Queens is one of the five boroughs of New York City. The boroughs are coterminous with the five counties that comprise the city, out of 62 counties statewide: Manhattan (New York County), Brooklyn (Kings County), Staten Island (Richmond County); Bronx and Queens have the same county and borough names.
Queens is physically the largest of the NYC boroughs, at 109.7 square miles (284.12 square kilometers or 70,190.2 acres), and with 2.3 million people, the second-most populous, after Brooklyn; this is more people than any other whole US city, save for Los Angeles and Chicago. NYC has established 59 community districts in 1975, based on the historic development of communities, 14 of which are in Queens.
Queens has a rich history as one of the 12 original counties of New York State. You can read about that here. Just as interesting, though, is the fact that Queens is considered one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the United States. Here are just the ancestry groups with an estimated 25,000 or more, according to the 2009 American Community Survey 1-year estimates: Asian Indian 137,696; Chinese 190,183; Colombian 83,433; Ecuadorian 107,931; German 48,042; Greek 50,949; Guyanese 53,012; Haitian 44,226; Irish 82,543; Italian 153,704; Jamaican 50,828; Korean 59,690; Mexican 83,185; Polish 54,974; Puerto Rican 123,219; Russian 39,798; Salvadoran 26,571; plus a lot of less numerous groups as well.
I have some personal links with Queens. My mother’s uncle Ernest died of cancer in 1954, and then six months later, Aunt Charlotte and her four kids moved from small-town Binghamton (NY) to New York City, into a house in Queens. As Charlotte’s daughter Fran noted in a 2005 interview, her mother thought that with her “kids coming from a town where there were big back yards and big houses — and when we would get too noisy she would just put us in the back yard to run around — that we would be too much to move into an apartment…. So we moved into St. Albans, a three-bedroom house.” My family would visit that house several times a year when I was growing up; it seemed enormous but was probably dwarfed by the current McMansions.
Then in 1965, my family went to the World’s Fair in Flushing. Oddly, my most vivid memory was standing in line FOREVER to get to have something called Belgian waffles. With strawberries! And whipped cream!
My sister and her then-husband moved to an apartment in Jackson Heights c. 1976, and my eldest niece Rebecca was born there in October 1978; I first saw her within a month of her birth, and then several times subsequently, including on her first and second birthdays.
I even lived in that apartment in the summer of 1977; my sister was going back and forth between NYC and Boston. I won $48 in a radio contest, and I took my sister to see a New York Mets baseball game; they, too, are the pride of Queens. The Mets played at Shea Stadium, which was built in time for the 1964 season – and 55,000 Beatles fans were there in 1965. In the early 1970s, my father and I caught a New York Jets-Houston Oilers football game at Shea. The stadium was razed in 2008, replaced by Citi Field in 2009. There’s a documentary about the stadium, Last Play at Shea; the trailer is HERE.
Since I’m a librarian, I should note that the Queens Library is “an independent, not-for-profit corporation and is not affiliated with any other library… With a record 23 million items in circulation for FY 2009, the Library has the highest circulation of any public library system in the U.S. and one of the highest circulations in the world.”
A font of knowledge Roger – I say it week after week but it is so true – I learn so much each ABC time – thanks to people like you!
Denise
That is a lot of people, about the same as the population of Greater Manchester where I live. I wondered if the demographics might include the number of Brits, or don’t they count as a minority?
That is one busy library! I learned new things here, thanks 🙂
Great and informative post for Q!! ;)ççQ is for…
Queens is a great idea for the Q word. Very interesting post and so many connections to Queens.
Shooting Parrots-
The designations are all self-reported. There are 12,522 people reporting as English. But there are 137,589 who did not designate ANY ethnicity, so my guess is that at least SOME of those are English.
Very informative post, Roger! I learn to see and understand the USA through your eyes. Thank you!
Great choice for the Q Day, Roger! And another very interesting and informative post! I do enjoy them and always learn something which is always good! Hope your week is going well!
Sylvia
Another excellent and informative post.
WOW… That is alot of books. I don’t know how many books are small town Library has, but, it seems like every time I request one, they don’t have it, therefore I have to visit my favorite bookstore, Barnes and Noble and buy it, then I donate to the Library, they say they will use them, however I never to see it again. I don’t know where they go. Beats me.
Most interesting and informative, as ever,Roger. Thank you:-)
The only thing I knew about Queens before reading your interesting post was that Mary Beth Lacey (Cagney & Lacey) lived there.
Love the fascinating and personal information on the NY Bourough. I enjoy all the twists and turns ABC Wednesday takes us.
I love that one line: I won $48 in a radio contest! How brilliant. (I loved the rest of your post as well, but that line jumped out at me)
I LOVED Cagney and Lacey. I used to have DREAMS about Cagney and Lacey.
