article Related Topics:
Queens_Logic :: Queensryche :: Queensland_Roar :: Queens_of_the_Stone_Age :: Queens_Park_Rangers :: Queensland :: Queens_Courtiers :: Queenscliff :: Queenston :: Queensbury
 

This article is about the borough of New York City named "Queens".
  • For monarchs, see monarch.
  • For places, universities and colleges named "Queens", "Queen's" or "Queens'", see Queens (disambiguation).
  • For other meanings of "Queen", see Queen (disambiguation).

Queens is the largest borough 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 Long Island. It is the most ethnically diverse county in the United States, with an estimated 44 percent of its residents foreign bornIn Queens, It's the Glorious 4th, and 6th, and 16th, and 25th..., The New York Times, July 4, 2006.

Established on November 1, 1683 as one of the original 12 counties of New York, it was named for the then-queen consort, Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II. As of the United States 2000 Census, the population is 2,229,379, making it the second most populous county in the New York metropolitan area and the tenth most populous county in the United States. Its county seat is the district of Jamaica, a neighborhood of New York City. The United States Postal Service divides the borough into five "towns," based roughly on those in existence at the time of the consolidation of the five boroughs into New York City: Long Island City, Jamaica, Flushing, Far Rockaway, and Floral Park. 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.

Queens is often stereotyped as one of the most suburban boroughs of New York City, and neighborhoods in the eastern part of the borough do have a look and feel similar to the bordering suburbs of western Nassau County. However, neighborhoods in the western and central sections differ strikingly, with heavily urban characteristics loosely resembling those of the Bronx (particularly the eastern Bronx) and, more closely, Brooklyn (particularly northeastern Brooklyn, which borders Queens).

Geography

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 Rockaway Peninsula sits between Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

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 (38.73%) is water.

History

European colonization brought both Dutch and English settlers. As a part of the New Netherlands colony, towns such as Flushing (English corruption of the Dutch town name Vlissingen), Maspeth, Newtown (now Elmhurst), Jamaica and others were founded. However, these towns were mostly inhabited by English settlers from New England via eastern Long Island (Suffolk County) subject to Dutch law. 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 borough of Queens was originally named after 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. As a result of a referendum, Long Island City, Newtown, Flushing, Jamaica, and the Rockaway Peninsula of the Town of Hempstead became the borough of Queens in New York City on January 1, 1898. The part of Queens County that was not consolidated into 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

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. Maspeth is home to many European immigrants, including a large Polish population.

Long Island City is a major manufacturing and commercial center, as well as being the location of the massive Queensbridge housing project. Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, and Corona make up an enormous conglomeration of Hispanic and Asian American communities; Flushing, in the north-central part of the borough, is a major commercial hub for Chinese American and Korean American businesses; Richmond Hill, in the south, has the largest population of Sikhs outside of India; Forest Hills and Kew Gardens, in central Queens, have traditionally large Jewish populations (though these days those populations are more likely to consist of immigrants from Israel, Iran and the former Soviet Union) 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 American, 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 United States, and easily provide the richest cultural experience found anywhere in the world. Some Queens neighborhoods, such as Ozone Park, Bayside, Maspeth, Kew Gardens and Woodside are home to a very diverse mix of many different nationalities.

ZIP Codes in Queens range from _Long_Island_City; _Flushing; and from _Far_Rockaway.

The borough is politically divided into 14 community boards:

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


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
No affiliation 18.58 18.89 18.24 18.31 18.36 18.49 18.13 17.79 17.77 17.69
Other 3.88 3.93 3.94 3.86 3.37 3.30 3.10 3.20 3.02 2.78

Presidential elections results
Year GOP Dems
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
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 over George McGovern. 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 as the only two current major airports in New York City are located there. 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:

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.

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 (west to east with streets and north to south with avenues). In some parts of the borough, several consecutive streets may share numbers (for instance, 72nd Street followed by 72nd Place, or 52nd Avenue followed by 52nd Road, 52nd Drive, and 52nd Court), often causing confusion for non-residents. In addition, conflicting sections of street grids, unusual street paths due to geography, or other circumstances often lead to the skipping of numbers. Numbered roads tend to be residential, although there are many notable exceptions throughout the borough. A fair number of streets (especially major thoroughfares such as Northern Boulevard, Queens Boulevard, and Jamaica Avenue) carry names rather than numbers.

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. Another deviance 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 neighboorhood's major through street.

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 Veterans Memorial Bridge connects the Rockaway Peninsula to the rest of Queens.

Mass Transit

Twelve subway routes traverse Queens, serving 81 stations on seven main lines:

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 at Penn Station in Manhattan and at Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn. LIRR operates twenty stations in Queens:

AirTrain JFK connects JFK Airport to the subway at Sutphin Boulevard (IND Queens Boulevard Line) and Howard Beach (IND Rockaway Line), and to the Long Island Rail Road at Jamaica.

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

Waterways

There is currently only one year-round scheduled ferry service connecting 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. During baseball season, NY Waterway ferries operate to Shea Stadium for New York Mets weekend home games.Ferry Services to Shea Stadium, accessed May 16, 2006

Demographics

Queens
Population by decade
1900 152,999
1910 284,041
1920 469,042
1930 1,079,129
1940 1,297,634
1950 1,550,849
1960 1,809,578
1970 1,987,174
1980 1,891,325
1990 1,951,598
2000 2,229,379

As of the census of 2000, there were 2,229,379 people, 782,664 households, and 537,690 families residing in the county. The population density was 7,879.6/km² (20,409.0/mi²). There were 817,250 housing units at an average density of 2,888.5/km² (7,481.6/mi²). 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.

Some main European ancestry in Queens, 2000:

According to the Census Bureau, the population increased to 2,241,600 in 2005.

The 2000 census show also that the borough is home to one of the most important concentration of Indian-Americans in the nation, with a total population of 129,715 (5,79% of the borough population) (as well as of Pakistani-Americans who numbers 15,604[http://www.aafny.org/cic/briefs/pakistani.pdf.

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 $42,439, and the median income for a family was $48,608. Males had a median income of $35,576 versus $31,628 for females. The per capita income for the county was $19,222. About 11.9% of families and 14.6% 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.

The Top Ten Languages Spoken in Queens according to the NY State Comptroller:http://queens.about.com/od/queensalmanac/f/languages.htm

  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

Sports and other attractions

Queens is the home of the New York Mets baseball team, and is considered to be Mets territory. The U.S. Open tennis tournament, and Aqueduct Racetrack are also found here. Just over the Queens line (in Nassau County) is Belmont Park Race Track, the home of the Belmont Stakes. In the past, Extreme Championship Wrestling been held at an Elks lodge in Elmhurst.

Education

References

External links

Boroughs in New York | Long Island | New York City | New York counties | New York metropolitan area | Queens, New York City | Queens neighborhoods | Queens, New York City

Queens | Queens | Kvinzo | Queens | Queens | קווינס | Queens | Queens | クイーンズ区 | Queens | Queens | Queens | Queens (dzielnica) | Queens | Квинс | Queens | Queens | Queens | 昆斯區

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Queens".

Home Page • arts • business • computers • games • health • hospitals • home • kids & teens • news • physicians • recreation• reference • regional • science • shopping • society • sports • world