Queens

This article is about the New York City borough. For other uses, see Queens (disambiguation).
Queens
Queens, NYC, New York
Borough of New York City
Queens County


Flag
Seal

Location of Queens, shown in red, in New York City
Coordinates: 40°45′N 73°52′W / 40.750°N 73.867°W / 40.750; -73.867Coordinates: 40°45′N 73°52′W / 40.750°N 73.867°W / 40.750; -73.867
Country  United States of America
State  New York
County Queens
City New York City
Settled 1683
Government
 • Type Borough (New York City)
 • Borough President Melinda Katz (D)
— (Borough of Queens)
 • District Attorney Richard Brown
— (Queens County)
Area
 • Total 178 sq mi (460 km2)
 • Land 109 sq mi (280 km2)
 • Water 70 sq mi (200 km2)  39%
Population (2015)
 • Total 2,339,150[1]
 • Density 21,460.1/sq mi (8,285.8/km2)
ZIP Code prefixes 110--, 111--, 113--, 114--, 116--
Area code(s) 718, 347, 917
Website Official Website of the Queens Borough President

Queens is the easternmost and largest in area of the five boroughs of New York City. It is geographically adjacent to the borough of Brooklyn at the southwestern end of Long Island, and to Nassau County further east on Long Island; in addition, Queens shares water borders with the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. Coterminous with Queens County since 1899, the borough of Queens is the second-largest in population (after Brooklyn), with a census-estimated 2,339,150 residents in 2015, approximately 48% of them foreign-born.[1] Queens County also is the second-most populous county in the U.S. state of New York, behind the neighboring borough of Brooklyn, which is coterminous with Kings County. Queens is the fourth-most densely populated county among New York City's boroughs, as well as in the United States. If each of New York City's boroughs were an independent city, Queens also would be the nation's fourth most populous city, after Los Angeles, Chicago, and Brooklyn.[2] Queens is the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world.[3][4]

Queens was established in 1683 as one of the original 12 counties of New York. It was named after the Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza (1638–1705), Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland.[5][6] It became a borough of New York City in 1898, and from 1683 until 1899, the County of Queens included what is now Nassau County.

Queens has the most diversified economy of the five boroughs of New York City[7] It is home to JFK International Airport and LaGuardia Airport. These airports are among the busiest in the world, causing the airspace above Queens to be the most congested in the country. Attractions in Queens include Flushing Meadows Park, Citi Field - home to the New York Mets baseball team, the US Open tennis tournament, Kaufman Astoria Studios, Silvercup Studios, and Aqueduct Racetrack. The borough has diverse housing, ranging from high-rise apartment buildings in the urban areas of western and central Queens, such as Jackson Heights, Flushing, Astoria, and Long Island City, to suburban neighborhoods in the eastern part of the borough such as Little Neck, Douglaston, and Bayside.[8][9]

New York City's five boroughs
Jurisdiction Population Land area Density
BoroughCountyEstimate
(2015)[10]		square
miles		square
km		persons /
sq. mi		persons /
sq. km
Manhattan
New York
 1,644,518 22.83 59.1 72,033 27,826
The Bronx
Bronx
 1,455,444 42 110 34,653 13,231
Brooklyn
Kings
 2,636,735 71 180 37,137 14,649
Queens
Queens
 2,339,150 109 280 21,460 8,354
Staten Island
Richmond
 474,558 58.5 152 8,112 3,132
City of New York
8,550,405303.33781.128,18810,947
State of New York
19,795,79147,214122,284416.4159
Sources: see individual borough articles

History

Colonial and post-colonial history

Catherine of Braganza, Queen of England.

European colonization brought Dutch and English settlers, as a part of the New Netherland colony. First settlements occurred in 1635 followed by early colonizations at Maspeth in 1642,[11] and Vlissingen (now Flushing) in 1643.[12] Other early settlements included Newtown (now Elmhurst) and Jamaica. However, these towns were mostly inhabited by English settlers from New England via eastern Long Island (Suffolk County) subject to Dutch law.[13] After the capture of the colony by the English and its renaming as New York in 1664, the area (and all of Long Island) became known as Yorkshire.

The Flushing Remonstrance signed by colonists in 1657 is considered a precursor to the United States Constitution's provision on freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights. The signers protested the Dutch colonial authorities' persecution of Quakers in what is today the borough of Queens.

Originally, Queens County included the adjacent area now comprising Nassau County. It was an original county of New York State, one of twelve created on November 1, 1683.[14] The county was named after Catherine of Braganza, since she was queen of England at the time (she was Portugal's royal princess Catarina daughter of King John IV of Portugal). The county was founded alongside Kings County (Brooklyn, which was named after her husband, King Charles II), and Richmond County (Staten Island, named after his illegitimate son, the 1st Duke of Richmond).[15][16][17] On October 7, 1691, all counties in the Colony of New York were redefined. Queens gained North Brother Island, South Brother Island, and Huletts Island (today known as Rikers Island).[18] On December 3, 1768, Queens gained other islands in Long Island Sound that were not already assigned to a county but that did not abut on Westchester County (today's Bronx County).[19]

Queens played a minor role in the American Revolution, as compared to Brooklyn, where the Battle of Long Island was largely fought. Queens, like the rest of Long Island, remained under British occupation after the Battle of Long Island in 1776 and was occupied throughout most of the rest of the Revolutionary War. Under the Quartering Act, British soldiers used, as barracks, the public inns and uninhabited buildings belonging to Queens residents. Even though many local people were against unannounced quartering, sentiment throughout the county remained in favor of the British crown. The quartering of soldiers in private homes, except in times of war, was banned by the Third Amendment to the United States Constitution. Nathan Hale was captured by the British on the shore of Flushing Bay in Queens before being executed by hanging in Manhattan for gathering intelligence.

From 1683 until 1784, Queens County consisted of five towns: Flushing, Hempstead, Jamaica, Newtown, and Oyster Bay. On April 6, 1784, a sixth town, the Town of North Hempstead, was formed through secession by the northern portions of the Town of Hempstead.[20][21] The seat of the county government was located first in Jamaica,[22] but the courthouse was torn down by the British during the American Revolution to use the materials to build barracks.[23] After the war, various buildings in Jamaica temporarily served as courthouse and jail until a new building was erected about 1787 (and later completed) in an area near Mineola (now in Nassau County) known then as Clowesville.[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]

The 1850 census was the first in which the population of the three western towns exceeded that of the three eastern towns that are now part of Nassau County. Concerns were raised about the condition and distance of the old courthouse, and several sites were in contention for the construction of a new one.[41]

In 1870, Long Island City split from the Town of Newtown, incorporating itself as a city, consisting of what had been the Village of Astoria and some unincorporated areas within the Town of Newtown. Around 1874, the seat of county government was moved to Long Island City from Mineola.[37][42][43][44]

Laurel Hill Chemical Works, 1883. Parts of Queens were becoming industrial suburbs

On March 1, 1860, the eastern border between Queens County (later Nassau County) and Suffolk County was redefined with no discernible change.[45]

On June 8, 1881, North Brother Island was transferred to New York County.[46] On May 8, 1884, Rikers Island was transferred to New York County.[47]

In 1885, Lloyd Neck, which was part of the Town of Oyster Bay and was earlier known as Queens Village, seceded from Queens and became part of the Town of Huntington in Suffolk County.[48][49]

On April 16, 1964, South Brother Island was transferred to Bronx County.[50]

Incorporation as borough

Queens Boulevard, looking east from Van Dam Street, in 1920. The newly built IRT Flushing Line is in the boulevard's median.