That was a mindblowing on the information front. Love blogging for post like this. You never know what you may find.
Hi Roger, Thanks for this fascinating informational excursion. Since I volunteer at our local library which is miniscule compared to Queens Library, I can appreciate the stats you offered. I would love to see it someday!
Very interesting, Roger. Lots of history, family and otherwise, so I can understand why this subject came to mind for the letter Q. Really enjoyed it.
— K
Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie’s Guide to Adventurous Travel
It seems that everyone is doing a post on queens.
Oh YUM! Belgian waffles with strawberries! I hope I don’t have to go all the way to Queens to eat some now that you’ve made me hungry for some. 🙂
No, EG Wow, you can get Belgian waffles a lot of places NOW, but in 1964-65, they were, in the US, BRAND NEW.
Mara – I remember that radio contest ridiculously well. You had to be the 9th caller with “the phrase that pays”, which was “99X is my radio station” and name the last song they played, and receive TWICE your age. The song? “She’s Gone” by Hall & Oates.
Love all this information, – great post Roger.
We have a town called Queenstown,named after a visit from the Queen of England in the 70s. There’s also the Queen Elizabeth Walk, facing the bay.
How interesting! I love the family stories and who wouldn’t love a Belgian waffle with strawberries and whipped cream! Or maybe two!
I had no idea Queens had as many as 2.5 million people. I’m astonished! Fascinating post!
Well here I am again at the “Learning Channel” Never come to your post without learning something new!!!! Thanks!
very interesting take on the theme
coterminous-believe or not, I never have encountered that word before! And, what an impressive statistic for the library! Wow! I’m friends with our local library manager (I am their volunteer curator of the art exhibits).
Anyway, staggering statistics!
Wow, so much information. Goes to show that you learn something new every day. Thanks!
Erika B
I have been to NY twice, I only remember the Statue of Liberty and Central park.
We did a sight seeing tour through NY but I think we made it only to the Bronx, because of its reputation, tourists want some thrill, lol ! Queens I know from romances. Never been there.
I would love to visit that library at Queens, I’m also enchanted by books and libraries atmosphere!
Thanks for sharing the story about your family and your memories, it’s adorable!
Hugs
Léia
I thought its all about the “Queens” rock band. lol. Great info., thanks.
Thanks for the visit too.
I have not been to New York; 2.5 million in just part of it is hard to imagine as we have only half that number living in Adelaide and its suburbs.
Somehow I don’t equate a “borough” with 2.3 million people! Great information on the area…even though this area has much too much humanity in it for my preferences! BTW: thanks for letting me know when to expect a package. I’ll let you know when it shows up on my doorstep.
Apart from Mary-Beth ‘living’ there with Harvey, Queens often seems to be someone’s home in dramas, but a never appearing character. Because of that I always imagined it as small working class suburb that was difficult to get to. Now I find it is right by the river and, wow 2.3 million people, that’s a city by itself. Next time someone is from Queens I’ll know exactly where it is!
Well, there! I can always count on you for a little extra education Rog! Now I know a lot more about Queen’s, which has always been just a name to me.
Funny about the memory of the World Fair being mostly about the line for Belgian Waffles .. I remember that I was taken to a big event in London, on an island in the Thames that was used as a naval training base. I can’t remember how we got there, or what we did there, but I do have a quite vivid memory of taking my glass bottle from an orange drink to a litter bin and seeing all the wasps buzzing in and out of all the other bottles and coming straight for mine! I dropped it and ran!
Rog, wonderful essay on the Queens. I was most amazed by the fact that each borough of NYC is in a different county! And I was at the World’s Fair, too!
Great Q blog!
Helen Mac, ABC team
i love NYC, we were there lats summer. its a busy city
http://shydub-simplehappylife.blogspot.com/2010/11/abc-wednesday-q-is-for.html
Very good choice for Q day! And very good information about Queens!
Thanks for sharing and thanks for visiting my place;o)
***
Have a nice day****
Nice one.
Mine is also based on Queen.
I sure learned a lot about Queens! Thanks so much for sharing all that interesting info and family history as well!
Great use of the prompt. It made me think of my visit to NY several years ago. It was wonderful. I really enjoyed your post…
Thanks for stopping by my place too!!!!!!
Wysteria
‘Queens’ is an excellent choice of Q-word, Rog. Very interesting post.
Thank you for visiting my Q-post. You are ‘first commenter’ and get an extra link back to your blog.
The snow is still lying around. In fact it is freezing outside, which means that all that slush has turned into ice. Winter is long in Sweden!
Best wishes,
Anna
For the benefit of other readers:
Anna’s abcWed.rd 7-Q
It is awesome to see how great the Jets are doing! I have not seen anything like this since the days of Joe Willy and Emerson Boozer