Queens Don't Lie

Queens is the largest by area of the five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn and by Nassau County to its east, and shares maritime borders with the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island, as well as with New Jersey. Queens is one of the most linguistically and ethnically diverse places in the world.

With a population of 2,405,464 as of the 2020 census, Queens is the second-most populous county in New York state, behind Kings County (Brooklyn), and is therefore also the second-most populous of the five New York City boroughs. If Queens were its own city, it would be the fourth most-populous in the U.S. after the rest of New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Queens is the fourth-most densely populated borough in New York City and the fourth-most densely populated U.S. county. Queens is highly diverse with approximately 47% of its residents being foreign-born.

Queens was established in 1683 as one of the original 12 counties of the Province of New York. The settlement was named after the English Queen and Portuguese royal princess Catherine of Braganza (1638–1705). From 1683 to 1899, the County of Queens included what is now Nassau County. Queens became a borough during the consolidation of New York City in 1898, combining the towns of Long Island City, Newtown, Flushing, Jamaica, and western Hempstead. All except Hempstead are today considered neighborhoods of Queens.

Queens has the most diversified economy of the five boroughs of New York City. It is home to both of New York City's airports: John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia. Among its landmarks are Flushing Meadows–Corona Park; Citi Field, home to the New York Mets baseball team; the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, site of the U.S. Open tennis tournament; Kaufman Astoria Studios; Silvercup Studios; and the Aqueduct Racetrack. Flushing is undergoing rapid gentrification with investment by Chinese transnational entities, while Long Island City is undergoing gentrification secondary to its proximity across the East River from Manhattan.

History

Colonial and post-colonial history

The first European settlement in the region was the Dutch, who established the colony of New Netherland. The first settlements were established in 1635 followed by further settlement at Maspeth in 1642 (ultimately unsuccessful), and Vlissingen (now Flushing) in 1645. Other early settlements included Newtown (now Elmhurst) in 1652 and Jamaica in 1655. However, these towns were mostly inhabited by English settlers from New England via eastern Long Island ( Suffolk County) who were subject to Dutch law. After the capture of the colony by the English and its subsequent 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. The county is presumed to have been 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). However, the namesake is disputed. While Catherine's title seems the most likely namesake, no historical evidence of official declaration has been found. On October 7, 1691, all counties in the Colony of New York were redefined. Queens gained North and South Brother Islands as well as Huletts Island (today known as Rikers Island). 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).

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 what became New York City and 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 residents opposed unannounced quartering, they supported 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 and hanged 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. The seat of the county government was located first in Jamaica, but the courthouse was torn down by the British during the American Revolution to use the materials to build barracks. 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.

The 1850 United States 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.

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.

On March 1, 1860, the eastern border between Queens County (later Nassau County) and Suffolk County was redefined with no discernible change. On June 8, 1881, North Brother Island was transferred to New York County. On May 8, 1884, Rikers Island was transferred to New York County.

In 1886, Lloyd's Neck, which was then part of the town of Oyster Bay and had earlier been known as Queens Village, was set off and separated from Queens County and annexed to the town of Huntington in Suffolk County. On April 16, 1964, South Brother Island was transferred to Bronx County.

Incorporation as borough

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. The eastern of Queens that became Nassau County was partitioned on January 1, 1899. Queens Borough was established on January 1, 1898.

"The city of Long Island City, the towns of Newtown, Flushing and Jamaica, and that part of the town of Hempstead, in the county of Queens, which is westerly of a straight line drawn through the middle of the channel between Rockaway Beach and Shelter Island, in the county of Queens, to the Atlantic Ocean" was annexed to New York City, 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, 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.

In 1899, New York City conducted a land survey to determine the exact border of Queens between the Rockaways and Lawrence. This proved difficult because the border was defined as "middle of the channel between Rockaway Beach and Shelter Island" (now called Long Beach Island), and that particular channel had closed up by 1899. The surveyors had to determine where the channel had been when the consolidation law was written in 1894. The surveyors did so in part by speaking with local fishermen and oystermen who knew the area well.

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. 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.

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, established on a site in northern Queens that had been a seaplane base, opened in 1939, named for mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who pushed for the development of a modern airport in New York City. Idlewild Airport, in southern Queens, opened in 1948 on the site of a former golf course and was renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1963. In one of several notable incidents, TWA Flight 800 took off from the airport on July 17, 1996, and exploded in midair off the coast of Long Island, killing all 230 on board the Boeing 747. American Airlines Flight 587 took off from the latter airport on November 12, 2001, but ended up crashing in Belle Harbor, killing all 260 on board and five people on the ground. In late October 2012, much of Breezy Point was damaged by a massive six-alarm fire caused by Hurricane Sandy, the largest fire of residential homes in FDNY history, destroying 126 homes in an area where every building was damaged by either water, wind or the resulting fires.

Geography

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. According to the United States Census Bureau, Queens County has a total area of , of which is land and (39%) is water.

Brooklyn, the only other New York City borough on Long Island, lies just south and west of Queens. Newtown Creek, an estuary that flows into the East River, forms 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 three-mile-long water border (in the Outer Bay) with Queens. North of Queens are Flushing Bay and the Flushing River, 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. The Rockaway Peninsula, the southernmost part of all of Queens, sits between Jamaica Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, featuring of beaches.

Climate

Under the Köppen climate classification, Queens has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) transitoring the humid continental (Köppen climate classification ''Dfa'') ; with partial shielding from the Appalachian Mountains and moderating influences from the Atlantic Ocean. Queens receives precipitation throughout the year, with an average of per year. In an average year, there will be 44 days with either moderate or heavy rain.

An average winter will have 22 days with some snowfall, of which nine days have at least of snowfall. Summer is typically hot, humid, and wet. An average year will have 17 days with a high temperature of or warmer.Climatological Report (Annual): LaGuardia NY
. ''National Weather Service''. Retrieved August 4, 2018. In an average year, there are 14 days on which the temperature does not go above all day. Spring and autumn can vary from chilly to very warm.

The highest temperature ever recorded at LaGuardia Airport was on July 3, 1966. The highest temperature ever recorded at John F. Kennedy International Airport was , also on July 3, 1966.Climatological Report (Annual): LaGuardia NY
. ''National Weather Service''. Retrieved August 4, 2018. LaGuardia Airport's record-low temperature was on February 15, 1943, the effect of which was exacerbated by a shortage of heating oil and coal. John F. Kennedy International Airport's record-low temperature was , on February 8, 1963, and January 21, 1985. On January 24, 2016, of snow fell, which is the record in Queens.