The New York City Borough of Queens was authorized on May 4, 1897, by a vote of the New York State Legislature after an 1894 referendum on consolidation.[51] The eastern 280 square miles (730 km2) of Queens that became Nassau County was partitioned on January 1, 1899.[52]

Queens Borough was established on January 1, 1898.[53][54][55][56] Long Island City, the towns of Newtown, Flushing, and Jamaica, and the Rockaway Peninsula portion of the Town of Hempstead were merged to form the new borough, dissolving all former municipal governments (Long Island City, the county government, all towns, and all villages) within the new borough.[57] The areas of Queens County that were not part of the consolidation plan,[43][58][59][60][61][62][63] consisting of the towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay, and the major remaining portion of the Town of Hempstead, remained part of Queens County until they seceded to form the new Nassau County on January 1, 1899. At this point, the boundaries of Queens County and the Borough of Queens became coterminous. With consolidation, Jamaica once again became the county seat, though county offices now extend to nearby Kew Gardens also.[64]

The borough's administrative and court buildings are presently located in Kew Gardens and downtown Jamaica respectively, two neighborhoods that were villages of the former Town of Jamaica.

From 1905 to 1908 the Long Island Rail Road in Queens became electrified. Transportation to and from Manhattan, previously by ferry or via bridges in Brooklyn, opened up with the Queensboro Bridge finished in 1909, and with railway tunnels under the East River in 1910. From 1915 onward, much of Queens was connected to the New York City Subway system.[65][66] With the 1915 construction of the Steinway Tunnel carrying the IRT Flushing Line between Queens and Manhattan, and the robust expansion of the use of the automobile, the population of Queens more than doubled in the 1920s, from 469,042 in 1920 to 1,079,129 in 1930.[67]

In later years, Queens was the site of the 1939 New York World's Fair and the 1964 New York World's Fair. LaGuardia Airport, in northern Queens, opened in 1939. Idlewild Airport, in southern Queens and now called JFK Airport, opened in 1948. American Airlines Flight 587 took off from the latter airport on November 12, 2001, but ended up crashing in Queens' Belle Harbor area, killing 265 people. In late October 2012, much of Queens' Breezy Point area was destroyed by a massive six-alarm fire caused by Hurricane Sandy.

Looking south from the Queensboro Bridge in Long Island City, this photo was published in 1920 by the Queens Chamber of Commerce to illustrate the borough's "numerous attractive industrial plants".[68]

Geography

NASA Landsat satellite image of Long Island and surrounding areas.

Queens is located on the far western portion of geographic Long Island and includes a few smaller islands, most of which are in Jamaica Bay, forming part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, which in turn is one of the National Parks of New York Harbor.[69] According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Queens County has a total area of 178 square miles (460 km2), of which 109 square miles (280 km2) is land and 70 square miles (180 km2) (39%) is water.[70]

Brooklyn, the only other New York City borough on geographic Long Island, lies just south and west of Queens, with Newtown Creek, an estuary that flows into the East River, forming part of the border. To the west and north is the East River, across which is Manhattan to the west and The Bronx to the north. Nassau County is east of Queens on Long Island. Staten Island is southwest of Brooklyn, and shares only a 3-mile-long water border (in the Outer Bay) with Queens.

The Rockaway Peninsula, the most southernly part of all of Long Island, sits between Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, featuring the most prominent public beaches in Queens.[71][72] Flushing Bay and the Flushing River are in the north, connecting to the East River. The East River opens into Long Island Sound. The midsection of Queens is crossed by the Long Island straddling terminal moraine created by the Wisconsin Glacier.

Boroughscapes

The growing skyline of Long Island City, facing the East River at blue hour in 2015. At left is the Queensboro Bridge, connecting Queens to Manhattan.
The busy intersection of Main Street, Kissena Boulevard, and 41st Avenue in the Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠). Queens' rapidly growing Chinese American population was approaching 240,000 in 2014,[73] the highest of any municipality in the United States other than New York City overall.
Station Square of Forest Hills, Queens, Long Island Rail Road station for Eastern Long Island and Manhattan (August 2016).

Climate

Under the Köppen climate classification, using the 32 °F (0 °C) coldest month (January) isotherm, Queens and the rest of New York City have a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) with partial shielding from the Appalachian Mountains and moderating influences from the Atlantic Ocean. Queens receives plentiful precipitation all year round with 44.8 in (1,140 mm) yearly. Extremes range from 107 °F (41.6 °C) to -3 °F (-19.4 °C). Winters are relatively mild compared to other areas of New York State, though snow is common and blizzards occur about every 4–6 years. Springs are unpredictable and can be chilly to very warm. Summers are hot, humid, and wet. Autumn is similar to spring, while snowfall generally begins in December.

Monthly and annual statistics for the three main climatology stations in New York City

Adjacent counties

Neighborhoods

A typical residential street in Jackson Heights.
6 story red brick apartments populate the neighborhood of Rego Park.
Long Island City is a neighborhood in western Queens.
Forest Hills Gardens
Row houses are prominent in many Queens neighborhoods, including Ridgewood.

Four United States Postal Service postal zones serve Queens, based roughly on those serving the towns in existence at the consolidation of the five boroughs into New York City: Long Island City (ZIP codes starting with 111), Jamaica (114), Flushing (113), and Far Rockaway (116). In addition, the Floral Park post office (110), based in Nassau County, serves a small part of northeastern Queens. Each of these main post offices have neighborhood stations with individual ZIP codes, and unlike the other boroughs, these station names are often used in addressing letters. These ZIP codes do not always reflect traditional neighborhood names and boundaries; "East Elmhurst", for example, was largely coined by the USPS and is not an official community. Most neighborhoods have no solid boundaries. The Forest Hills and Rego Park neighborhoods, for instance, overlap.

Residents of Queens often closely identify with their neighborhood rather than with the borough or city. The borough is a patchwork of dozens of unique neighborhoods, each with its own distinct identity:

Demographics

Historical population
Census Pop. %±
17906,159—
18006,6427.8%
18107,44412.1%
18208,24610.8%
18309,0499.7%
184014,48060.0%
185018,59328.4%
186032,90377.0%
187045,46838.2%
188056,55924.4%
189087,05053.9%
1900152,99975.8%
1910284,04185.6%
1920469,04265.1%
19301,079,129130.1%
19401,297,63420.2%
19501,550,84919.5%
19601,809,57816.7%
19701,986,4739.8%
19801,891,325−4.8%
19901,951,5983.2%
20002,229,37914.2%
20102,230,7220.1%
Est. 20152,339,150[86]4.9%
U.S. Decennial Census[87]
1790-1960[88] 1900-1990[89]
1990-2000[90] 2010 and 2015[1]
Racial composition 2014[91] 1990[92] 1970[92] 1950[92]
White 49.1% 57.9% 85.3% 96.5%
—Non-Hispanic 26.2% 48.0% n/a n/a
Black or African American 20.8% 21.7% 13.0% 3.3%
Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 28.0% 19.5% 7.7%[93] n/a
Asian 25.8% 12.2% 1.1% 0.1%
The Elmhurst Chinatown (艾姆赫斯特 唐人街) at the corner of Broadway and Dongan Avenue.
Street scene in Astoria, a largely Greek-American neighborhood.

