WE’RE #4!

That’s right residents, if each New York City borough were an independent city, Queens would be America’s fourth largest city, after Los Angeles, Chicago, and Brooklyn!  Therefore, in light of the lack of block parties, poetry readings, puppet shows, and orgies occurring in LIC this weekend, as well as the limited news flow, I have decided to expand my horizons to all of Queens, courtesy of wikipedia.  Oh sure, you could go to the website directly, but the Queens entry is 29 pages long, and who wants to read that much information on a 2″ x 2″ screen, especially when the weather is so nice?  Therefore, I am going to bring you the 21st century soundbite version of the Queens wiki, so you can spend more time on important matters such as cooking shows and farmville.  So here we go with the top 5 facts about our borough:

 
1. Queens is the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world with a population of over 2.2 million, 46% of whom are foreign-born, representing over 100 different nations and speaking over 138 different languages.

2. The racial makeup of the county was 44.08% White, 20.01% African American, 17.56% Asian,, 11.68% from other races, and 6.11% from two or more races. 24.97% of the population were Hispanic of any race.

• Chinese: 173,123; 39.8% of the city’s total Chinese population.
• Indian: 147,525; 64% Asian Indian population.
• Korean: 65,131; 66.4% of the city’s total Korean population.
• Filipino: 41,784; 61.3% of the city’s total Filipino population.
• Bangladeshi: 18,310; 66% of the city’s total Bangladeshi population.
• Pakistani: 10,884; 39.5% of the city’s total Pakistani population

3. The streets of Queens are laid out in a semi-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 in the north for Avenues.  –does this make sense to anyone?  Trust me, this only scratches the surface regarding the Queens layout, we are the poster child for GPS.

4. Queens has 5 U.S. Congressmen, some of whom we share with other boroughs including LIC’s: Astoria and Long Island City are roughly geographically half and demographically a third of the 14th district of Carolyn Maloney, the rest of whose district extends across the east side of Manhattan from the East Village through Carnegie Hill. – hmm, kinda makes us an afterthought

5. Most neighborhoods have no solid boundaries – LIC is the perfect example

That wasn’t so painful was it?  Now use this beautiful weekend to explore and find out more about number four.

Comedy Explosion in LIC Attracting Stars – as one would expect in the 4th largest city

Pop Up Library Coming to Gantry Park – the HPS Library will be officially dedicated on Friday, Oct. 5 at 10:30 a.m.  By an ordained priest, minister, and rabbi, from their mouths to…

Waterfront Bus Service Expands In LIC Corridor – news doesn’t get more local than this

East River Ferry Service Not Doing Too Well On Weekdays – might the fact that the HPS access point adds 20 minutes to ones commute be a factor?

Another Big Industrial Company Leaves LIC For The Bronx – the first being Fresh Direct, it’s the normal course of action as the city changes

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial On Roosevelt Island, NYT Architectural Review – more detail about what many of you have been looking at across the water and wondering “huh?”

One last note regarding the school situation – a number of you have reached out asking “What can we do to help?”  I am awaiting some confirmation on new information relevant to this and will address your queries next week.  Thank you very much for taking the initiative and stay tuned…