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This article is about the borough of New York City. For other uses, see Queens (disambiguation).
| Queens | |
| — Borough of New York City — | |
| Queens County | |
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| Coordinates: | |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| State | New York |
| County | Queens |
| City | New York City |
| Settled | 1683 |
| Government | |
| - Borough president | Helen Marshall |
| Area | |
| - Total | 178.28 sq mi (461.7 km²) |
| - Land | 109.24 sq mi (282.9 km²) |
| - Water | 69.04 sq mi (178.8 km²) |
| Population | |
| - Total | 2,229,379 |
| - Density | 20,409.0/sq mi (7,880/km²) |
| Website: Official Website of the Queens Borough President | |
Queens is the largest in area and the second most populous of the five boroughs of New York City. Located on the western portion of Long Island, it is home to New York City\'s two major airports (John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia), the New York Mets baseball team, the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center (home of the annual U.S. Open), Kaufman Astoria Studios, Silvercup Studios, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, and Queens Center (the most profitable per-square-foot mall in America).
As of the 2005 American Community Survey, immigrants comprise 47.6% of Queens residents.2005 American Community Survey Fact Sheet for Queens County, New York, United States Census Bureau, accessed February 24, 2007. With a population of 2.2 million it is the second most populous borough in New York City (behind Brooklyn) and the tenth most populous county in the United States. The 2.2 million figure is the highest historical population for the borough. [1] Were each borough an independent city, Queens would be the 4th largest city in the United States.
Queens was established in 1683 as one of the original 12 counties of New York and was named for the then-queen consort, Catherine of Braganza, the Catholic wife of Charles II. [2] [3] The borough is often considered one of the more suburban boroughs of New York City. Neighborhoods in central (except those situated along Queens Boulevard), southern, and eastern Queens have a look and feel similar to the bordering suburbs of western Nassau County. In its northwestern section, however, Queens is home to many urban neighborhoods and several central business districts. Long Island City, on the Queens\' waterfront across from Manhattan, is the site of the Citicorp Building, the tallest skyscraper in New York City outside of Manhattan.
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European colonization brought both Dutch and English settlers, as a part of the New Netherlands colony. First settlements occurred in 1635, with colonization at Maspeth in 1642, and Vlissingen (now Flushing) in 1643.Ellis, Edward Robb (1966). The Epic of New York City. Old Town Books, p. 54. 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. 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.
Queens was originally named after Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese-born 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.
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, fell under British occupation after the Battle of Long Island in 1776 and remained occupied throughout most of the rest of the war. Under the Quartering Act, British soldiers used, as barracks, the public inns and uninhabited buildings belonging to Queens residents, against the will of many of the local people. 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 in Manhattan.
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. Geographic history of Queens (2007-12-16). Retrieved on 2007-12-23. Walter Greenspan. Geographic History of Queens County. Retrieved on 2007-12-23. J. H. French, LL.D. (1860). Towns in Queens County, NY; From: Gazetteer of the State of New York. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
The seat of the county government was located first in Jamaica, Early Five Borough\'s History. Retrieved on 2007-12-30. “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” but was moved about 1788 to Mineola, Historical Essay: A Thumbnail View. Official History Page of the Queens Borough President\'s Office. Retrieved on 2007-12-29. “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.” Jon A. Peterson and Vincent Seyfried, ed. (1983). A Research Guide to the History of the Borough of Queens and Its Neighborhood. 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. New York - Queens County - History. Retrieved on 2007-12-29. History of New York State 1523-1927. The Historical Society of the Courts of the State of New York. Sullivan, Dr. James (1927). History of New York State 1523-1927. New York, Chicago: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc. New York State History. Genealogy Inc (1999). Retrieved on 2007-12-28. “Under the Reorganization Act of 7 March 1788, New York was divided into 120 towns (not townships), many of which were already in existence.” State of New York; Local Government Handbook; 5th Edition (PDF) Ch 4, p 13; Ch 5 p 2 (January 2000). “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.” (now part of Nassau County, it was called Clowesville until 1858 Rhoda Amon (Staff Writer). "Mineola: First Farmers, Then Lawyers", Newsday. Retrieved on 2007-12-31. 1873 map of North Hempstead. Retrieved on 2007-12-31. “bottom right by spur road off Jericho Tpk - location is now known as Garden City Park” ). In 1870, Long Island City was incorporated as a city (consisting of what had been the Village of Astoria and some unincorporated areas in the Town of Newtown), and about 1874, the seat of county government was moved there from Mineola. "A Queens Timeline", The Queens Tribune. Retrieved on 2007-12-23. Rhoda Amon (Staff Writer). "Mineola: First Farmers, Then Lawyers", Newsday. Retrieved on 2007-12-31. "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." Geoffrey Mohan (Staff Writer) (2007). Nassau\'s Difficult Birth; Eastern factions of Queens win the fight to separate after six decades of wrangling. Newsday. Retrieved on 2007-12-31.