Tornadoes are generally rare; the most recent tornado, an EF0, touched down in College Point on August 3, 2018, causing minor damage. Before that, there was a tornado in Breezy Point on September 8, 2012, which damaged the roofs of some homes, and an EF1 tornado in Flushing on September 26, 2010.

Neighborhoods

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). Also, the Floral Park post office (110), based in Nassau County, serves a small part of northeastern Queens. Each of these main post offices has 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:

1. Flushing, one of the largest neighborhoods in Queens, has a large and growing Asian community. The community consists of Chinese, Koreans, and South Asians. Asians have now expanded eastward along the Northern Boulevard axis through Murray Hill, Whitestone, Bayside, Douglaston–Little Neck, and eventually into adjacent Nassau County. These neighborhoods historically contained Italian Americans and Greeks, as well as Latino Americans. The busy intersection of Main Street, Kissena Boulevard, and 41st Avenue defines the center of Downtown Flushing and the Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), known as the "Chinese Times Square" or the "Chinese Manhattan". The segment of Main Street between Kissena Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue, punctuated by the Long Island Rail Road trestle overpass, represents the cultural heart of the Flushing Chinatown. Housing over 25,000 individuals born in China alone, Flushing has become home to one of the largest Chinatowns, representing the largest Chinese population of any U.S. municipality other than New York City in total.
   
2. Howard Beach, Whitestone, and Middle Village are home to large Italian American populations.
   
3. Ozone Park and South Ozone Park have large Italian, Hispanic, and Guyanese populations.
   
4. Rockaway Beach has a large Irish American population.


5. Astoria, in the northwest, is traditionally home to one of the largest Greek populations outside Greece. It also has large Spanish American and Italian American communities, and is home to a growing population of immigrants from the Middle East, South Asia, the Balkans as well as young professionals from Manhattan. Nearby Long Island City is a major commercial center and the home to Queensbridge, the largest housing project in North America.
   
6. Maspeth and Ridgewood are home to many Eastern European immigrants such as Romanian, Polish, Serbian, Albanian, and other Slavic populations. Ridgewood also has a large Hispanic population.
   
7. Jackson Heights and Elmhurst make up a conglomeration of Hispanic, Asian, Tibetan, and South Asian communities. Jackson Heights is also known as "Little Colombia" thanks to the gastronomical and demographic impact of Colombian people.
   
8. Woodside is home to a large Filipino American community and has a "Little Manila" as well a large Irish American population. Many Filipino Americans live in Hollis and Queens Village.
   
9. Richmond Hill, in the south, is often thought of as "Little Guyana" for its large Guyanese community, as well as Punjab Avenue (ਪੰਜਾਬ ਐਵੇਨਿਊ), or Little Punjab, for its high concentration of Punjabi people.
   
10. Rego Park, Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, and Kew Gardens Hills have traditionally large Jewish populations (historically from Germany and Eastern Europe; though more recent immigrants are from Israel, Iran, and the former Soviet Union). These neighborhoods are also known for large and growing Asian communities, mainly immigrants from China.


11. Jamaica Estates, Jamaica Hills, Hillcrest, Fresh Meadows, and Hollis Hills are also populated with many people of Jewish background. Many Asian families reside in parts of Fresh Meadows as well.
    
12. Jamaica is home to large African American, Caribbean, and Central American populations. There are also middle-class African American and Caribbean neighborhoods such as Saint Albans, Queens Village, Cambria Heights, Springfield Gardens, Rosedale, Laurelton, and Briarwood along east and southeast Queens.


13. Bellerose and Floral Park, originally home to many Irish Americans, is home to a growing South Asian population, predominantly Indian Americans.


14. Corona and Corona Heights, once considered the "Little Italy" of Queens, was a predominantly Italian community with a strong African American community in the northern portion of Corona and adjacent East Elmhurst. From the 1920s through the 1960s, Corona remained a close-knit neighborhood. Corona today has the highest concentration of Latinos of any Queens neighborhood, with an increasing Chinese American population, located between Elmhurst and Flushing.

Demographics

At the 2020 census, 2,405,464 people lived in Queens. In 2018's American Community Survey, the population of Queens was estimated by the United States Census Bureau to have increased to 2,278,906, a rise of 2.2%. Queens' estimated population represented 27.1% of New York City's population of 8,398,748; 29.6% of Long Island's population of 7,701,172; and 11.7% of New York State's population of 19,542,209. The 2019 estimates reported a decline to 2,253,858. In 2018, there were 865,878 housing units, and 777,904 households, 2.97 persons per household, and a median value of $481,300. There was an owner-occupancy rate of 44.5. In the 2010 United States census, Queens recorded a population of 2,230,722. There were 780,117 households enumerated, with an average of 2.82 persons per household. The population density was . There were 835,127 housing units at an average density of .

The racial makeup of the county in 2010 was 39.7% White, 19.1% Black or African American, 0.7% Native American, 22.9% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 12.9% from other races, and 4.5% from two or more races. A total of 27.5% of the population were Hispanic or Latin American of any race. The non-Hispanic white population was 27.6%. In 2019, non-Hispanic whites made up an estimated 24.4% of the population, and Blacks or African Americans were 17.3%. The largest minority groups for the borough were Hispanic and Latin Americans (28.2%), and Asians (26.0%).

In Queens, residents consisted of 6.2% under 5, 13.9% 6–18, 64.2% 19–64, and 15.7% over 65. Females made up 51.5% of the population. An estimated 47.5% of residents are foreign-born in 2018. The per capita income was $28,814, and the median household income was $62,008. In 2018, 12.2% of residents lived below the poverty line.

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.

, illegal Chinese immigration to New York City, especially to Queens and its Flushing Chinatown, has accelerated.

Ethnic groups

According to a 2001 Claritas study, Queens was the most diverse county in the United States among counties of 100,000+ population. A 2014 analysis by ''The Atlantic'' found Queens County to be the third most racially diverse county-equivalent in the United States—behind Aleutians West Census Area and Aleutians East Borough in Alaska—as well as the most diverse county in New York. Meanwhile, a 2017 study by Axios found that, although numerous smaller counties in the United States had higher rates of diversity, Queens was the United States' most diverse populous county.

