Talk:Queens

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i would be very interested to see the evidence from the nyc department of city housing which you say indicates the "top 10 wealthiest neighborhoods in queens".- you list woodhaven and richmond hill and jackson heights in this category? are you serious? homes in bellerose and floral park sell for an average of 650000, and you are telling me some of the towns on that list have greater property value? please. i went to the website and found no such list. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.98.237.172 (talk) 19:03, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Queen's?

Was it ever proper to use an apostrophe in the name Queens? It seems like it was named that was, as a possessive, along with Kings County. -- 68.47.81.141 21:18, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

I quote the article on Catherine of Braganza
Although some have claimed that Queens a borough of New York City was named after Catherine of Braganza, her name is not mentioned in the first 200 years of historical documents that have been preserved in the county archives.
I'm curious as to the origin of the name as the article on Queens' Guard (College of William and Mary) states:
The name uses the possessive plural "Queens'" in recognition of the three Queens of Great Britain considered patrons of the College: Queen Mary II, who ... granted the royal charter for the creation of the College; Queen Anne, who ... granted money for the rebuilding of the College ... and Queen Elizabeth II, who visited the College in 1957 and for whom the Queens' Guard was created.

[edit] most ethnically diverse county

the page on NYC says that Brooklyn takes this honor. one of these two pages is incorrect.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.129.79.253 (talk • contribs)

Brooklyn and Queens have alot of diverse groups. I lived in Brooklyn and now I live in Queens and from experience, I would say that Queens is more diverse.


[edit] largest sikh population?

does this person have any evidence to back up this claim "Richmond Hill, in the south, has the largest population of Indian Sikhs outside of India; ". it would make a lot more sense for a part of england to have the largest sikh population outside of india. i would believe areas of fiji, or dubai, or toronto to have that before richmond hill.

--Well I do know that Richmod Hill has the largest Sikh temple outside of India. As for the numbers of people, it would be inaccurate to compare a single neighborhood of NYC to the whole city of Toronto or the whole island of Fiji. --Jleon 14:12, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

You don't read very well do you? I wrote areas of Fiji, Dubai, and Toronto. Also, I am not debating whether or not Richmond Hill does or not, I am asking for evidence of that claim, which clearly you have not presented. So why did you even bother responding? I don't know what your standards are, but simply "knowing that Richmond Hill has the largest population outside of India" just doesn't cut it in the encyclopedia world, that's why people cite their sources. You do know what citations are?

-- Richmond Hill also has a large Carribean-Indian population, particularly from Guyana. These people form a community that is distinct from that of the Indians coming directly from India. This population may actually be more notable in Richmond Hill than the Sikhs.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.131.51.27 (talk • contribs)

definitely more sikhs in neighbourhoods of london, or birmingham. there are probably more sikhs in some of these neighbourhoods than the entire queens. even manchester has a curry mile which i doubt richmond hill does.

lol the numbers are definitely way off. the uk has 20% of usa's population but 5 times as many sikhs. canada has 1/10 of usa's population but double the amount of sikhs. someone definitely needs to change the sikh sentence in the article. just off the top of my head, id say the area of 49th and main in vancouver probably has 2 times as many sikhs as richmond hill. http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_sikh.html

[edit] John Jay Coll. is not in Queens

As far as I know, John Jay College of Criminal Justice is in Manhattan, and not in Queens. The John Jay article says as much. This should be deleted.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.131.51.27 (talk • contribs)



[edit] Crime

Is the crime rate in Queens really that high? I've read somewhere that Queens has one of the lowest crimes rates in NYC.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.115.212.184 (talk • contribs)

It depends where you live. There are safe places in Queens like Fresh Meadows, Rego Park, etc. There are also dangerous places like Jamaica. But I would say that Brooklyn has a higher crime rate than QUeens does.