Population estimates

Since 2010, the population of Queens was estimated by the United States Census Bureau to have increased 4.9% to 2,339,150, as of 2015 – Queens' estimated population represented 27.4% of New York City's population of 8,550,405; 29.8% of Long Island's population of 7,838,722; and 11.8% of New York State's population of 19,795,791.[1][94][95][96][97][98]

According to 2012 census estimates, 27.2% of the population was Non-Hispanic White,[92] 20.9% Black or African American, 24.8% Asian, 12.9% from some other race, and 2.7% of two or more races. 27.9% of Queens's population was of Hispanic or Latino origin (of any race).[99]

The New York City Department of City Planning was alarmed by the negligible reported increase in population between 2000 and 2010. Areas with high proportions of immigrants and undocumented aliens are traditionally undercounted for a variety of reasons, often based on a mistrust of government officials or an unwillingness to be identified. In many cases, counts of vacant apartment units did not match data from local surveys and reports from property owners.[100]

As of the 2000 United States Census, there were 2,229,379 people, 782,664 households, and 537,690 families residing in the county. The population density was 20,409.0 inhabitants per square mile (7,879.6/km²). There were 817,250 housing units at an average density of 7,481.6 per square mile (2,888.5/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 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 were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

Ethnic groups

In Queens, approximately 48.5% of the population was foreign-born as of 2010. Of that, 49.5% were born in Latin America, 33.5% in Asia, 14.8% in Europe, 1.8% in Africa, and 0.4% in North America. Roughly 2.1% of the population was born in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, or abroad to American parents. In addition, 51.2% of the population was born in the United States. Approximately 44.2% of the population over 5 years of age speak English at home; 23.8% speak Spanish at home. Also, 16.8% of the populace speak other Indo-European languages at home. Another 13.5% speak an Asian language at home.[101]

Among the Asian population, people of Chinese ethnicity make up the largest ethnic group at 10.2% of Queens' population, with about 237,484 people;[73] the other East and Southeast Asian groups are: Koreans (2.9%), Filipinos (1.7%), Japanese (0.3%), Thais (0.2%), Vietnamese (0.2%), and Indonesians and Burmese both make up 0.1% of the population.[99] People of South Asian descent make up 7.8% of Queens' population: Indians (5.3%), Bangladeshi (1.5%), Pakistanis (0.7%), and Nepali (0.2%).[99]

Among the Hispanic population, Puerto Ricans make up the largest ethnic group at 4.6%, next to Mexicans, who make up 4.2% of the population, and Dominicans at 3.9%. Central Americans make up 2.4% and are mostly Salvadorans. South Americans constitute 9.6% of Queens's population, mainly of Ecuadorian (4.4%) and Colombian descent (3.2%).[99]

Some main European ancestries in Queens as of 2000 include:

The Hispanic or Latino population increased by 61% to 597,773 between 1990 and 2006 and now accounts for 26.5% of the borough's population. Queens is now home to hundreds of thousands of Latinos and Hispanics:

Queens is home to 49.6% of the city's Asian population. Among the five boroughs, Queens has the largest population of Chinese, Indian, Korean, Filipino, Bangladeshi and Pakistani Americans. Queens has the largest Asian American population by county outside the Western United States; according to the 2006 American Community Survey, Queens ranks fifth among US counties with 477,772 (21.18%) Asian Americans, behind Los Angeles County, California, Honolulu County, Hawaii, Santa Clara County, California, and Orange County, California.

The borough is also home to one of the highest concentrations of Indian Americans in the nation, with an estimated population of 144,896 in 2014 (6.24% of the 2014 borough population),[103] as well as Pakistani Americans, who number at 15,604.[104] Queens has the second largest Sikh population in the nation after California.[105]

In 2010, Queens held a disproportionate share of several Asian communities within New York City, relative to its overall population, as follows:[106]

Queens has the third largest Bosnian population in the United States behind only St. Louis and Chicago, numbering more than 15,000.[107]

A 2011 UJA/Federation of New York study found that Queens was home to 198,000 Jewish Americans, up from 186,000 in 2002.[108]

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

In the county the population was 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 were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 92.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.6 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $37,439, and the median income for a family was $42,608. Males had a median income of $30,576 versus $26,628 for females. The per capita income for the county was $19,222. About 16.9% of families and 24.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.8% of those under age 18 and 13.0% of those age 65 or over. In Queens, the black population earns more than whites on average.[109] Many of these African Americans live in quiet, middle class suburban neighborhoods near the Nassau County border, such as Laurelton and Cambria Heights which have large black populations whose family income is higher than average. Those areas are known for their well kept homes, suburban feel, and low crime rate. The migration of European Americans from parts of Queens has been long ongoing with departures from Ozone Park, Woodhaven, Bellerose, Floral Park, and Flushing, etc. (most of the outgoing population has been replaced with Asian Americans). Neighborhoods such as Whitestone, College Point, North Flushing, Auburndale, Bayside, Middle Village, Little Neck, and Douglaston have not had a substantial exodus of white residents, but have seen an increase of Asian population, mostly Chinese and Korean. Queens has recently experienced a real estate boom making most of its neighborhoods very desirable for people who want to reside near Manhattan in a less urban setting. According to a 2001 Claritas study, Queens is the most diverse county in the United States among counties of 100,000+ population.[110]

Culture

5 Pointz graffiti exhibit in Long Island City

While Queens has not been the center of any major artistic movements, it has been the home of such notable artists as Tony Bennett, Francis Ford Coppola, Paul Simon, and Robert Mapplethorpe. The current poet laureate of Queens is Paolo Javier.[111]

Queens has notably fostered African-American culture, with establishments such as The Afrikan Poetry Theatre[112] and the Black Spectrum Theater Company[113] catering specifically to African Americans in Queens. In the 1940s, Queens was an important center of jazz; such jazz luminaries as Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, and Ella Fitzgerald took up residence in Queens, seeking refuge from the segregation they found elsewhere in New York.[114] Additionally, many notable hip-hop acts hail from Queens, including Nas, Run-D.M.C., Kool G Rap, A Tribe Called Quest, LL Cool J, Mobb Deep, 50 Cent, Nicki Minaj, and Heems of Das Racist.