In Queens, approximately 48.5% of the population was foreign born as of 2010. Within the foreign born population, 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 a non-Indo-European Asian language or language of the Pacific Islands at home.

Among the Asian population in 2010, people of Chinese ethnicity made up the largest ethnic group at 10.2% of Queens' population, with about 237,484 people; the other East and Southeast Asian groups are: Koreans (2.9%), Filipinos (1.7%), Japanese American, Japanese (0.3%), Thai American, Thais (0.2%), Vietnamese American, Vietnamese (0.2%), and Indonesian American, Indonesians and Burmese American, Burmese both make up 0.1% of the population. People of South Asian descent made up 7.8% of Queens' population: Indian American, Indians (5.3%), Bangladeshi American, Bangladeshi (1.5%), Pakistani American, Pakistanis (0.7%), and Nepalese American, Nepali (0.2%). In 2019, Chinese Americans remained the largest Asian ethnicity (10.9%) followed by Indian Americans, Asian Indians (5.7%). Asian Indians had estimated population of 144,896 in 2014 (6.24% of the 2014 borough population), as well as Pakistani Americans, who numbered at 15,604. Queens has the second largest Sikhism in the United States, Sikh population in the nation after California.

Among the Hispanic or Latin American population, Puerto Rican people, Puerto Ricans made up the largest ethnic group at 4.6%, next to Mexican American, Mexicans, who made up 4.2% of the population, and Dominican American, Dominicans at 3.9%. Central Americans made up 2.4% and are mostly Salvadorans. South Americans constitute 9.6% of Queens's population, mainly of Ecuadorian (4.4%) and Colombian American, Colombian descent (4.2%). The 2019 American Community Survey estimated Mexicans and Puerto Ricans were equally the largest groups (4.5% each) in Queens, and Cuban Americans were the third largest single group. Other Hispanic and Latinos collectively made up 18.9% of the population. The Hispanic or Latino population increased by 61% to 597,773 between 1990 and 2006 and now accounts for over 26.5% of the borough's population.

Queens has the largest Colombian American, Colombian population in the city, accounting for over 35.6% of the city's total Colombian population, for a total of 145,956 in 2019; it also has the largest Ecuadorian American, Ecuadorian population in the city, accounting for 62.2% of the city's total Ecuadorian population, for a total of 101,339. Queens has the largest Peruvian American, Peruvian population in the city, accounting for 69.9% of the city's total Peruvian population, for a total of 30,825. Queens has the largest Salvadoran American, Salvadoran population in the city, accounting for 50.7% of the city for a total population of 25,235. The Mexican American, Mexican population in Queens has increased 45.7% since 2011 to 71,283, the second-highest in the city, after Brooklyn.

Queens is also home to 49.6% of the city's Asian population. Among the five boroughs, Queens has the largest population of Chinese, Indian American, Indian, Korean American, Korean, Filipino American, Filipino, Bangladeshi American, 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.

Some main European ancestries in Queens as of 2000 include: Italian American, Italian (8.4%), Irish American, Irish (5.5%), German American, German (3.5%), Polish (2.7%), Russian American, Russian (2.3%), and Greek (2.0%). Of the European Americans, European American population, Queens has the third largest Bosnian American, Bosnian population in the United States behind only St. Louis and Chicago, numbering more than 15,000. Queens is home to some 50,000 Armenian Americans.

The ''Jewish Community Study of New York 2011'', sponsored by the UJA-Federation of New York, found that about 9% of Queens residents were Jews. In 2011, there were about 198,000 Jews in New York City, Jews in Queens, making it home to about 13% of all people in Jewish households in the eight-county area consisting of the Five Boroughs and Westchester County, Westchester, Nassau County, New York, Nassau, and Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk counties. Russian-speaking Jews make up 28% of the Jewish population in Queens, the largest in any of the eight counties.

In Queens, the Black and African American population earns more than non-Hispanic whites on average. Many of these Blacks and 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. The migration of European Americans from parts of Queens has been long ongoing with departures from Ozone Park, Woodhaven, Bellerose, Floral Park, and Flushing (most of the outgoing population has been replaced with Asian Americans). Neighborhoods such as Whitestone, College Point, North Flushing, Auburndale, Bayside, Middle Village, and Douglaston–Little Neck have not had a substantial exodus of white residents, but have seen an increase of Asian population, mostly Chinese and Korean. Queens has experienced a real estate boom making most of its neighborhoods desirable for people who want to reside near Manhattan but in a less urban setting.

Languages

According to the office of the New York State Comptroller in 2000, 138 languages are spoken in the borough. The 2021 American Community Survey by the United States Census Bureau, found that – of those over the age of five residing in Queens – 54.53% spoke a language other than English in the home. The following tables shows the 15 most common non-English languages in Queens, with the most prominent being Spanish language in the United States, Spanish, Chinese language in the United States, Chinese, and Bengali American, Bengali.

! 1 !! !! 2 !! 3 !! 4 !! 5 !! 6 !! 7 !! 8 !! 9 !! 10 !! 11 !! 12 !! 13 !! 14 !! 15 !! 16
, -
! American English, English !! All, Languages of the United States, non-English !! Spanish language in the United States, Spanish!! Chinese language in the United States, Chinese!! Bengali American, Bengali!! Korean American, Korean!! Tagalog language in the United States, Tagalog!! Russian language in the United States, Russian!! Haitian American, Haitian !! Polish language in the United States, Polish!! Italian language in the United States, Italian!! Greek language in the United States, Greek!! Arabic language in the United States, Arabic!! Punjabi American, Punjabi !! Urdu !! Hindi !! French language in the United States, French
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, 1,000,116, , 1,199,561, , 516,251, , 205,371, , 84,349, , 41,420, , 30,427, , 28,013, , 24,928, , 22,342, , 21,273, , 19,749, , 16,269, , 16,139, , 15,769, , 13,176, , 12,384
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, colspan=31 ,

Religion

In 2010 statistics, the largest religious group in Queens was the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, Diocese of Brooklyn, with 677,520 Catholic Church, Roman Catholics worshiping at 100 parishes, followed by an estimated 81,456 Islam in the United States, Muslims with 57 congregations, 80,000 Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jews with 110 congregations, 33,325 Nondenominational Christianity, non-denominational Christian adherents with 129 congregations, 28,085 African Methodist Episcopal Church, AME Methodists with 14 congregations, 24,250 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, Greek Orthodox with 6 congregations, 16,775 Hinduism in the United States, Hindus with 18 congregations, 13,989 Assemblies of God, AoG Pentecostals with 64 congregations, 13,507 Seventh-day Adventist Church, Seventh-day Adventists with 45 congregations, and 12,957 Mahayana Buddhists with 26 congregations. Altogether, 49.4% of the population was claimed as members by religious congregations, although members of historically African American denominations were underrepresented due to incomplete information. In 2014, Queens had 738 religious organizations, the thirteenth most out of all U.S. counties.

