates, Holliswood, Utopia, Kew Gardens Hills, and Briarwood
• 9 : Richmond Hill, Woodhaven, Ozone Park, and Kew Gardens
• 10 : Howard Beach, South Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Tudor Village, and Lindenwood
• 11 : Bayside, Douglaston, Little Neck, Auburndale, East Flushing, Oakland Gardens, and Hollis Hills
• 12 : Jamaica, Hollis, Saint Albans, Springfield Gardens, Rochdale Village, and South Jamaica
• 13 : Queens Village, Glen Oaks, New Hyde Park, Bellerose, Cambria Heights, Laurelton, Rosedale, Floral Park, and Brookville
• 14 : Breezy Point, Belle Harbor, Neponsit, Arverne, Bayswater, Edgemere, Rockaway Park, Rockaway and Far Rockaway

See: List of Queens neighborhoods

Economy

The economy of Queens is based on tourism, industry, and trade. Queens has two of the busiest airports in the world, John F. Kennedy International Airport, located in Jamaica, and La Guardia Airport, in Flushing. Queens is increasingly attracting film studios — a return of an industry that had departed decades earlier — notably the Kaufman Studios in Astoria, where a number of television shows are made. Western Queens is becoming an artistic hub, including the Noguchi Museum, Socrates Sculpture Park, Museum for African Art, and the American Museum of the Moving Image. The current poet laureate of Queens is Ishle Yi Park.

The Queens Museum of Art and the New York Hall of Science are further east, in Flushing Meadows Park — site of both the 1939 New York World's Fair, the 1964 New York World's Fair and the annual US Open tennis tournament. Shea Stadium, home of the New York Mets baseball team, is just north of the park.

Several large companies have their headquarters in Queens. They include Bulova, Glacéau, JetBlue and Steinway & Sons.

Law, government, and politics

Queens is a borough of New York City. The current borough president is Democrat Helen Marshall.

Queens is considered a volatile swing county in New York politics. Although it is heavily Democratic, Republicans who do well in Queens usually win statewide or citywide, like former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, current Mayor Michael Bloomberg and current New York Governor George Pataki.

Despite being largely liberal, Queens is the home of State Senator Serphin Maltese, a conservative Republican who represents a huge chunk of central and southern Queens

Hence, Queens residents voted for Michael Bloomberg for Mayor in 2001 by 210,432 votes to 163,528 to his Democratic opponent Mark Green. In 2002, they voted against George Pataki for Governor with a slim 45.01% (155,599) to 46.50% (160,746) for its democratic opponent Carl McCall.

Queens residents voted for Senator Kerry for President in 2004 by 71.7% (433,835) to 21.4% (165,954) for President Bush. However, apart from Staten Island, Queens is the last borough in heavily Democratic New York City in which a majority voted Republican in a presidential election : in 1972 when Queens went for Richard Nixon.

Indeed, even if Queens votes now overwhemingly democratic in Presidential election, this trend is pretty new. Until the late 80s, although being clearly a Democratic area, the borough was still a competitive one.

Transportation

Air

Queens has crucial importance in international and interstate air traffic. LaGuardia Airport, is located in the northern part of Queens. John F. Kennedy International Airport is located in the southern portion of the borough, on Jamaica Bay. A third airport, Flushing Airport, only a mile east of LaGuardia, was closed in the early 1980s.

Roads and Highways

Queens is traversed by three trunk east-west highways:

• The Long Island Expressway, also known as Interstate 495, runs from the Queens-Midtown Tunnel on the west through the Queens/Nassau County border and east to Riverhead in Suffolk County
• The Grand Central Parkway, whose western terminus is the Triborough Bridge, extends east to the Queens/Nassau border, where its name changes to the Northern State Parkway.
• The Belt Parkway begins at the Gowanus Expressway in Brooklyn, and extends east into Queens, past Aqueduct Racetrack and JFK Airport. On its eastern end at the Queens/Nassau border, it splits into the Southern State Parkway which continues east, and the Cross Island Parkway which turns north.

There are also several major north-south highways in Queens. The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, or Interstate 278; the Van Wyck Expressway, or Interstate 678; the Clearview Expressway, or Interstate 295; and the Cross Island Parkway.

Bridges and Tunnels

Queens is connected to the Bronx by three bridges: the Bronx Whitestone Bridge, the Throgs Neck Bridge and the Triborough Bridge.

Queens is connected to Manhattan by two bridges and one tunnel: the Triborough Bridge, the Queensboro Bridge, and the Queens-Midtown Tunnel.

While most of the Queens/Brooklyn border is on land, the Kosciuszko Bridge crosses the Newtown Creek connecting Maspeth, Queens to Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The Cross Bay Bridge connects the Rockaway Peninsula to the rest of Queens.

Mass Transit
Eleven subway routes traverse Queens, serving 77 stations on six main lines:

• The N and W trains serve the Astoria Line.
• The E, F, R and V trains serve the Queens Boulevard Line.
• The 7 train serves the Flushing Line.
• The J and Z trains serve the Jamaica Line.
• The A train serves the Rockaways.
• The G train connects Queens and Brooklyn. It is the only subway route in the city that does not enter Manhattan.

