Queens
County has the distinction of being the most ethnically diverse county in
the United States, and one of the most densely populated ones.
Approximately 2,250,000 people live in the borough today,
representing dozens of different nationalities.
Queens
was home to the tribes of the Delaware Indian when the European colonizers
began to arrive in the early seventeen century. The
Dutch vied with the English for control of the colony in the 1600’s until
a treaty between the two nations in 1679 gave the American colony to the
British. It was then that
Queens received its name – after the wife of Charles II of England, Queen
Catherine of Braganza.
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in 2003, the Dutch and the English are gone, but Queens is home to
virtually everyone else. There
are approximately fifty neighborhoods in Queens on a piece of land about
112 square miles in size, each with its own unique ethnic character and
flavor. You’ll
find a variety of housing in the borough equal to the diversity of the
population. Queens is largely
a collection of middle income, middle class neighborhoods with one and
two-family homes situated on small neatly sectioned lots.
Flushing is typified by these attached and detached homes variously
made of brick and/or |
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frame construction.
Jamaica is older, and the construction there is mostly frame.
Douglaston, at the other extreme, is one of the wealthiest
neighborhoods in the borough, along with Jamaica Estates and Malba, and
here you can find mansions reminiscent of European baronial estates.
In Holliswood, no two homes appear to be alike as you travel down
its charming winding streets. Driving
along Queens Blvd. through Rego Park and Forest Hills is like driving
through a valley, with mountainous apartment buildings on each side. Co-ops and Condominiums are another type of housing available in the
borough. Whitestone features
the 1,500 unit Le Havre apartment complex.
The Bay Club is an exclusive condominium complex in Bayside.
There is little land left for new development in Queens.
Some of the older housing in the borough – frame homes on large
property lots – is giving way to new brick construction.
Queens,
which was incorporated into the City of New York in 1898, is just a stone’s
throw from Manhattan. Many
Queens residents commute daily into the city through the Queens Mid-town
Tunnel or across the many bridges or by mass transit.
Others frequent the city for its cultural offerings.
Long Island City is the closest neighborhood in the borough to Manhattan, located
on the opposite bank of the East River.
Most points in Queens are no more than a twenty minute drive away
from Manhattan.
New
York’s two major airports are both located in Queens, John F. Kennedy
International Airport and LaGuardia Airport.
A number of major colleges are also located in the borough,
including Queens College, St. John’s University, York College and
LaGuardia Community College. Queens
has its own major league baseball team – the New York Mets, who play out
of Shea Stadium in Flushing. Tennis
fans also know that Flushing is also the home of the U.S. Open, which takes
place in late summer every year in Flushing Meadow Park.
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