Culture

Queens has been the center of the punk rock movement, particularly in New York; Ramones originated out of Forest Hills, it has also been the home of such notable artists as Tony Bennett, Francis Ford Coppola, Paul Simon, and Robert Mapplethorpe.

Queens Poet Laureates (generally, 3-year appointments):
* 1997–2001: Stephen Stepanchev (inaugural Poet Laureate)
* 2001–2004: Hal Sirowitz (born 1949)
* 2004–2007: Ishle Yi Park
* 2007–2010: Julio Marzan
* 2010–2014: Paolo Javier
* 2015–2019: Maria Lisella

Queens has notably fostered African-American culture, African American culture, with establishments such as The Afrikan Poetry Theatre and the Black Spectrum Theater Company 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. 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, MC Shan, Mobb Deep, 50 Cent, Nicki Minaj, Tony Yayo, Tragedy Khadafi, N.O.R.E., Lloyd Banks, Capone (rapper), Capone, Ja Rule, Heems of Das Racist and Action Bronson.

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. Stating that Queens is "quickly becoming its hippest" but that "most travelers haven't clued in... yet," the ''Lonely Planet'' stated that "nowhere is the image of New York as the global melting pot truer than Queens."

Food

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

The Queens Night Market in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, operating since 2015 on Saturdays from April to October (with a break from late August to mid-September), offers samples of food capped at $6 from dozens of countries with attendance of up to 20,000 a night.

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. In 2012, private-sector employment increased to 486,160. 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 production, film and television production sectors, such that no single sector is overwhelmingly dominant.

The diversification in Queens' economy is reflected in a large amount of employment in the export-oriented economy, 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; in 2012, its largest employment sector became Health care in the United States, health care and social services. 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 were the next largest sector in Queens and comprised almost 24% of the borough's jobs in 2004; in 2012, transportation and warehousing, and retail were the second largest at 12% each. The manufacturing and construction industries in Queens are among the largest of the city and accounted for nearly 17% of the borough's private sector jobs in 2004. Comprising almost 17% of the jobs in Queens is the information, financial activities, and business and professional services sectors in 2004.

, 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 businesses employing between one and four people.

Several large companies have their headquarters in Queens, including watchmaker Bulova, based in Whitestone, Queens, 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. Whitestone, Queens, 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

Queens is home of the New York Mets of Major League Baseball. Founded in 1962 as an expansion team, the Mets have won 2 World Series championships and 5 National League (baseball), National League pennants. Citi Field is a 41,922-seat stadium opened in April 2009 in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park that is the home ballpark of the Mets. 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, New York Giants Football Team stood where Citi Field's parking lot is now located, operating from 1964 to 2008. Queens is the future home of the Etihad Park (New York City), Etihad Park for New York City FC of Major League Soccer, which is expected to be completed in 2027.

The US Open (tennis), U.S. Open tennis tournament has been played since 1978 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, located just south of Citi Field. With a capacity of 23,771, Arthur Ashe Stadium is List of tennis stadiums by capacity, the biggest tennis stadium in the world. The U.S. Open was formerly played at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills. 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. (The Belmont Park racetrack and the adjacent UBS Arena (home of the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League) sit entirely in Nassau County, just over the City line; however, small sections of the properties of both venues are in Queens, as is the Belmont Park station of the Long Island Rail Road.)

Government

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 government, mayor–council system. The centralized New York City government is responsible for New York City Department of Education, 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, 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 Donovan Richards, elected in November 2020 as a Democratic Party (United States), Democrat. 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.

Each of the city's five counties has its criminal court system and District Attorney, the chief public prosecutor who is directly elected by popular vote. Richard Brown (lawyer), Richard A. Brown, who ran on both the Republican and Democratic Party tickets, was the Queens County District Attorney (New York), District Attorney of Queens County from 1991 to 2018. The new DA as of January 2020 is Melinda Katz. 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 Boards of Queens, Community Board. Community Boards are representative bodies that field complaints and serve as advocates for residents.

Although Queens is heavily Democratic, it is considered a swing county in New York politics. Republican Party (United States), 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 Jr. 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.

On the national level, Queens has not voted for a Republican candidate in a presidential election since 1972, when Queens voters chose Richard Nixon over George McGovern. From 1996 United States presidential election, 1996 until 2024 United States presidential election, 2024, Democratic presidential candidates have received over 70% of the popular vote in Queens, with Kamala Harris being the first Democrat to receive less than 70% of the borough's votes since Bill Clinton in 1992 United States presidential election, 1992. Since the 2016 United States presidential election, first election of Donald Trump in 2016, Queens has become known in the United States for its surge in progressivism, progressive politics and grassroots campaigning. Coincidentally during his third run for president in 2024, Trump cracked 37% in Queens. This was the strongest performance for a Republican since 1988 due to Trump's strong gains in NYC.

Federal representation

As of 2024, five Democrats represent Queens in the United States House of Representatives.

* Tom Suozzi (first elected in 2016) represents New York's 3rd congressional district, which covers the northeast Queens neighborhoods of Little Neck, Queens, Little Neck, Whitestone, Glen Oaks, Queens, Glen Oaks, Queens Village and Floral Park. The district also covers the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore of Nassau County.
* Gregory Meeks (first elected in 1998) represents New York's 5th congressional district, which covers the entire Rockaway Peninsula as well as the southeast Queens neighborhoods of Broad Channel, Queens, Broad Channel, Cambria Heights, Hollis, Jamaica, Laurelton, Rosedale, Saint Albans, Springfield Gardens, and South Ozone Park. The district also includes John F. Kennedy International Airport.
* Grace Meng (first elected in 2012) represents New York's 6th congressional district, which includes the central and eastern Queens neighborhoods of Auburndale, Queens, Auburndale, Bayside, Elmhurst, Flushing, Forest Hills, Glendale, Queens, Glendale, Kew Gardens, Maspeth, Middle Village, Murray Hill, and Rego Park.
* Nydia Velázquez (first elected in 1992) represents New York's 7th congressional district, which includes the Queens neighborhoods of Maspeth, Ridgewood, Woodhaven, Queens, Woodhaven, Sunnyside, Queens, Sunnyside and Long Island City. The district also covers central and western Brooklyn.
* Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (first elected in 2018) represents New York's 14th congressional district, which includes the northwest Queens neighborhoods of Astoria, College Point, Corona, Queens, Corona, East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Woodside, and Elmhurst. The district also covers the East Bronx.

