Queens

Queens is one of the five boroughs of New York City, USA. Geographically the largest borough in the city, Queens is home to many immigrants and two of New York's major airports.

The borough of Queens is coterminous with Queens County, which is also the most ethnically diverse county in the United States. As of the 2005 American Community Survey, immigrants comprise 47.6% of its residents. It is estimated that by 2010 the majority of its population will be foreign born.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.

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, wife of Charles II. The borough is often considered one of the more suburban boroughs of New York City. Neighborhoods in eastern Queens have a look and feel similar to the bordering suburbs of western Nassau County. In its western and central sections, 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.

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.

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 August, 1776 and remained occupied throughout most of the rest of the war. Under the Quartering Act, British soliders used the private homes of Queens residents as refuge during the war, against the will of the local people. The quartering of soliders in private homes was banned by the 3rd Amendment to the US Constitution largely because of this. Nathan Hale was captured by the British in Queens before being executed in Manhattan.

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 132 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.

Neighborhoods of Queens

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 United States Postal Service 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. 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 population 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, as well as a large Hispanic population.

Long Island City is a major commercial center and the home of the Queensbridge housing project. Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, and Corona make up an enormous conglomeration of Hispanic and Asian American communities. 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 (many of these communities are Jewish immigrants from Israel, Iran and the former Soviet Union) while Jamaica is home to large African American and Caribbean populations. There are also middle-class African American, Filipino American, Hispanic American 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. Some Queens neighborhoods, such as Ozone Park, Bayside, Maspeth, Kew Gardens and Woodside are home to a very diverse mix of many different ethnicities.