Queens hosts various museums and cultural institutions that serve its diverse communities. They range from the historical (such as the John Bowne House) to the scientific (such as the New York Hall of Science), from conventional art galleries (such as the Noguchi Museum) to unique graffiti exhibits (such as 5 Pointz). Queens's cultural institutions include, but are not limited to:

The travel magazine Lonely Planet also named Queens the top destination in the country for 2015 for its cultural and culinary diversity.[115] Stating that Queens is "quickly becoming its hippest" but that "most travelers haven’t clued in… yet,"[116] the Lonely Planet stated that "nowhere is the image of New York as the global melting pot truer than Queens."[117]

Languages

There are 138 languages spoken in the borough.[118] As of 2010, 43.84% (905,890) of Queens residents age 5 and older spoke English at home as a primary language, while 23.88% (493,462) spoke Spanish, 8.06% (166,570) Chinese, 3.44% (71,054) various Indic languages, 2.74% (56,701) Korean, 1.67% (34,596) Russian, 1.56% (32,268) Italian, 1.54% (31,922) Tagalog, 1.53% (31,651) Greek, 1.32% (27,345) French Creole, 1.17% (24,118) Polish, 0.96% (19,868) Hindi, 0.93% (19,262) Urdu, 0.92% (18,931) other Asian languages, 0.80% (16,435) other Indo-European languages, 0.71% (14,685) French, 0.61% (12,505) Arabic, 0.48% (10,008) Serbo-Croatian, and Hebrew was spoken as a main language by 0.46% (9,410) of the population over the age of five. In total, 56.16% (1,160,483) of Queens's population age 5 and older spoke a mother language other than English.[119]

Food

The cuisine available in Queens reflects its vast cultural diversity.[120] The cuisine of a particular neighborhood often represents its demographics; for example, Astoria hosts many Greek restaurants, in keeping with its traditionally Greek population.[121] Jackson Heights is known for its prominent Indian cuisine and also many Latin American eateries.

Government

Party affiliation of Queens registered voters
Party 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996
Democratic 62.94% 62.52 62.85 62.79 62.99 62.52 62.30 62.27 62.28 62.33
Republican 14.60% 14.66 14.97 15.04 15.28 15.69 16.47 16.74 16.93 17.20
Other 3.88% 3.93 3.94 3.86 3.37 3.30 3.10 3.20 3.02 2.78
No affiliation 18.58% 18.89 18.24 18.31 18.36 18.49 18.13 17.79 17.77 17.69
Queens County Courthouse

Since New York City's consolidation in 1898, Queens has been governed by the New York City Charter that provides for a strong mayor-council system. The centralized New York City government is responsible for public education, correctional institutions, public safety, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply, and welfare services in Queens. The Queens Library is governed by a 19-member Board of Trustees, who are appointed by the Mayor of New York City and the Borough President of Queens.

Since 1990 the Borough President has acted as an advocate for the borough at the mayoral agencies, the City Council, the New York state government, and corporations. Queens' Borough President is Melinda Katz, elected in November 2013 as a Democrat with 80.3% of the vote . Queens Borough Hall is the seat of government and is located in Kew Gardens.

The Democratic Party holds most public offices. Sixty-three percent of registered Queens voters are Democrats. Local party platforms center on affordable housing, education and economic development. Controversial political issues in Queens include development, noise, and the cost of housing.

Presidential election results
Year Republican Democratic
2016 22.0% 138,550 75.1% 473,389
2012 19.9% 118,589 79.1% 470,732
2008 24.4% 145,898 74.9% 447,906
2004 27.4% 165,954 71.7% 433,835
2000 22.0% 122,052 75.0% 416,967
1996 21.1% 107,650 72.9% 372,925
1992 28.3% 157,561 62.9% 349,520
1988 39.7% 217,049 59.5% 325,147
1984 46.4% 285,477 53.3% 328,379
1980 44.8% 251,333 48.0% 269,147
1976 38.9% 244,396 60.5% 379,907
1972 56.3% 426,015 43.4% 328,316
1968 40.0% 306,620 53.6% 410,546
1964 33.6% 274,351 66.3% 541,418
1960 45.1% 367,688 54.7% 446,348
1956 59.9% 471,223 40.1% 315,898

Each of the city's five counties has its own criminal court system and District Attorney, the chief public prosecutor who is directly elected by popular vote. Richard A. Brown, who ran on both the Republican and Democratic Party tickets, has been the District Attorney of Queens County since 1991.[122] Queens has 12 seats on the New York City Council, the second largest number among the five boroughs. It is divided into 14 community districts, each served by a local Community Board. Community Boards are representative bodies that field complaints and serve as advocates for local residents.

Although Queens is heavily Democratic, it is considered a swing county in New York politics. Republican political candidates who do well in Queens usually win citywide or statewide elections. Republicans such as former Mayors Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg won majorities in Queens. Republican State Senator Serphin Maltese represented a district in central and southern Queens for twenty years until his defeat in 2008 by Democratic City Councilman Joseph Addabbo. In 2002, Queens voted against incumbent Republican Governor of New York George Pataki in favor of his Democratic opponent, Carl McCall by a slim margin.

However, Queens has not voted for a Republican candidate in a presidential election since 1972, when Queens voters chose Richard Nixon over George McGovern. Since the 1996 presidential election, Democratic presidential candidates have received over 70% of the popular vote in Queens.

Economy

Queens has the second-largest economy of New York City's five boroughs, following Manhattan. In 2004, Queens had 15.2% (440,310) of all private sector jobs in New York City and 8.8% of private sector wages. Queens has the most diversified economy of the five boroughs, with occupations spread relatively evenly across the health care, retail trade, manufacturing, construction, transportation, and film and television production sectors, such that no single sector is overwhelmingly dominant.[7]

The diversification in Queens' economy is reflected in the large amount of employment in the export-oriented portions of its economy—such as transportation, manufacturing, and business services—that serve customers outside the region. This accounts for more than 27% of all Queens jobs and offers an average salary of $43,727, 14% greater than that of jobs in the locally oriented sector.

The borough's largest employment sector—trade, transportation, and utilities—accounted for nearly 30% of all jobs in 2004. Queens is home to two of the three major New York City area airports, JFK International Airport and LaGuardia Airport. These airports are among the busiest in the world, leading the airspace above Queens to be the most congested in the country. This airline industry is particularly important to the economy of Queens, providing almost one quarter of the sector's employment and more than 30% of the sector's wages.

Education and health services is the next largest sector in Queens and comprised almost 24% of the borough's jobs in 2004. The manufacturing and construction industries in Queens are the largest of the City and account for nearly 17% of the borough's private sector jobs. Comprising almost 17% of the jobs in Queens is the information, financial activities, and business and professional services sectors.

As of 2003, Queens had almost 40,000 business establishments. Small businesses act as an important part of the borough's economic vitality with two thirds of all business employing between one and four people.

Several large companies have their headquarters in Queens, including watchmaker Bulova, based in East Elmhurst; internationally renowned piano manufacturer Steinway & Sons in Astoria; Glacéau, the makers of Vitamin Water, headquartered in Whitestone; and JetBlue Airways, an airline based in Long Island City.

Long Island City is a major manufacturing and back office center. Flushing is a major commercial hub for Chinese American and Korean American businesses, while Jamaica is the major civic and transportation hub for the borough.