Housing

The borough's diverse housing ranges from high-rise building, high-rise apartment buildings in some areas of western and central Queens, such as Forest Hills, Jackson Heights, Flushing, Astoria, and Long Island City; to lower-rise neighborhoods in the eastern part of the borough. There were 911,957 housing units in 2022QuickFacts Queens County, New York
United States Census Bureau. Accessed January 7, 2024. at an average density of . Affordable rental and co-operative housing units throughout the borough were created under the Mitchell–Lama Housing Program. Public housing is administered by the New York City Housing Authority, which accounts for more than 30,000 residents in more than 15,300 units in 2023.

Education

Elementary and secondary education

Elementary and secondary school education in Queens is provided by a vast number of public and private institutions. Non-charter 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 with 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. One of the nine Specialized High Schools in New York City is located in Queens. Located in the York College, City University of New York Campus in Jamaica, the Queens High School for the Sciences at York College, which emphasizes both science and mathematics, ranks as one of the best high schools in both the state and the country. It is one of the smallest Specialized High Schools that requires an entrance exam, the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test. The school has a student body of around 400 students.

Postsecondary institutions

* 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 Post-secondary educational organizations in the United States#Policy Center on the First Year of College, Policy Center on the First Year of College. In a 2003 benchmark survey, in the Large Community College category (8,000–14,999 students), LaGuardia was one of three community colleges in the United States, community colleges ranked number one, nationally. The college hosts the LaGuardia and Wagner Archives.
* Queens College, New York, 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 countries speaking 66 different languages are enrolled at the school, which is located in Flushing. Queens College is also the host of City University of New York School of Law, CUNY's law school. The Queens College Campus is also the home of Townsend Harris High School and the Queens College School for Math, Science, and Technology (PS/IS 499).
* 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.
* St. John's University (New York City), St. John's University is a private, coeducational Roman Catholic university founded in 1870 by the Vincentian Family, Vincentian Fathers. With over 19,000 students, St. John's is known for its pharmacy, business and law programs as well as its men's basketball and soccer teams.
* Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology is a private, cutting edge, degree-granting institution located across the Grand Central Parkway from LaGuardia Airport. Its presence underscores the importance of aviation to the Queens economy.
* York College (New York), York College is one of CUNY's leading general-purpose liberal arts colleges, granting bachelor's degrees in more than 40 fields, as well as a combined BS/MS degree in Occupational Therapy. Noted for its Health Sciences Programs York College is also home to the Northeast Regional Office of the Food and Drug Administration.

Queens Public Library

The Queens 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 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 the fiscal year 2001, the Library achieved a circulation of 16.8 million. 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.

Transportation

According to 2011–2015 American Community Survey, ACS microdata, 38% of Queens households did not own a car; the citywide rate is 55%.

Vehicles for hire

As of 2019, the city had about 80,000 for-hire vehicles, of which, two-thirds were Ridesharing company, ride-hail – Uber, Lyft, Via Transportation, Via, and Juno (company), Juno. Until the COVID-19 pandemic, the ride-hail car offered a Ridesharing company, ride-share option. There are about 13,500 traditional taxis (yellow cabs with Taxi medallion, medallions) in the city, 7,676 boro taxis, 38,791 black cars, 21,932 livery cars, 288 commuter vans, and 2,206 paratransit vehicles.

Roundtrip car sharing

Zipcar, and others, entered New York City market in 2002 offering Shared transport#Roundtrip Carsharing, roundtrip car sharing from private locations, mostly from parking garages. In 2018, the city partnered with the roundtrip car share companies, led by Zipcar, to launch the nation's largest on-street car-sharing program with the greatest :en:wikt:take-up, take-up in The Bronx and in Queens – Jackson Heights, Jamaica, and Far Rockaway. In 2020, during beginning throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, Enterprise Holdings#Enterprise CarShare, Enterprise CarShare suspended service in New York City. Among the traditional car rental locations in Queens, both international airports harbor larger fleets, conveniently close to Queens residents.

Micromobility

Citi Bike – a docked-Bicycle-sharing system, bike and e-bike sharing company had, as of July 2019, 169,000 annual subscribers. In 2021, the New York City Department of Transportation, Department of Transportation and Citi Bike announced that, as part of its Phase 3 expansion, it was doubling its service area to 70 square miles and tripling the number of bikes to 40,000. The expansion includes 52 new docking stations in Astoria, as well as new stations in Sunnyside and Woodside.

Non-docked e-moped service was launched in the city by Revel Transit, Revel in 2019. Companies such as Bird (transportation company), Bird, Lime (transportation company), Lime, and Veo introduced non-docked Scooter-sharing system, e-scooter-sharing in 2021.

Airports

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, John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, served 62.6 million passengers (enplanements + deplanements) – 34.3 million of which were international, ranking it the Busiest airports in the United States by international passenger traffic, busiest airport in the United States by international passenger traffic. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States imposed travel restrictions, first, in January 2020, on travelers from China and, in the following months, on travelers from other countries. 2020 annual passenger traffic at JFK dropped to 16.6 million (−73.4%) – 8.4 million (−73.4%) of which were international, still ranking it the busiest airport in the United States by international passenger traffic.

JFK is 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 on Jamaica Bay in southeastern Queens. The airport's original official name was New York International Airport, although it was commonly known as Idlewild, with the name changed to Kennedy in December 1963 to honor the assassination of John F. Kennedy, November 22, 1963.

LaGuardia Airport is located in East Elmhurst, in northern Queens, on Flushing Bay. Originally opened in 1939, the airport's two runways and four terminals cover , serving 28.4 million passengers in 2015. In 2014, citing outdated conditions in the airport's terminals, Vice President Joe Biden compared LaGuardia Airport to a "third world country". In 2015, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey began a $4 billion project to renovate LaGuardia Airport's terminals and entryways. The project is expected to be complete by 2021.