About 100 local bus routes move people around within Queens, and another 15 express routes shuttle commuters between Queens and Manhattan.

The Long Island Rail Road operates all of its service through Queens to reach its terminals in Manhattan and Brooklyn. LIRR operates twenty stations in Queens:

• Queens Village and Hollis served by the Hempstead Branch.
• Locust Manor, Laurelton, Rosedale and (after travelling through Nassau County) Far Rockaway served by the Far Rockaway Branch.
• Saint Albans served by the West Hempstead Branch.
• Shea Stadium, Flushing-Main Street, Murray Hill, Broadway, Auburndale, Bayside, Douglaston and Little Neck served by the Port Washington Branch.
• Hunterspoint Avenue and Long Island City on the Montauk Branch.
• Woodside, Forest Hills and Kew Gardens on the Main Line.
• Jamaica is a hub station where all the lines in the system meet except for the Port Washington. Jamaica is the busiest commuter rail hub in the United States.

AirTrain JFK connects JFK Airport to the subway at Jamaica and Howard Beach, and to the Long Island Rail Road at Jamaica.

Sunnyside, Queens is home of the world's largest railyard, the Sunnyside Yard, which is used as a staging area by Amtrak and New Jersey Transit for long haul and commuter departures from Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan.

Waterways

There is currently only one ferry service connecting Queens and Manhattan. New York Water Taxi operates service from Hunters Point in Long Island City across to the Manhattan-side of the East River to 34th Street and south to Pier 11 at Wall Street.

Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there are 2,229,379 people, 782,664 households, and 537,690 families residing in the county. The population density is 7,879.6/km² (20,409.0/mi²). There are 817,250 housing units at an average density of 2,888.5/km² (7,481.6/mi²). The racial makeup of the county is 44.08% White, 20.01% Black or African American, 0.50% Native American, 17.56% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 11.68% from other races, and 6.11% from two or more races. 24.97% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

Some main European ancestry in Queens, 2000 :

• Italian : 8.99%
• Irish : 7.05%
• German : 4.74%
• English : 1.32%

According to the Census Bureau, the population increased to 2,237,216 in 2004.

There are 782,664 households out of which 31.5% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.9% are married couples living together, 16.0% have a female householder with no husband present, and 31.3% are non-families. 25.6% of all households are made up of individuals and 9.7% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.81 and the average family size is 3.39.

In the county the population is spread out with 22.8% under the age of 18, 9.6% from 18 to 24, 33.1% from 25 to 44, 21.7% from 45 to 64, and 12.7% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 35 years. For every 100 females there are 92.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 89.6 males.

The median income for a household in the county is $42,439, and the median income for a family is $48,608. Males have a median income of $35,576 versus $31,628 for females. The per capita income for the county is $19,222. 14.6% of the population and 11.9% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 18.8% of those under the age of 18 and 13.0% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

The Top Ten Languages Spoken in Queens according to the NY State Comptroller [1]

1- English (vast majority) 2- Spanish 3- Chinese 4- Korean 5- Italian 6- Greek 7- Russian 8- Tagalog (Filipino) 9- French 10- French Creole

Famous people from Queens

Fictional characters include Archie Bunker, Edith Bunker, George Costanza, Fran Fine, Doug Heffernan, Vincent Chase and his friends on the HBO series Entourage, Mr. Met, and Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man.

Sports and other attractions

Queens is the home of the New York Mets baseball team, and is considered to be Mets territory. The US Open tennis tournament, and Aqueduct Racetrack. Just over the Queens line (in Nassau County) is Belmont Park Race Track, the home of the Belmont Stakes.

Education

• York College Noted for its Health Sciences Programs, Northeast Regional Office of the Food & Drug Administration is on campus.
• Queens College
• Queensborough Community College
• Saint John's University renowned for its men's basketball and men's soccer teams.

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External links

• Queens Council on the Arts

• Maps and aerial photos
  • Street map from Google Local or Yahoo! Maps
  • Topographic map from TopoZone
  • Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
  • Satellite image from Google Local or Microsoft Virtual Earth

• About.com's Queens site
• 1891 map of southwestern Queens
• 1898 map of southwestern Queens
• 1910 map of Queens (west)
• 1910 map of Queens (east)
• Queens Neighborhoods
• A Queens photo gallery
• air visit of all the districts of queens in photographs

Borough of Queens in New York City

Neighborhoods

Astoria | Bayside | Belle Harbor | Bellerose | Breezy Point | Briarwood | Broad Channel | Corona | Douglaston | East Elmhurst | Elmhurst | Far Rockaway | Floral Park | Flushing | Forest Hills Gardens | Forest Hills | Fort Totten | Fresh Meadows | Glendale | Hamilton Beach | Hillcrest | Hollis | Howard Beach | Jackson Heights | Jamaica | Kew Gardens Hills | Kew Gardens | Laurelton | LeFrak City | Lindenwood | Little Neck | Long Island City | Malba | Maspeth | Middle Village | Neponsit | Queens Village | Queensbridge | Ramblersville | Rego Park | Richmond Hill | Ridgewood | Rockaway Beach | Rockwood Park | Saint Albans | Springfield Gardens | Sunnyside | Whitestone | Willets Point | Woodhaven | Woodside