Sports

Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets, 2010
Arthur Ashe Stadium interior, US Open 2014

Citi Field is a 41,922-seat stadium opened in April 2009 in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park that is the home ballpark of the New York Mets of Major League Baseball.[123] Shea Stadium, the former home of the Mets and the New York Jets of the National Football League, as well as the temporary home of the New York Yankees and the New York Giants Football Team stood where Citi Field's parking lot is now located, operating from 1964 to 2008.[124]

The US Open tennis tournament has been played since 1978 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, located just south of Citi Field.[125] With a capacity of 23,771, Arthur Ashe Stadium is the biggest tennis-specific stadium in the world.[126] The US Open was formerly played at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills.[127] in South Ozone Park is the home of Aqueduct Racetrack, which is operated by the New York Racing Association and offers Thoroughbred horse-racing from late October/early November through April.[128]

New York City Designated Landmarks

Transportation

According to the 2010 Census, 36% of all Queens households did not own a car; the citywide rate is 53%. Therefore, mass transit is also used.[129]

Airports

Five jumbo airplanes wait in a line on a runway next to a small body of water. Behind them in the distance is the airport and control tower.
John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States.

Queens has crucial importance in international and interstate air traffic, with two of the New York metropolitan area's three major airports located there.

John F. Kennedy International Airport, with 27.4 million international passengers in 2014 (of 53.2 million passengers, overall), is the busiest airport in the United States by international passenger traffic.[130] Owned by the City of New York and managed since 1947 by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the airport's runways and six terminals cover an area of 4,930 acres (2,000 ha) on Jamaica Bay in southeastern Queens.[131]

A multibillion-dollar reconstruction of LaGuardia Airport was announced in July 2015.[132]

LaGuardia Airport is located in Flushing, in northern Queens, on Flushing Bay. Originally opened in 1939, the airport's two runways and four terminals cover 680 acres (280 ha), serving 28.4 million passengers in 2015.[133] In 2014, citing outdated conditions in the airport's terminals, Vice President Joe Biden compared LaGuardia to a "third world country".[134] In 2015, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey began a $4 billion project to completely reconstruct LaGuardia Airport's terminals and entry ways, with an estimated completion in 2021.[132]

Public transportation

46th Street – Bliss Street subway station
Flushing – Main Street LIRR station

Twelve New York City Subway routes traverse Queens, serving 81 stations on seven main lines. The A, G, J/Z, and M routes connect Queens to Brooklyn without going through Manhattan first. The F, M, N, Q, and R trains connect Queens and Brooklyn via Manhattan, while the E and 7/<7> trains connect Queens to Manhattan only. Trains on the M service go through Queens twice in the same trip; both of its full-length termini, in Middle Village and Forest Hills, are in Queens.

A commuter train system, the Long Island Rail Road, operates 22 stations in Queens with service to Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Long Island. Jamaica station is a hub station where all the lines in the system but one (the Port Washington Branch) converge. It is the busiest commuter rail hub in the United States. Sunnyside Yard is used as a staging area by Amtrak and NJ Transit for intercity and commuter trains from Penn Station in Manhattan. 61st Street – Woodside acts as one of the many LIRR connections to the New York City Subway. The elevated AirTrain people mover system connects JFK International Airport to the New York City Subway and the Long Island Rail Road along the Van Wyck Expressway;[135] a separate AirTrain system is planned alongside the Grand Central Parkway to connect LaGuardia Airport to these transit systems.[136][137] Plans were announced in July 2015 to entirely rebuild LaGuardia Airport itself in a multibillion-dollar project to replace its aging facilities, and this project would accommodate the new AirTrain connection.[132]

About 100 local bus routes operate within Queens, and another 15 express routes shuttle commuters between Queens and Manhattan, under the MTA New York City Bus and MTA Bus brands.

A streetcar line connecting Queens with Brooklyn was proposed by the city in February 2016, with the planned timeline calling for service to begin around 2024.

Roads

Highways

Queens is traversed by three trunk east-west highways. The Long Island Expressway (Interstate 495) runs from the Queens Midtown Tunnel on the west through the borough to Nassau County on the east. 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, including the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (Interstate 278), the Van Wyck Expressway (Interstate 678), the Clearview Expressway (Interstate 295), and the Cross Island Parkway.

Streets

Standard cross-street signs for a single-named Boulevard and a co-named Avenue, in Queens

The streets of Queens are laid out in a semi-grid system, with a numerical system of street names (similar to Manhattan and the Bronx). Nearly all roadways oriented north-south are "Streets", while east-west roadways are "Avenues", beginning with the number 1 in the west for Streets and in the north for Avenues. In some parts of the borough, several consecutive streets may share numbers (for instance, 72nd Street followed by 72nd Place and 72nd Lane, or 52nd Avenue followed by 52nd Road, 52nd Drive, and 52nd Court), often causing confusion for non-residents. In addition, incongruous alignments of street grids, unusual street paths due to geography, or other circumstances often lead to the skipping of numbers (for instance, on Ditmars Boulevard, 70th Street is followed by Hazen Street which is followed by 49th Street). Numbered roads tend to be residential, although numbered commercial streets are not rare. A fair number of streets that were country roads in the 18th and 19th centuries (especially major thoroughfares such as Northern Boulevard, Queens Boulevard, Hillside Avenue, and Jamaica Avenue) carry names rather than numbers, typically though not uniformly called "Boulevards" or "Parkways".

Queens house numbering was designed to provide convenience in locating the address itself; the first half of a number in a Queens address refers to the nearest cross street, the second half refers to the house or lot number from where the street begins from that cross street, followed by the name of the street itself. For example, to find an address in Queens, 14-01 120th Street, one could ascertain from the address structure itself that the listed address is at the intersection of 14th Avenue and 120th Street, and that the address must be closest to 14th Avenue rather than 15th Avenue, as it is the first lot on the block. This pattern doesn't stop when a street is named, assuming that there is an existing numbered cross-street. For example, Queens College is situated at 65–30 Kissena Boulevard, and is so named because the cross-street closest to the entrance is 65th Avenue.

Many of the village street grids of Queens had only worded names, some were numbered according to local numbering schemes, and some had a mix of words and numbers. In the early 1920s a "Philadelphia Plan" was instituted to overlay one numbered system upon the whole borough. The Topographical Bureau, Borough of Queens, worked out the details. Subway stations were only partly renamed, and some, including those along the IRT Flushing Line (7 <7> trains), now share dual names after the original street names.[138] In 2012, some numbered streets in the Douglaston Hill Historic District were renamed to their original names, with 43rd Avenue becoming Pine Street.[139]

The Rockaway Peninsula does not follow the same system as the rest of the borough and has its own numbering system. Streets are numbered in ascending order heading west from near the Nassau County border, and are prefixed with the word "Beach." Streets at the easternmost end, however, are nearly all named. Streets in Bayswater, which is on Jamaica Bay, has its numbered streets prefixed with the word "Bay" rather than "Beach". Another deviation from the norm is Broad Channel; it maintains the north-south numbering progression but uses only the suffix "Road," as well as the prefixes "West" and "East," depending on location relative to Cross Bay Boulevard, the neighborhood's major through street. Broad Channel's streets were a continuation of the mainland Queens grid in the 1950s; formerly the highest numbered avenue in Queens was 208th Avenue rather today's 165th Avenue in Howard Beach & Hamilton Beach. The other exception is the neighborhood of Ridgewood, which for the most part shares a grid and house numbering system with the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick. The grid runs east-west from the LIRR Bay Ridge Branch right-of-way to Flushing Avenue; and north-south from Forest Avenue in Ridgewood to Bushwick Avenue in Brooklyn before adjusting to meet up with the Bedford-Stuyvesant grid at Broadway. All streets on the grid have names.