Public transportation

Subways

Queens is served by the New York City Subway, with 81 stations located within the borough. Two physical lines — the IRT Flushing Line and the IND Queens Boulevard Line — serve as the primary east–west trunk lines in the borough, with all services on the two lines continuing across the East River into Manhattan. Two additional lines are wholly within Queens: the BMT Astoria Line, which serves the neighborhoods of Astoria and Ditmars–Steinway, and the IND Rockaway Line, which provides access to John F. Kennedy International Airport and the Rockaway, Queens, Rockaways. In addition, five other New York City Subway lines — the BMT Jamaica Line, BMT Myrtle Avenue Line, Archer Avenue lines, BMT/IND Archer Avenue Line, IND Crosstown Line, and IND Fulton Street Line — run between Brooklyn and Queens.

The A (New York City Subway service), A, G (New York City Subway service), G, J/Z (New York City Subway service), J/Z, and M (New York City Subway service), M routes connect Queens to Brooklyn without going through Manhattan first. The F (New York City Subway service), F, N (New York City Subway service), N, and R (New York City Subway service), R trains connect Queens and Brooklyn via Manhattan, while the E (New York City Subway service), E, W (New York City Subway service), W, and 7 (New York City Subway service), 7/<7> trains connect Queens to Manhattan only. The L (New York City Subway service), L train briefly enters Queens at Halsey Street station (BMT Canarsie Line), Halsey Street, connecting Queens to either Brooklyn or both Brooklyn and Manhattan, depending on the direction. In addition, the Rockaway Park Shuttle operates strictly in the neighborhoods of Rockaway Park and Broad Channel, Queens, Broad Channel.

Long Island Rail Road

The Long Island Rail Road, also part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, MTA, operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays – carrying an average of 301,000 customers a day (80 million a year, adjusting downward for weekends) on about 735 scheduled trains. It is the busiest commuter rail hub in the United States. Most of its branches originate or terminate at Pennsylvania Station (New York City), Penn Station. All but one of its branches (the Port Washington Branch) pass through Jamaica station, Jamaica. Within the City Terminal Zone, Queens has stations in Long Island City station, Long Island City, Hunterspoint Avenue station (LIRR), Hunterspoint Avenue (in Long Island City), Bayside station (LIRR), Bayside, Forest Hills station (LIRR), Forest Hills, Flushing–Main Street station (LIRR), Flushing, Woodside station (LIRR), Woodside, and Kew Gardens. There are also two stations where LIRR passengers can transfer to the subway.

Until 1998, the LIRR served 5 stations on the Lower Montauk branch between Jamaica and Hunterspoint Avenue. The LIRR used the track for non-stop service between Jamaica and Hunterspoint until 2012, when service was rerouted onto the main line and the line was leased to the New York and Atlantic Railway.

Sunnyside Yard is used to store Amtrak intercity and NJ Transit commuter trains from Penn Station in Manhattan. The US$11.1 billion East Side Access project, which brought LIRR trains to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, opened in 2023; this project created a new train tunnel beneath the East River, connecting Long Island City in Queens with the East Side (Manhattan), East Side of Manhattan.

JFK AirTrain

The elevated AirTrain JFK, 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; a separate AirTrain system is planned alongside the Grand Central Parkway to connect LaGuardia Airport to these transit systems. 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.

MTA buses

2019 bus ridership, citywide, on the MTA system, was 2.2 million per average weekday – about 678 million for the year. In Queens, the Q58 (New York City bus), Q58 and Q20 and Q44 buses#Q44, Q44 Select Bus Service were the seventh and tenth, respectively, citywide, busiest local lines in 2019. In addition to regular bus lines serving LaGuardia Airport, the MTA offers two Select Bus Services, regular fare, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The M60 (New York City bus), M60 – terminals Marine Air Terminal, A, LaGuardia Airport#Terminal B, B, LaGuardia Airport#Terminal C, C, LaGuardia Airport#Terminal D, D – to and from Manhattan via Grand Central Parkway and the Triborough Bridge – in Harlem, along 125th Street (Manhattan), 125th Street (with a stop at the Harlem–125th Street station, 125th Street Metro-North station), ending in Morningside Heights on the Upper West Side, a few blocks south of Columbia University. The Q70 (New York City bus), Q70 – terminals LaGuardia Airport#Terminal B, B, LaGuardia Airport#Terminal C, C, LaGuardia Airport#Terminal D, D – through Queens, ending in Woodside at 61st Street and Greenpoint and Roosevelt Avenues, Roosevelt Avenue. Overall, about List of bus routes in Queens, 100 local bus routes operate within Queens, and another List of express bus routes in New York City, 20 express routes shuttle commuters between Queens and Manhattan, under the MTA Regional Bus Operations, MTA New York City Bus and MTA Bus brands.

Proposed streetcar

A streetcar line Brooklyn Queens Connector, connecting Queens with Brooklyn was proposed by the city in February 2016. The planned timeline originally called for service to begin around 2024. In September 2020, Mayor de Blasio deferred decisions on the project to after the 2021 New York City mayoral election.

Water transit

New York Water Taxi operates service across the East River from Hunters Point, Queens, Hunters Point in Long Island City to Manhattan at 34th Street (Manhattan), 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 National Recreation Area, Gateway beaches.

In the Effects of Hurricane Sandy in New York, aftermath of Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012, 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 and piers in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The service was extended multiple times. finally ending on October 31, 2014.

In February 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city government would begin a citywide ferry service called NYC Ferry to extend ferry transportation to communities in the city that have been traditionally underserved by public transit. The ferry opened in May 2017, with the Queens neighborhoods of Rockaway and Astoria served by their eponymous routes. A third route, the East River Ferry, serves Hunter's Point South.

Roads

Highways

Queens is traversed by three trunk east–west highways. The Long Island Expressway (Interstate 495 (New York), 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 the roadway continues as 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 (New York), Interstate 295), and the Cross Island Parkway.

Queens has six state highways that run west–east largely on surface roads. From north to south, they are New York State Route 25A (Northern Boulevard), New York State Route 25B (Hillside Avenue), New York State Route 25 (Queens Boulevard, Hillside Avenue, and Braddock Avenue), New York State Route 24 (Hempstead Avenue), and New York State Route 27 (Conduit Avenue). The only state highway that primarily uses an expressway is New York State Route 878, which uses the Nassau Expressway in southern Queens.