The New York City Borough of Queens was formed on January 1, 1898, after an 1894 vote on consolidation. Inventing Gotham. Retrieved on 2007-12-28. "Official Announcement of the Results of the Election", NY Times, 1894-12-15. Retrieved on 2007-12-28. "The area included a radius of twenty miles, with the city hall in New York as a center to circumscribe it" Holice, Deb & Pam. The History of New York State. Retrieved on 2007-12-28. Dr. James Sullivan (editor). The History of New York State, Book II, Chapter IV Part VIII. 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. The areas of Queens County that were not part of the consolidation plan,
"OF INTEREST TO POLITICIANS.", The New York Times, 1894-09-13 (before vote), pp. p 9, 620 words. Retrieved on 2007-12-28. "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."
"Vote for Greater New York", The New York Times, 1894-10-16 (before election). Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
"NEW-YORK\'S PLACE IN DANGER; CONSOLIDATION DEFEATED, SHE MUST YIELD TO CHICAGO.", The New York Times, 1894-11-04 (before election). Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
"GREATER NEW-YORK IN DOUBT; THE CITY VOTE IS FOR IT AND BROOKLYN IS UNCERTAIN", NY Times, 1894-11-08 (before results of Queens vote known). Retrieved on 2007-12-28. "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..."
"REPORT FAVORS CONSOLIDATION.; An Argument Against the Claims of the Resubmissionists.", The New York Times, 1896-02-22, pp. Page 1, 5318 words. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
"THE EAST CITY LINE FIXED", The New York Times, 1899-02-12, pp. page 15, 1267 words. Retrieved on 2007-12-28.
Geoffrey Mohan (Staff Writer) (2007). Nassau\'s Difficult Birth; Eastern factions of Queens win the fight to separate after six decades of wrangling. Newsday. Retrieved on 2007-12-31. “North Hempstead, Oyster Bay and the rest of Hempstead were excluded from the vote.”
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, whereupon 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. "THE COMING GREATER CITY; BENEFITS TO LONG ISLAND AND VILLAGES UNDER ITS CONTROL", NY Times, 1896-06-10. Retrieved on 2007-12-23. 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 LIRR in Queens was electrified. Transportation to and from Manhattan, previously by ferry or via bridges in Brooklyn, opened up when the Queensboro Bridge was 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. 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. Retrieved on 2007-12-31. “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.” Vincent F. Seyfried (2004). A Walk Through Queens with David Hartman and Historian Barry Lewis. Educational Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved on 2007-12-29. “The most momentous event in the history of Queens occurred in 1909 when the long planned Queensboro Bridge was finally opened. This ended the century old isolation of the county and dependence on ferries.” With the construction of the elevated IRT subway lines between Queens and Manhattan, and the emergent 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.US Census figures for Queens 1900-1990.
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 132 feet (40 m) tall as of 2005.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 178.3 sq mi); 109.2 sq mi of it is land and 38.73% of it is water.
A typical residential street in Jackson Heights.
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. These ZIP codes do not necessarily reflect actual 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 as a whole. Postal addresses are written with the neighborhood, state, and then zip code rather than the borough or city. The borough is a patchwork of dozens of unique neighborhoods, each with its own distinct identity:
Together, these neighborhoods comprise the most diverse county in the United States.Roberts, Sam. "A 300 Millionth American. Don’t Ask Who.", The New York Times, October 18, 2006. "In Queens, the nation’s most diverse county, Emanuel Plata weighed in at 6 pounds 15 ounces at Elmhurst Hospital Center..." Several of these neighborhoods are home to a diverse mix of many different ethnicities.
Queens County Courthouse
| 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 |
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, libraries, public safety, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply, and welfare services in Queens.
The office of Borough President was created in the consolidation of 1898 to balance centralization with local authority. Each borough president had a powerful administrative role derived from having a vote on the New York City Board of Estimate, which was responsible for creating and approving the city\'s budget and proposals for land use. In 1989 the Supreme Court of the United States declared the Board of Estimate unconstitutional on the grounds that Brooklyn, the most populous borough, had no greater effective representation on the Board than Staten Island, the least populous borough, a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment\'s Equal Protection Clause pursuant to the high court\'s 1964 "one man, one vote" decision.Cornell Law School Supreme Court Collection: Board of Estimate of City of New York v. Morris, accessed June 12, 2006.
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 Helen Marshall, elected as a Democrat in 2001 and re-elected in 2005.
| Year | Republican | Democratic |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
The Democratic Party holds the majority of 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.