Bridges and tunnels

Triborough Bridge

Queens is connected to the Bronx by the Bronx–Whitestone Bridge, the Throgs Neck Bridge, the Triborough (Robert F. Kennedy) Bridge, and the Hell Gate Bridge. Queens is connected to Manhattan Island by the Triborough Bridge, the Queensboro Bridge, and the Queens Midtown Tunnel, as well as to Roosevelt Island by the Roosevelt Island Bridge.

While most of the Queens/Brooklyn border is on land, the Kosciuszko Bridge crosses the Newtown Creek connecting Maspeth to Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The Pulaski Bridge connects McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint to 11th Street, Jackson Avenue, and Hunters Point Avenue in Long Island City. The J. J. Byrne Memorial Bridge (a.k.a. Greenpoint Avenue Bridge) connects the sections of Greenpoint Avenue in Greenpoint and Long Island City. A lesser bridge connects Grand Avenue in Queens to Grand Street in Brooklyn.

The Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge, built in 1939, traverses Jamaica Bay to connect the Rockaway Peninsula to Broad Channel an the rest of Queens.[140] Constructed in 1937, the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge links Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn's longest thoroughfare, with Jacob Riis Park and the western end of the Peninsula.[141] Both crossings were built and continue to be operated by what is now known as MTA Bridges and Tunnels. The IND Rockaway Line parallels the Cross Bay, has a mid-bay station at Broad Channel which is just a short walk from the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, now part of Gateway National Recreation Area and a major stop on the Atlantic Flyway.

Waterways

Newtown Creek with the Midtown Manhattan skyline in the background.

One year-round scheduled ferry service connects Queens and Manhattan. New York Water Taxi operates service across the East River from Hunters Point in Long Island City to Manhattan at 34th Street and south to Pier 11 at Wall Street. In 2007, limited weekday service was begun between Breezy Point, the westernmost point in the Rockaways, to Pier 11 via the Brooklyn Army Terminal. Summertime weekend service provides service from Lower Manhattan and southwest Brooklyn to the peninsula's Gateway beaches.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012, massive infrastructure damage to the IND Rockaway Line (A train) south of the Howard Beach – JFK Airport station severed all direct subway connections between the Rockaway Peninsula and Broad Channel, Queens and the Queens mainland for many months. Ferry operator SeaStreak began running a city-subsidized ferry service between a makeshift ferry slip at Beach 108th Street and Beach Channel Drive in Rockaway Park, Queens, and Pier 11/Wall Street, then continuing on to the East 34th Street Ferry Landing. In August 2013, a stop was added at Brooklyn Army Terminal.[142] Originally intended as just a stopgap alternative transportation measure until subway service was restored to the Rockaways, the ferry proved to be popular with both commuters and tourists and was extended several times, as city officials evaluated the ridership numbers to determine whether to establish the service on a permanent basis. Between its inception and December 2013, the service had carried close to 200,000 riders.[143] When the city government announced its budget in late June 2014 for the upcoming fiscal year beginning July 1, the ferry only received a $2 million further appropriation, enough to temporarily extend it again through October, but did not receive the approximately $8 million appropriation needed to keep the service running for the full fiscal year.[144] Despite last-minute efforts by local transportation advocates, civic leaders and elected officials, ferry service ended on October 31, 2014. They promised to continue efforts to have the service restored.[145]

Education

Elementary and secondary education

Elementary and secondary school education in Queens is provided by a vast number of public and private institutions. Public schools in the borough are managed by the New York City Department of Education, the largest public school system in the United States. Most private schools are affiliated to or identify themselves with the Roman Catholic or Jewish religious communities. Townsend Harris High School is a Queens public magnet high school for the humanities consistently ranked as among the top 100 high schools in the United States.

Postsecondary institutions

Queens College is part of the City University of New York.

Queens Library

A branch of the Queens Library in Flushing.

The Queens Borough Public Library is the public library system for the borough and one of three library systems serving New York City. Dating back to the foundation of the first Queens library in Flushing in 1858, the Queens Borough Public Library is one of the largest public library systems in the United States. Separate from the New York Public Library, it is composed of 63 branches throughout the borough. In fiscal year 2001, the Library achieved a circulation of 16.8 million. First in circulation in New York State since 1985, the Library has maintained the highest circulation of any city library in the country since 1985 and the highest circulation of any library in the nation since 1987. The Library maintains collections in many languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Haitian Creole, Polish, and six Indic languages, as well as smaller collections in 19 other languages.

Notable people

See also: Category:People from Queens, New York and List of people from New York City

Various public figures have grown up or lived in Queens.[147] Musicians who have lived in the borough include singer Nadia Ali,[148] Tony Bennett,[149] rappers LL Cool J, Nas, Ja Rule, 50 Cent, Run–D.M.C., Nicki Minaj, Rich The Kid, Simon & Garfunkel[150] and Johnny Ramone.[151] Actors such as Adrien Brody,[152] and Lucy Liu[153] and Idina Menzel[154] have been born and/or raised in Queens. Porn star Ron Jeremy was born in Queens.[155] Actor Mae West has also lived in Queens.[156] Physician Joshua Prager was born in Whitestone.[157] Mafia boss John Gotti lived in Queens for many years.[158] Donald Trump, a businessman and 45th President-elect of the United States, was born in the Queens neighborhood of Jamaica and raised in Jamaica Estates.[159][160] Marvel Comics character Spider-Man is also from Queens.