Streets

The streets of Queens are laid out in a semi-grid plan, 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 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 confusing non-residents. Also, 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 New York State Route 25A, Northern Boulevard, Queens Boulevard, Hillside Avenue (Queens), Hillside Avenue, and Jamaica Avenue (Queens), 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 does not 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 (), now share dual names after the original street names. In 2012, some numbered streets in the Douglaston Hill Historic District were renamed to their original names, with 43rd Avenue becoming Pine Street.

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. Bayswater, Queens, 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, Queens, 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 (Queens), 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 than 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, Brooklyn, Bushwick. The grid runs east–west from the LIRR Bay Ridge Branch right-of-way (transportation), 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, Brooklyn, Bedford-Stuyvesant grid at Broadway. All streets on the grid have names.

Bridges and tunnels

Queens is connected to the Bronx by the Bronx–Whitestone Bridge, the Throgs Neck Bridge, the Triborough Bridge (also known as the 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 Street and Grand Avenue, 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, Queens, Broad Channel and the rest of Queens. 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. 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 (IND Rockaway Line), 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.

Notable people

Many public figures have grown up or lived in Queens. Donald Trump, a businessman who became the First presidency of Donald Trump, 45th and later Second presidency of Donald Trump, 47th and current President of the United States, was born in Jamaica Hospital Medical Center and raised at 81-15 Wareham Place in Jamaica Estates, later moving to Midland Parkway. He was preceded in the White House by former First Lady of the United States, First Lady Nancy Reagan, who lived in Flushing as a child. Harold R. Story, a US Army Major general (United States), major general, commanded the 42nd Infantry Division (United States), 42nd Infantry Division in the 1970s. Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President, lived at Sagamore Hill (house), Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay (town), New York, Oyster Bay from the mid-1880s until he died; the area was considered part of Queens until the formation of neighboring Nassau County in 1899.

Musicians raised in the borough include
* Nas,
* LL Cool J,
* N.O.R.E.,
* Nicki Minaj,
* 50 Cent,
* the Ramones,
* Sylvain Sylvain, Johnny Thunders and Billy Murcia of the New York Dolls
* d4vd,
* Nina Sky,
* A Tribe Called Quest,
* Mobb Deep,
* Onyx (hip hop group), Onyx,
* Ja Rule,
* Lloyd Banks,
* Tony Yayo,
* Run–D.M.C.,
* Pepa (rapper), Pepa of Salt-N-Pepa,
* Lil Tecca,
* Rich The Kid,
* Action Bronson,
* Nadia Ali (singer), Nadia Ali,
* and Tony Bennett.

Jazz greats Louis Armstrong and Norman Mapp both resided in Corona, Queens, Corona, as well as folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel and guitarists Scott Ian and Johnny Ramone. K-pop rapper Mark (rapper), Mark Lee from the boy group NCT (band), NCT grew up in Queens before moving to Canada. Madonna, from 1979 to 1980, lived in Corona as a member of the band Breakfast Club. Actors and actresses such as Adrien Brody, Zoe Saldaña, Lucy Liu, John Leguizamo, Susan Sarandon, and Idina Menzel were born or raised in Queens. Actress Mae West also lived in Queens. Writers from Queens include John Guare (''The House of Blue Leaves'') and Laura Z. Hobson (''Gentleman's Agreement (novel), Gentleman's Agreement''). Mafia boss John Gotti lived in Queens for many years. Richard Feynman, a scientist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, was born in Queens and grew up in Far Rockaway. Lee "Q" O'Denat, founder of WorldStarHipHop was from Hollis.

Queens has also been home to athletes such as:
* Professional basketball players Rafer Alston, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Metta World Peace, Emily Engstler, and Celeste Taylor
* Olympic athletes Bob Beamon and Dalilah Muhammad
* Tennis player John McEnroe was born in Douglaston, Queens, Douglaston. National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Whitey Ford grew up in Astoria.
Journalist Marie Colvin was a native of Queens.

In popular culture

Queens has also served as a setting for various fictional characters, including Spider-Man, Peter Parker / Spider-Man from Marvel Comics. He grew up in Forest Hills with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben, and Archie Bunker of ''All in the Family'', who lived at the fictional 704 Hauser Street in Astoria. The popular sitcom ''The King of Queens'' is set in the titular borough, with the main characters living in a house in Rego Park. The movie ''Somewhere in Queens'', starring Queens native Ray Romano, is also set in the title borough.

The Cemetery Belt

Several large cemeteries in Queens – St. Michael's Cemetery (New York), St. Michaels, All Faiths Cemetery, Luthern, Calvary Cemetery (Queens), Calvary, Cypress Hills Cemetery, Cypress Hill, Mount Olivet Cemetery (Queens), Mt. Olivet and Mount Zion Cemetery (New York City), Mt. Zion – together with several in Brooklyn are collectively known as The Cemetery Belt. There are about five million burials in the borough and Calvary, with about 3 million burials, has the largest number of interments of any cemetery in the United States.

See also

* List of tallest buildings in Queens
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Queens County, New York
* Queens directories

Notes

References

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''See article → Life with My Sister Madonna.'' (hardcover), (paperback); ; .

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Of the four categories, (i) Extra-Large Colleges (15,000 or more students), (ii) Large Colleges (8,000–14,999 students), (iii) Medium Colleges (4,500–7,999 students), and (iv) Small Colleges (4,499 or fewer students), LaGuardia Community College was in the top three of Large Colleges.

( was founded in 2012 by Kelly Virella).

"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."

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"Just look at the Queens Night Market, which began in the summer of 2015 as a collection of 40 vendors serving authentic international cuisine in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Since then, it's steadily attracted more and more attendees and, last year averaged 10,000 people a night. Those thousands of New Yorkers weren't just hungry for new food, but for new points-of-view. 'When I first started, it was all about how can we attract people with an event that's as affordable and diverse as possible,' says Night Market founder John Wang. 'We've now been able to represent over 85 countries, and I'm constantly hearing examples of people branching out and trying things they've never heard of before."

Greenspan, formerly a commodities analyst, was, for the last ten years of his life, active with Metro New York Genealogy. In the 1980s, he was, among other things, Presidident of the New York Chapter of the Futures Industry Association.