The crime stats for Queens are no different than the other 4 boroughs. The anonymous user added this link:

http://www.fedstats.gov/mapstats/crime/county/36081.html

But in looking at the other 4 boroughs, the crimes per population ratio is exactly the same:

http://www.fedstats.gov/mapstats/crime/county/36047.html

http://www.fedstats.gov/mapstats/crime/county/36005.html

http://www.fedstats.gov/mapstats/crime/county/36061.html

http://www.fedstats.gov/mapstats/crime/county/36085.html

I suspect this is "Bkbkbkbk" trying to "roughen-up" Queens again. Dialt0ne 06:44, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Removed section

I removed the section titled "Crime" as it was completely uncited and appeared to be original research. WP:V/WP:OR --Wildnox 23:29, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

The user that added it, Bkbkbkbk has been attempting to add this OR to Queens and College Point, Queens for some time now. Can he be locked out of editing pages he abuses often? -- Dialt0ne 13:10, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

Specific pages, no. But he can be, and currently is, blocked. --Wildnox 00:12, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Uuuh.

I'm not registered in the English Wikipedia, so I'd be glad if someone took care of it - "they like to lick dogs"? It's at the end of the second paragraph. Quite hilarious, I admit, but still...

[edit] Wow.

It disappeared 2 seconds after I posted my comment. Wow.


[edit] Court System

While a lesser organization exists at the county level, the court "system" itself is truly organized at the State level in New York, with all employees of the courts technically state employees. Can anyone with a more intimate knowledge of the courts fix this?

That depends on what you mean by lesser. There are 2 court systems. State Supreme Court and County Criminal Court. More defendants are processed by Criminal Court then Supreme Court. Don't see anything wrong with

Each of the city's five counties (coterminous with each borough) has its own criminal court system and District Attorney, the chief public prosecutor who is directly elected by popular vote.

[edit] Removed population table

The article used to have a table of borough population since 1900. What has happened to it??? Dogru144 17:13, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Culture

Not much is said about the culture in Queens and under it, it says culture of New york city and not too much is mention their about queens either. Queens has several parades in Flushing Meadwows park such as the Colombian day festivl held in mid July. The Ecuadorian parade held in august in and/or around Flushing Meadows park. Something about Run Dmc seing how Afrika Bambaata is included in The Bronx. If any one could improve this section please do.

[edit] Queens is also home to the one and only Christian E. Piña?

What is a Christian E. Piña and why is it significant enough to go in the first paragraph?

[edit] Queens County?

Seems like the first paragraph should be modified so as not to introduce Queens as Queens County but rather as Queens, one of the five boroughs of New York City, coterminous with Queens County. This would strengthen the consistency among the five individual articles about the boroughs. Plus, "Queens" is not simply a shortening of the county name, as the current wording suggests; it is the name of the borough. If colloquial shortening were the true root of the borough names, then Brooklyn would be known simply as "Kings" and Staten Island would be called "Richmond." Conisder revising for logic.

[edit] Jamaica or Mineola?

Currently, this article has Mineola listed as the county seat prior to the secession of the western towns into New York City in 1898.

However, I have found at least two sources which identify Jamaica as the county seat. The first is a website called Nassau County History ([1]), and the second is the Encyclopedia of New York City, which is being updated for its second edition to be released next year. And, the Wikipedia entry on Mineola itself says the county seat was moved there in July 1900. It would seem to me that the reference listed in this article, from the Queens Borough President's office, may be wrong.

I'm inclined to stick with my belief that Jamaica was the county seat of pre-consolidation Queens. However, I'm opening this for debate. Rollosmokes 08:21, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

ADDENDUM: Some of these sources are confused: according to the Queens entry in the Encyclopedia of New York City, the county seat was Jamaica until 1788, when it was moved to Mineola. The Jamaica entry in the same book mentions Jamaica as county seat, but doesn't mention anything else. I'll edit the article to reflect that, but I'm still for debate. Rollosmokes 08:32, 13 October 2007 (UTC)
And then we have Long Island City Courthouse Complex which calls Garden City Park the "original" courthouse site but names LIC as the seat for the late 19th century. Frankly I'm surprised that Rustdorp was important enough in the 17th century to be the first county seat and would expect Newtown, as a port town, to take that job. And now where's the county seat? Kew Gardens (Queens)? Anyway the two questions that seem fairly clear are: (1) Mineola is too new to be a candidate, and (2) the question has not been settled with encyclopedic clarity. Jim.henderson 14:25, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Did "Nassau" vote on consolidation?