Queens has also been home to athletes such as professional basketball player Rafer Alston[161] Basketball players Kareem Abdul-Jabbar[162][163] and Metta World Peace[164][165] were both born in Queens. Olympic Athlete Bob Beamon.[166] Tennis star John McEnroe[167] was born in Douglaston.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the expected highest and lowest temperature readings at any point during the year or given month) calculated based on data at said location from 1981 to 2010.
  2. ↑ Official weather observations for Central Park were conducted at the Arsenal at Fifth Avenue and 64th Street from 1869 to 1919, and at Belvedere Castle since 1919.[74]
  3. ↑ Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the expected highest and lowest temperature readings at any point during the year or given month) calculated based on data at said location from 1981 to 2010.
  4. ↑ Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the expected highest and lowest temperature readings at any point during the year or given month) calculated based on data at said location from 1981 to 2010.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "State & County QuickFacts - Queens County (Queens Borough), New York". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Is Queens a Suburb of New York or Part of the City?". Queens.about.com. November 3, 2009. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
  3. ↑ Christine Kim; Demand Media. "Queens, New York, Sightseeing". USA TODAY. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
  4. ↑ Andrew Weber (April 30, 2013). "Queens". NewYork.com. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Queens Almanac". Queens.about.com. November 3, 2009. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
  6. ↑ "NY.com". NY.com. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
  7. 1 2 "Queens: Economic Development and the State of the Borough Economy. Report 3-2007" (PDF). Office of the State Comptroller. June 2006. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
  8. ↑ Shaman, Diana (February 8, 2004). "If You're Thinking of Living In/Douglaston, Queens; Timeless City Area, With a Country Feel". The New York Times.
  9. ↑ Hughes, C. J. (November 17, 2011). "Posting – Queens — More Rentals Planned in Long Island City". The New York Times.
  10. ↑ "Current Population Estimates: NYC". NYC.gov. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
  11. ↑ "A Virtual Tour of New Netherland".
  12. ↑ Ellis, Edward Robb (1966). The Epic of New York City. Old Town Books. p. 54.
  13. ↑ Scheltema, Gajus and Westerhuijs, Heleen (eds.),Exploring Historic Dutch New York. Museum of the City of New York/Dover Publications, New York (2011). ISBN 978-0-486-48637-6
  14. ↑ New York: Commissioners of Statutory Revision:Colonial Laws of New York from the year 1664 to the Revolution, including the Charters of the Duke of York, the Commissions and instructions to Colonial Governors, the Duke's Laws, the Laws of the Dongan and Leisler Assemblies, the Charters of Albany and New York, and the acts of the Colonial Legislatures from 1691 to 1775, inclusive. Report to the Assembly #107, 1894. five Volumes. Albany, New York; 1894–1896; Chapter 4; Section 1; Page 122.
  15. ↑ Room, Adrian. 2006. Place names of the world: origins and meanings of the names for 6,600 Countries, Cities, Territories, Natural Features and Historic Sites. P.308
  16. ↑ Antos, Jason D. 2009. Queens. P.12
  17. ↑ Mushabac, Jane, Angela Wigan and Museum of the City of New York. 1999. A short and remarkable history of New York City. P.19
  18. ↑ New York: Commissioners of Statutory Revision:Colonial Laws of New York from the year 1664 to the Revolution, including the Charters of the Duke of York, the Commissions and instructions to Colonial Governors, the Duke's Laws, the Laws of the Dongan and Leisler Assemblies, the Charters of Albany and New York, and the acts of the Colonial Legislatures from 1691 to 1775, inclusive. Report to the Assembly #107, 1894. five Volumes. Albany, New York; 1894–1896; Chapter 17; Section 1; Page 268.
  19. ↑ New York: Commissioners of Statutory Revision:Colonial Laws of New York from the year 1664 to the Revolution, including the Charters of the Duke of York, the Commissions and instructions to Colonial Governors, the Duke's Laws, the Laws of the Dongan and Leisler Assemblies, the Charters of Albany and New York, and the acts of the Colonial Legislatures from 1691 to 1775, inclusive. Report to the Assembly #107, 1894. five volumes. Albany, New York; 1894–1896; Chapter 1376; Section 4; page 1063.
  20. ↑ Walter Greenspan. "Geographic History of Queens County". Retrieved December 23, 2007.
  21. ↑ J. H. French, LL.D. (1860). "Towns in Queens County, NY; From: Gazetteer of the State of New York". Retrieved December 28, 2007.
  22. ↑ "Early Five Borough's History". Retrieved December 30, 2007. When Queens County was created the courts were transferred from Hempstead to Jamaica Village and a County Court was erected. When the building became too small for its purposes and the stone meeting house had been erected, the courts were held for some years in that edifice. Later a new courthouse was erected and used until the seat of justice was removed to North Hempstead.
  23. ↑ "History of Queens County".
  24. ↑ "Historical Essay: A Thumbnail View". Official History Page of the Queens Borough President's Office. Archived from the original on December 18, 2007. Retrieved December 29, 2007. From the final withdrawal of the British in November, 1783, until the 1830s, Queens continued as an essentially Long Island area of farms and villages. The location of the county government in Mineola (in present-day Nassau County) underscores the island orientation of that era. Population grew hardly at all, increasing only from 5,791 in 1800 to 7,806 in 1830, suggesting that many younger sons moved away, seeking fortunes where land was not yet so fully taken up for farming.
  25. ↑ Jon A. Peterson and Vincent Seyfried, ed. (1983). A Research Guide to the History of the Borough of Queens and Its Neighborhood.
  26. ↑ Peterson, Jon A., ed. (1987). A Research Guide to the History of the Borough of Queens, New York City. New York: Queens College, City University of New York.
  27. ↑ "New York – Queens County – History". Retrieved December 29, 2007.
  28. ↑ "History of New York State 1523–1927". The Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York.
  29. ↑ Sullivan, James (1927). History of New York State 1523–1927. New York, Chicago: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc.
  30. ↑ "New York State History". Genealogy Inc. 1999. Retrieved December 28, 2007. Under the Reorganization Act of March 7, 1788, New York was divided into 120 towns (not townships), many of which were already in existence.
  31. ↑ "State of New York; Local Government Handbook; 5th Edition" (PDF). January 2000. pp. Ch 4, p 13; Ch 5 p 2. The 1777 New York State Constitution, Article XXXVI, confirmed land grants and municipal charters granted by the English Crown prior to October 14, 1775. Chapter 64 of the Laws of 1788 organized the state into towns and cities...The basic composition of the counties was set in 1788 when the State Legislature divided all of the counties then existing into towns. Towns, of course, were of earlier origin, but in that year they acquired a new legal status as components of the counties.
  32. ↑ "History Mysteries: Shelter Island Ferry/Mineola Building". Archived from the original on July 6, 2008. Retrieved April 1, 2008. The building shown below "is one of the most important buildings in the history of Mineola," wrote Jack Hehman, president of the Mineola Historical Society. Built in 1787 and known as the "old brig," it was the first Queens County courthouse and later a home for the mentally ill. The building was at Jericho Turnpike and Herricks Road until 1910, when it burned to the ground.
  33. ↑ "The Mineola Asylum; Witnesses who testified that it is and has been a model institution.". New York Times. August 29, 1882. Retrieved April 1, 2008. The investigation of the charges made against the Superintendent and keepers of the Mineola Asylum for the Insane, which was begun last Tuesday, was continued yesterday by the standing Committee on Insane Asylums of the Queens County Board of Supervisors-- Messrs. Whitney, Brinckerhoff, and Powell. The committee were shown through the asylum, which is the old building of the Queens County Court-house over 100 years old