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"Their house [Paul Simon's family] was situated on 70th Road [at 137-62] in Kew Garden Hills, only three blocks away from the Art Garfunkel, Garfunkels' home [at 136-58 72nd Avenue in Kew Garden Hills]." (p. 3)

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"According to recent census estimates, almost 1.4 million households in New York City own a car compared to 3.1 million total households." "Manhattan, where only 22 percent of households own a car, while ownership is highest in Staten Island where cars are owned by 83 percent of all households. Queens (62 percent) is also above the city average, while the Bronx (40 percent) and Brooklyn (44 percent) look more like the city as a whole."

This map shows the boundaries of the former towns and the former city within the present Borough of Queens.

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Astoria: The Mamas Network, Leni Calas ( Elleni K. Calas; born 1979) (founding publisher)

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"Moving the home of the US Open (tennis), US Open in 1978 across the borough of Queens, from the serene surroundings of Forest Hills to the 46.5 cement acres [188,000 m2; 2,030,000 sq ft; 18.8 ha] of Flushing Meadows, further expanded the US Open's ability to deliver world-class tennis and star-studded entertainment to the masses. Indeed, the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center (the world's largest public tennis facility when not hosting tournament tennis) and its centerpiece, Arthur Ashe Stadium (the world's largest tennis stadium), have enabled the US Open to become the world's best-attended annual sporting event, with nearly three-quarters of a million fans on-site each year."

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"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. The 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."

"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."

"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."

(New Netherland Institute, NNI).

"Johnny Ramone, 55, was born John Cummings and grew up in Forest Hills, N.Y., soaking up rock in the '60s but then moving to an edgier sound."

( at Internet Archive) ( at the University of Toronto Libraries, Scarborough Library).

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"Previously known to outsiders as Brooklyn's more-diverse, less-hip neighbor, a vast landscape of ethnic eateries, Queens has emerged as the capitol of the nation's progressive movement."

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"Adrien Brody, Brody, who grew up in Woodhaven, Queens, Woodhaven and Zarobinski [Thomas R. Zarobinski; born 1971], a native of Rego Park, attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for Performing Arts together, where Brody studied acting and Zarobinski studied drawing."

"The three developers have stressed in public hearings that they are not outsiders to Flushing, which is 69% Asian. They've been here, they live here, they work here, they've invested here, said Ross Moskowitz, an attorney for the developers at a different public hearing in February Tangram Tower, a luxury mixed-use development built by F&T. Last year, prices for two-bedroom apartments started at $1.15m The influx of transnational capital and rise of luxury developments in Flushing has displaced longtime immigrant residents and small business owners, as well as disrupted its cultural and culinary landscape. These changes follow the familiar script of gentrification, but with a change of actors: it is Chinese American developers and wealthy Chinese immigrants who are gentrifying this working-class neighborhood, which is majority Chinese."

(hardcopy; US Newsstream).

(hardcopy; US Newsstream).

"That was the year when the "Old Brig" courthouse was vacated after 90 years of housing lawbreakers. The county court moved from Mineola, Long Island, Mineola to Long Island City."

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"There is a painting of Mae West, who lived in Woodhaven, Queens, Woodhaven and performed at the Union Course Tavern, tavern, on the door."

:: Access via Newspapers.com

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"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 Brooklyn, County of Kings, (Brooklyn;) the Staten Island, County of Richmond, (Staten Island, S.I.;) the towns of Flushing, Newtown, Jamaica, in Queens County; the town of Westchester, in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, and all that portion of the towns of Eastchester, Bronx, East Chester and Pelham, New York, 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 Island (Bronx), Hunter's and Glen Island Park, 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."

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"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 "

"The townships in Queens County that are to be included in the Greater New-York have not been heard from yet "

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"Rafer Alston, the junior point guard from South Jamaica, Queens, explained it this way "

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"Neither the outpouring of affection from an adoring public nor the love he finally found after four failed marriages could make up for the neglect and physical abuse he suffered as a child growing up in South Jamaica, Queens."

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"Many of them live in Richmond Hill. Just as Chinese-Americans energized downtown Flushing, the Guyanese have revived a once-moribund shopping strip on Liberty Avenue (New York City), Liberty Avenue between the Van Wyck Expressway and Lefferts Boulevard, now known as Little Guyana."

(hardcopy; US Newsstream); (online; US Newsstream) (

(hardcopy; US Newsstream); (online; US Newsstream).

"Born in Jackson Heights, Queens, Lucy Liu, Ms. Liu, the daughter of working-class Chinese immigrants, recalled many an afternoon spent parked in front of a television set."

(hardcopy; US Newsstream); (online; US Newsstream).

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"How, they wondered, could Queens have grown by only one-tenth of 1 percent since 2000? How, even with a surge in foreclosures, could the number of vacant apartments have soared by nearly 60 percent in Queens and by 66 percent in Brooklyn? Often, though, owners of illegally divided houses are reluctant to disclose the number of tenants, who tend to include people who are in the country illegally and are leery of providing any information to the government."

(hardcopy; US Newsstream); (online; US Newsstream).

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"Mr. Biden said that if he blindfolded someone and took him to LaGuardia Airport, La Guardia, the person would think he was in 'some third world country."

(online; US Newsstream).

(hardcopy; US Newsstream); (online; US Newsstream).

"Zausner said the stadium, the largest in tennis, will maintain its seating capacity of 23,771, though some seats in the highest rows were removed to accommodate two video boards. Seats were added in lower levels to replace those lost, he said."

(hardcopy; US Newsstream); (online; US Newsstream).

"The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport in northern Queens, estimates the overhaul will cost about $4 billion, most of which will go toward tearing down the LaGuardia Airport#Terminal B, Central Terminal Building, rebuilding it in place and augmenting it with a grand entry way."

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"1874 – Queens County Courthouse and seat of county government moved from Mineola, Long Island, Mineola (in present-day Nassau County) to Long Island City."

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"Fifty years ago on Tuesday, one of the most commonly used words in New York suddenly began to disappear. The word was 'Idlewild,' and it was the name of New York's international airport. On December 24, 1963, the airport's name was changed to John F. Kennedy International Airport, commemorating a young president who had been assassinated just a month earlier."

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(re: January 2016 United States blizzard). (online; US Newsstream).

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"Constitution of New York, 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."

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''Jewish Community Study.'' p. 227.

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"The Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge was opened by the Marine Parkway Authority in 1937 to provide access to the Rockaway Peninsula, which previously could be reached only by ferry or by a circuitous route around the eastern end of Jamaica Bay."