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Flushing & West Chester voted AGAINST consolidation. IIRC, ToB, most of ToH, & ToNH were never invited to vote. Organizers knew "Nassau" was more Republican & likely to oppose it - it was also much further out than mostly anyone envisioned the city would ever go - so they were never asked to vote on it. Barely passed in City of Brooklyn, & 2 of 3 city mayors fought it. Mt Vernon voted against & did not consolidate. --JimWae (talk) 10:45, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

Do you really think Hempstead voted against consolidation & they split off the part of Rockaway that voted for consolidation -- and took just part of the town -- yet the entire Town of Flushing & entire Town of Eastchester voted against - and they took them entirely anyway??? ... Most of Brooklyn voted against, but they did not do any fancy partion in Brooklyn. The only reasonable conclusion, though my edit will not say that until there is a firm source, is that "Nassau" was never asked to vote. There is a firm source that Mt Vernon was not asked to vote, but organized its own vote (that is in the refs) & voted NAY. --JimWae (talk) 06:20, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] From 1898 to 1899

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Every source says that parts of Queens County did not join the new Borough of Queens in 1898, but split off in 1899 to form Nassau County. Hence the borough & the county could not have been coterminous "with consolidation" in 1898 - not until 1899. There is an editor who repeatedly reverts to saying they were coterminous "with consolidation". The same editor repeatedly reverts to say that those portions of Queens County that voted against consolidation did not join. Well, all the sources say Flushing voted against - and it still was joined. No sources say any part of present Nassau County ever voted, yet the same editor keeps re-inserting they did. No sources say that somehow the Rockaways voted yes & the rest of Hempstead voted no. There is no reference to support towns being split up based on votes. Though I would not have the article say so without good reference, tHe most likely case is that present Nassau was never part of the vote, they were simply not asked to vote & were "left behind". Please weigh in on this issue, as the user has not expressed any regard for the position I have presented, so far just blasting it away with reverts in excess of WP:3RR --JimWae (talk) 10:16, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

I have found numerous incontrovertible sources for the statement that I said I would not add until I found reliable sources. I will be adding them soon. --JimWae (talk) 05:06, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

Coterminous does not mean "dissolved". Coterminous means "having the same boundaries". All during 1898, Queens County included 3 towns that would later become Nassau County - and so the County was thus much larger than the Borough of Queens. Those 3 towns were never dissolved. so it is flase that "with consolidation" the county & borough were coterminous. They were not coterminous until Nassau County was created.--JimWae (talk) 05:06, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] If we need to shorten the history section, here are some candidates