There are currently four Democrats representing Queens in the U.S. Congress:
In addition, portions of Woodside, Maspeth, and Ridgewoood are represented by Brooklyn\'s Nydia Velazquez, and Astoria and Long Island City are in the Manhattan-based 14th district of Carolyn Maloney.
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, a Democrat, has been the District Attorney of Queens County since 1991. Queens has 12 City Council members, the second largest number among the five boroughs. It also has 14 administrative districts, each served by a local Community Board. Community Boards are representative bodies that field complaints and serve as advocates for local residents.
Although it is heavily Democratic, Queens 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 Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and current Mayor Michael Bloomberg won majorities in Queens. Republican State Senator Serphin Maltese represents a district in central and southern Queens. 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.
Queens has not voted for a Republican candidate in a presidential election since 1972, when Queens voters chose Richard Nixon over George McGovern. In the 2004 presidential election Democrat John Kerry received 71.7% of the vote in Queens and Republican George W. Bush received 27.4%.
An aerial view of LaGuardia Airport
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 southern Queens next to the South Ozone Park and Rosedale neighborhoods and along Jamaica Bay, and La Guardia Airport, in Jackson Heights. Queens is increasingly attracting film studios — a return of an industry that had departed decades earlier — notably the Kaufman Studios in Astoria and the Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, where a number of notable television shows are made, including Sesame Street.
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. The park is also the third largest park in New York City at 1,255 acres (5 km²), making it 412 acres (1.7 km²) larger than Central Park in Manhattan.
Several large companies have their headquarters in Queens, including watchmaker Bulova, based in East Elmhurst; Glacéau, the makers of Vitamin Water, headquartered in Whitestone; and JetBlue, the airliner based in John F. Kennedy Airport.
Long Island City is a major manufacturing and commercial center. Flushing is a major commercial hub for Chinese American and Korean American businesses, while Jamaica is a major business and transportation hub for the borough.
| Queens Compared | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 Census | Queens | NY City | NY State |
| Total population | 2,229,379 | 8,008,278 | 18,976,457 |
| Population density | 20,409.0/sq mi | 26,403/sq mi | 402/sq mi |
| Median household income (1999) | $37,439 | $38,293 | $43,393 |
| Per capita income | $19,222 | $22,402 | $23,389 |
| Bachelor\'s degree or higher | 23% | 27% | 24% |
| Foreign born | 44% | 36% | 20% |
| White | 44% | 45% | 62% |
| Black | 20% | 27% | 16% |
| Hispanic (any race) | 25% | 27% | 14% |
| Asian | 18% | 10% | 6% |
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/sq mi). There were 817,250 housing units at an average density of 2,888.5/km² (7,481.6/sq mi). 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:
The 2000 census show also that the borough is home to one of the largest concentrations of Indian-Americans in the nation, with a total population of 129,715 (5.79% of the borough population) ([4], as well as Pakistani-Americans who number 15,604[5]. Queens has the second largest Sikh population in the nation after California. According to a 2002 UJA-Federation of New York study, Queens is home to 186,000 Jewish Americans.[6]
| Census Year | Queens (old) | Nassau portion | Queens (new) | % increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1790 | 16,014 | 9,855 | 6,159 | - |
| 1800 | 16,916 | 10,274 | 6,642 | 7.8% |
| 1810 | 19,336 | 11,892 | 7,444 | 12.1% |
| 1820 | 21,519 | 13,273 | 8,246 | 10.8% |
| 1830 | 22,460 | 13,411 | 9,049 | 9.7% |
| 1840 | 30,324 | 15,844 | 14,480 | 60.0% |
| 1850 | 36,833 | 18,240 | 18,593 | 28.4% |
| 1860 | 57,391 | 24,488 | 32,903 | 77.0% |
| 1870 | 73,803 | 28,335 | 45,468 | 38.2% |
| 1880 | 90,574 | 34,015 | 56,559 | 24.4% |
| 1890 | 128,059 | 41,009 | 87,050 | 53.9% |
| 1900 | 152,999 | 75.8% | ||
| 1910 | 284,041 | 85.6% | ||
| 1920 | 469,042 | 65.1% | ||
| 1930 | 1,079,129 | 130.1% | ||
| 1940 | 1,297,634 | 20.2% | ||
| 1950 | 1,550,849 | 19.5% | ||
| 1960 | 1,809,578 | 16.7% | ||
| 1970 | 1,986,473 | 9.8% | ||
| 1980 | 1,891,325 | -4.8% | ||
| 1990 | 1,951,598 | 3.2% | ||
| 2000 | 2,229,379 | 14.2% |
According to a Census Bureau estimate, the population increased to 2,241,600 in 2005.
