Queens is the easternmost and largest in area of the five boroughs of New York City. It is geographically adjacent to the borough of Brooklyn at the southwestern end of Long Island, and to Nassau County further east on Long Island; in addition, Queens shares water borders with the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. Coterminous with Queens County since 1899, the borough of Queens is the second-largest in population (after Brooklyn), with a census-estimated 2.3 million residents in 2015, approximately 48% of them foreign-born. Queens is the fourth-most densely populated county among New York City’s boroughs, as well as in the United States. If each New York City borough were an independent city, Queens would also be the nation’s fourth most populous city, after Los Angeles, Chicago, and Brooklyn. Queens was established in 1683, as one of the original 12 counties of New York and was named for the Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza (1638–1705), Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland. It became a borough of New York City in 1898, and from 1683 until 1899, the County of Queens included what is now Nassau County.
Queens is divided into 14 community districts and numerous neighborhoods. The borough is a patchwork of dozens of unique neighborhoods, each with its own distinct identity. Queens is the most ethnically and religiously diversified urban area in the world. A visit to Queens with its 2.3 million inhabitants on 460 km² space is always some kind of world round trip, including the corresponding culinary and retail offers. Residents of Queens often closely identify with their neighborhood rather than with the borough or city:
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.
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 also home to a growing population of Arabs, South Asians, and 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.
Maspeth and Ridgewood are home to many Eastern European immigrants such as Romanian, Polish, Albanian, and other Slavic populations. Ridgewood also has a large Hispanic population.
Woodside is home to a large Filipino American community and has a “Little Manila” as well a large Irish American population. There is also a large presence of Filipino Americans in Queens Village and in Hollis.
Richmond Hill, in the south, is often thought of as Little Guyana for its large Guyanese community.
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.
Bellerose and Floral Park, originally home to many Irish Americans, is home to a growing South Asian population, predominantly Indian Americans from the northern Indian state of Punjab and the southern Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
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.
[caption id="attachment_169452" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Cornelius Vanderbilt, the railroad tycoon, by J. C. Buttre[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), also known informally as "Commodore Vanderbilt", was an American business magnate and philanthropist who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. Born poor and having only a mediocre education, Vanderbilt used perseverance, intelligence, and luck to work his way into leadership positions in the inland water trade and inves...