  34. ↑ David Roberts. "Nassau County Post Offices 1794–1879". Retrieved April 1, 2008.
  35. ↑ John L. Kay & Chester M. Smith, Jr. (1982). New York Postal History: The Post Offices & First Postmasters from 1775 to 1980. American Philatelic Society. There was only one post office established in present Nassau County when the Long Island post road to Sag Harbor was established September 25, 1794. It appears that the mail from New York went to Jamaica. This was the only post office in the present day Boroughs of Queens or Brooklyn before 1803. From Jamaica the mail went east along the Jericho Turnpike/Middle Country Road route and ended at Sag Harbor. The only post office on this route between Jamaica and Suffolk County was QUEENS established the same date as the others on this route 9/25/1794. This post office was officially Queens, but I have seen the area called "Queens Court House" and was located approximately in the Mineola-Westbury area. The courthouse was used until the 1870s when the county court was moved to Long Island City. Later it served as the Queens County Insane Asylum and still later as an early courthouse for the new Nassau County, during construction of the present "old" Nassau County Courthouse in Mineola. It was demolished shortly after 1900 ... after about 120 years of service of one type or the other.
  36. ↑ "The Queens County Court-House Question A New Building to be Erected at Mineola.". The New York Times. February 25, 1872. Retrieved April 1, 2008. For forty years the Supervisors of Queens County have been quarreling over a site for a Court-house. The incommodious building used
  37. 1 2 Rhoda Amon (Staff Writer). "Mineola: First Farmers, Then Lawyers". Newsday. Archived from the original on October 15, 2008. Retrieved November 11, 2012. That was the year when the "Old Brig" courthouse was vacated after 90 years of housing lawbreakers. The county court moved from Mineola to Long Island City.
  38. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on June 10, 2007. Retrieved December 31, 2007.
  39. ↑ The former county courthouse was located northeast of the intersection of Jericho Turnpike (NY Route 25) and the aptly named County Courthouse Road in an unincorporated area of the Town of North Hempstead, variously referred to in the present day as Garden City Park or New Hyde Park. The site is now a shopping center anchored by a supermarket and is located in the New Hyde Park 11040 Zip Code. A stone marker located on the north side of Jericho Turnpike (NY Route 25), between Marcus Avenue and Herricks Road, identifies the site.
  40. ↑ Weidman, Bette S.; Martin, Linda B. (1981). Nassau County, Long Island, in early photographs, 1869–1940. Courier Dover. p. 55. Retrieved December 2, 2010.
  41. ↑ "The Queens County Court-House Question". New York Times. February 25, 1872. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
  42. ↑ "A Queens Timeline". The Queens Tribune. Archived from the original on November 9, 2007. Retrieved December 23, 2007. 1874 – Queens County Courthouse and seat of county government moved from Mineola (in present-day Nassau County) to Long Island City.
  43. 1 2 Geoffrey Mohan (Staff Writer) (2007). "Nassau's Difficult Birth; Eastern factions of Queens win the fight to separate after six decades of wrangling". Newsday. Archived from the original on October 16, 2008. Retrieved November 11, 2012. North Hempstead, Oyster Bay and the rest of Hempstead were excluded from the vote.
  44. ↑ "The New Queens County Court-House". New York Times. February 9, 1874. Retrieved November 11, 2012.
  45. ↑ New York. Laws of New York; 1860, 83rd Session, Chapter 530, pages 1074—1076.
  46. ↑ New York. Laws of New York; 1881, 104th Session, Chapter 478; Section 1, Page 649.
  47. ↑ New York. Laws of New York; 1884, 107th Session, Chapter 262, page 328.
  48. ↑ Beers' Atlas of Long Island (1873)
  49. ↑ "Lloyd Harbor – A Brief History". Incorporated Village of Lloyd Harbor, Suffolk County, NY. Archived from the original on April 27, 2009. Retrieved April 9, 2009.
  50. ↑ New York. Laws of New York; 1964, 187th Session, Chapter 578, page 1606.
  51. ↑ New York. Laws of New York; 1897, 120th Session, Chapter 378; Section 2; Page 2.
  52. ↑ New York. Laws of New York; 1899, 121st Session, Chapter 588; Section 1; Page 1336.
  53. ↑ "Inventing Gotham". Retrieved December 28, 2007.
  54. ↑ "Official Announcement of the Results of the Election" (PDF). New York Times. December 15, 1894. Retrieved December 28, 2007. The area included a radius of twenty miles (32 km), with the city hall in New York as a center to circumscribe it
  55. ↑ Holice, Deb & Pam. "The History of New York State". Archived from the original on August 22, 2007. Retrieved December 28, 2007.
  56. ↑ Dr. James Sullivan (editor). The History of New York State. Book II, Chapter IV Part VIII.
  57. ↑ "Before the Five-Borough City: Queens". This map shows the boundaries of the former towns and the former city within the present Borough of Queens.
  58. ↑ "Of Interest to Politicians.". The New York Times. September 13, 1894. p. 9. Retrieved December 28, 2007. (subscription required (help)). The question of the Greater New-York, which is also to be submitted to the people at this coming election, involves the proposition to unite in one city the following cities, counties, and towns: New-York City, Long Island City, in Queens County; the County of Kings, (Brooklyn;) the County of Richmond, (S.I.;) the towns of Flushing, Newtown, Jamaica, in Queens County; the town of Westchester, in Westchester County, and all that portion of the towns of East Chester and Pelham which lies south of a straight line drawn from a point where the northerly line of the City of New-York meets the centre line of the Bronx River, to the middle of the channel between Hunter's and Glen Islands, in Long Island Sound, and that part of the town of Hempstead, in Queens County, which is westerly of a straight line drawn from the south-easterly point of the town of Flushing in a straight line to the Atlantic Ocean.
  59. ↑ "Vote for Greater New York". The New York Times. October 16, 1894. Retrieved December 28, 2007. (subscription required (help)).
  60. ↑ "New-York's place in danger; Consolidation defeated, she must yield to Chicago.". The New York Times. November 4, 1894. Retrieved December 28, 2007. (subscription required (help)).
  61. ↑ "Greater New-York in doubt; The city vote is for it and Brooklyn is uncertain.". The New York Times. November 8, 1894. Retrieved December 28, 2007. (subscription required (help)). The increase in area and population that New-York will acquire if consolidation becomes a fact will become evident by a glance at the following table... Flushing... *Part of the town of Hempstead... Jamaica... Long Island City ... Newtown... The townships in Queens County that are to be included in the Greater New-York have not been heard from yet...
  62. ↑ "Report favors consolidation.; An Argument Against the Claims of the Resubmissionists.". The New York Times. February 22, 1896. pp. Page 1, 5318 words. Retrieved December 28, 2007.
  63. ↑ "The East City Line fixed.". The New York Times. February 12, 1899. p. 15. Retrieved December 28, 2007.
  64. ↑ "The Coming Greater City; Benefits to Long Island and Villages under its control". New York Times. Jun 7, 1896. p. 16. Retrieved December 23, 2007.
  65. ↑ Vincent F. Seyfried and Jon A. Peterson, History Department, Queens College/CUNY. "Historical Essay: A Thumbnail View". Official History Page of the Queens Borough President's Office. Archived from the original on December 18, 2007. Retrieved December 31, 2007. Even more crucial to future development was the opening of the Queensboro Bridge in 1909. This span ended the isolation of the borough's road system at precisely the time when mass use of the automobile was getting underway in the United States.
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