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 21.6% 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.http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/nyregion/01census.html 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 who\'s family income is higher than average. Those areas are known for their well kept homes and suburban feel. The migration of whites 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 South Korean). Queens has recently experienced a real estate boom making most of it\'s neighborhoods very desirable for people who want to reside near Manhattan in a less urban setting. Queens is a diverse county in which people from many races and cultures live in both close proximity as well as in harmony. The Top Ten Languages Spoken in Queens according to the NY State Comptroller:http://queens.about.com/od/queensalmanac/f/languages.htm
Queens was an epicenter of jazz in the 1940s. Jazz greats likes Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald found refuge from segregation in the mixed communities of the borough, while a younger generation — Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, and others — were developing bebop in the clubs of Harlem.
Western Queens is becoming an artistic hub, including SculptureCenter, the Noguchi Museum, Socrates Sculpture Park, Museum for African Art, and the American Museum of the Moving Image. The P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in the neighborhood of Long Island City is one of the largest and oldest institutions in the United States dedicated solely to contemporary art. In addition to its renowned exhibitions, the institution also organizes the prestigious International and National Projects series, the Warm Up summer music series, and the Young Architects Program with The Museum of Modern Art. The current poet laureate of Queens is Ishle Yi Park.
Queens is home to many cultural institutions, including among others:
Queens is also featured in the Spider-Man comics and films as the home of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson.
Queens is the home of the New York Mets baseball team, the U.S. 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. In the past, Extreme Championship Wrestling has been held at an Elks lodge in Elmhurst.
Being the most diverse county in the nation Queens is home to restaurants from all cultures. A wide variety of Mexican foods (large Mexican Community) along Roosevelt Avenue; Dominican food in Corona; African-American cuisine in Jamaica; and many Chinese, Korean, and Japanese cuisines in Flushing. Other cultures, such as Greek, Arab, Latin American, and Southeast Asian, have very prominent standings in Astoria.
Queensboro Bridge facing the neighborhood of Long Island City.
Twelve New York City Subway routes traverse Queens, serving 81 stations on seven main lines. The A, G, J, and M routes connect Queens to Brooklyn without going through Manhattan first. The F, N, and R trains connect Queens and Brooklyn via Manhattan, while the E, V, W, and 7 connect Queens to Manhattan only.
About 100 local bus routes move people around within Queens, and another 15 express routes shuttle commuters between Queens and Manhattan.
A commuter train system, the Long Island Rail Road, operates 20 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 New Jersey Transit for intercity and commuter trains from Penn Station in Manhattan.
Queens has crucial importance in international and interstate air traffic. Two of New York City\'s three major airports are located there; LaGuardia Airport is in northern Queens, while John F. Kennedy International Airport is to the south on the shores of Jamaica Bay. AirTrain JFK provides a rail link between JFK and local rail lines.
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.
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, 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).
This confusion stems from the fact that 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. Train stations were only partly renamed, thus now share dual names after the original street names. On the number 7 line in Sunnyside, there are 40th-Lowery St., 46th-Bliss St., 52nd St.-Lincoln Ave. and so forth. 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".
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 neighborhood\'s major through street.
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 correctly with the Bedford-Stuyvesant grid at Broadway. All streets on the grid have names.
Queens is connected to the Bronx by the Bronx Whitestone Bridge, the Throgs Neck Bridge, the Triborough Bridge and the Hell Gate Bridge. Queens is connected to Manhattan by 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 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 Greenpoint Avenue Bridge connects Greenpoint and Long Island City avenues of the same name, which, east of Queens Boulevard (NY-25), becomes Roosevelt Avenue. A lesser bridge connect Grand Avenue in Queens to Grand Street in Brooklyn.
The Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge connects the Rockaway Peninsula to the rest of Queens.
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. During baseball season, New York Waterway ferries operate to Shea Stadium for New York Mets weekend home games.Ferry Services to Shea Stadium, New York Mets. Accessed May 16, 2006.
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.
LaGuardia Community College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY), is known as "The World\'s Community College" for its diverse international student body representing more than 150 countries and speaking over 100 languages. The college has been named a National Institution of Excellence by the Policy Center on the First Year of College and one of the top three large community colleges in the United States."Top 3 Large Community Colleges in the U.S." Community College Survey of Student Engagement, 2002
Queensborough Community College, originally part of the State University of New York, is in Bayside and is now part of CUNY. It prepares students to attend senior colleges mainly in the CUNY system.
Queens College is one of the elite colleges in the CUNY system. Established in 1937 to offer a strong liberal arts education to the residents of the borough, Queens College has over 16,000 students including more than 12,000 undergraduates and over 4,000 graduate students. Students from 120 different countries speaking 66 different languages are enrolled at the school, which is loca
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