 There is a dispute about this section and an editor has requested a third opinion.
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  • Quartering Act
    • this was not just specific to Queens, leave as link. Might be worth saying something about prevalence of Loyalists in SOME towns
    • section contradicts the Quartering Act article, which says
      While many sources claim that the 1774 act allowed troops to be billeted in occupied private homes, this is a myth. The act only permitted troops to be quartered in unoccupied buildings —Preceding unsigned comment added by JimWae (talk • contribs) 09:52, 28 December 2007 (UTC)
  • In 1870, Long Island City was incorporated as a city, consisting of what had been the Village of Astoria and some unincorporated areas in the Town of Newtown
    • unsourced & probably too much detail re constituent parts
  • The areas of Queens County that voted against[dubious – discuss] consolidation, consisting of the towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay, and the remaining portions of the Town of Hempstead, were constituted as the new Nassau County in 1899.
    • it seems all the areas that were asked to vote & voted against were merged anyway
  • With consolidation, the city and former towns and villages within Queens County were dissolved; the county and borough of Queens were now coterminous.[dubious – discuss]
    • just wrong in so many ways, no matter how many times it gets re-inserted
  • The borough's administrative and court buildings are presently located in Kew Gardens and downtown Jamaica respectively, two neighborhoods that were villages of the former Town of Jamaica.
    • out of synchronicity & details should be in gov't section
  • The borough experienced a great leap in growth in the 1920s, from 469,042 in 1920 to 1,079,129 in 1930
    • significance & context not given & no pointer to rest of census data
  • coincidental with the expansion of the use of the automobile and the construction of the elevated IRT subway lines to Astoria and Flushing.
    • things that are expressed as producers of results are more persuasive for inclusion than things that are "coincidental" -
    • since the article is on Queens, there's no big deal about IRT to Astoria & Flushing UNLESS they are FROM somewhere other than Queens - could they have used a tunnel maybe? ...or a bridge? I produced 2 academic articles that said the Queensboro Bridge was one of the major events in the history of Queens - but somebody deleted it, saying it should be in the Transportation section - but he did not put it there, & that section does not cover the historical significance of transportation

I post this since I do not think ONE person should make all the decisions about what gets deleted, and invite comments. --JimWae (talk) 09:31, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

Actually, if any section needs to be shortened, I'd also look at Neighborhoods & Demographics - both already have their own articles, so only summaries & links need to be in the main article. Furthermore, the Neighborhoods section is particularly prone to ethnic generalizations --JimWae (talk) 09:35, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Unresolved issues from User-talk pages

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Somewhere in the History section, it needs to be clear that Queens was NOT consolidating with itself, nor with LIC - it was consolidating with NYC - hence I propose a paragraph to begin "The New York City Borough of Queens was founded on January 1, 1898..." also making it clear that it was never any other kind of borough

Regarding Mineola being the county seat of Queens from 1788 to 1874, it is more remarkable that Mineola is now part of a different county than that it was "then a hamlet of North Hempstead" (and this is separate from another issue that could confuse the reader: that most encyclopedia say Mineola is in 2 towns - also in the Town of Hempstead. This likely has more to do with post-office boundaries, however). --JimWae (talk) 10:31, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

While we are at it, is anyone aware of a wikipedia policy that says reference notes must come at the end of a sentence, and may not be with the point being referenced? --JimWae (talk) 10:34, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Categories missing

Why does this article have no categories? Badagnani (talk) 02:36, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Boroughs as separate cities

I have doubts about including this at all, but people keep adding it - If the boroughs were each a separate city, then NYC would not be a city anymore & it would not be in the rankings> Brooklyn would be 3rd, Queens 4th> If only that borough left, then each would be one lower --JimWae (talk) 03:31, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

rank Place Population NYC pop if ONLY
that borough left city
0 NYC 8,110,067
1 Los Angeles 3,849,378
2 Chicago 2,833,321
3 Brooklyn 2,465,326 5,644,741
4 Queens 2,229,379 5,880,688
5 Houston 2,144,491
6 Manhattan 1,593,200 6,516,867
7 Phoenix 1,512,986
8 Philadelphia 1,448,394
9 Bronx 1,357,589 6,752,478
10 San Antonio 1,296,682

[edit] Population figures

Does the population estimates/figures/numbers take into account ILLEGAL immigrants. Cause there are ALOT in QUeens county.More than likely so than any where else in Nyc. —Preceding unsigned comment added by FlushinQwnzNyc (talk • contribs) 15:06, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Urbanness

The borough is often considered one of the more suburban boroughs of New York City. Queens urbanness is about 99% correlated to is proximity to lower manhattan (just as brooklyn). I mean really the closer to lower manhattan it is the more urban it is... The only exception would be Flushing and Jamaica.

[edit] Population

10 th most populous county how about ranking/spot in population density. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.202.86.91 (talk) 14:45, 1 June 2008 (UTC)