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Boroughs of New York City

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"Five Boroughs" redirects here. For the Mercian area of this name during the tenth and eleventh centuries, see Five Boroughs of the Danelaw.

The five boroughs of New York City: 1: Manhattan, 2: Brooklyn, 3: Queens, 4: The Bronx, 5: Staten Island

New York City, in the U.S. state of New York, is composed of five boroughs. They are Manhattan, The Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island. Each borough also has coterminous boundaries as a county of New York State. The county governments were dissolved when New York City consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county. If the boroughs were each independent cities, four of the boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and The Bronx) would be among the ten most populous cities in the United States; these same boroughs are coterminous with the four most densely populated counties in the United States (New York [Manhattan], Kings [Brooklyn], Bronx, and Queens).

The term borough was adopted to describe a unique form of governmental administration for each of the five fundamental constituent parts of the newly consolidated city in 1898. Under New York State Law, a "borough" is a municipal corporation that is created when a county is merged with populated areas within it. This differs significantly from typical borough forms of government used in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, other states, Greater London, and elsewhere.

Background

The borough of Manhattan is the economic, cultural, and administrative center of New York City.
New York City's five boroughs
Jurisdiction Population Land area Density of population GDP
Borough County Census
(2020)		 square
miles		 square
km		 people/
sq. mile		 people/
sq. km		 billions
(2022 US$) 2
The Bronx
Bronx
 1,472,654 42.2 109.2 34,920 13,482 51.574
Brooklyn
Kings
 2,736,074 69.4 179.7 39,438 15,227 125.867
Manhattan
New York
 1,694,251 22.7 58.7 74,781 28,872 885.652
Queens
Queens
 2,405,464 108.7 281.6 22,125 8,542 122.288
Staten Island
Richmond
 495,747 57.5 149.0 8,618 3,327 21.103
City of New York
 8,804,190 300.5 778.2 29,303 11,314 1,206.484
State of New York
 20,201,249 47,123.6 122,049.5 429 166 2,163.209
Sources:[1][2][3][4] and see individual borough articles.

New York City is often referred to collectively as the five boroughs; the term is used to refer to New York City as a whole unambiguously, avoiding confusion with any particular borough or with the Greater New York metropolitan area. The term is also used by politicians to counter a frequent focus on Manhattan and, thereby, to place all five boroughs on equal footing. In the same vein, the term outer boroughs refers to all of the boroughs excluding Manhattan, even though the geographic center of the city is along the Brooklyn–Queens border.

All of the boroughs were created in 1898 during consolidation, when the city's current boundaries were established. The Bronx originally included parts of New York County outside of Manhattan that had previously been ceded by neighboring Westchester County in two stages, in 1874 and then following a referendum in 1894. The separate present-day Bronx County was not created until 1914.

The borough of Queens consists of what originally was only the western part of a then-larger Queens County; in 1899, the three eastern towns of Queens which had not joined the city the year before formally seceded from Queens County to form the new Nassau County. The borough of Staten Island was officially the borough of Richmond until the name was changed in 1975 to reflect its common appellation.

Description of the boroughs

Chinatown in Manhattan, the most densely populated borough of New York City, with a higher density than any individual American city.
A view down a street with rowhouses in brown, white, and various shades of red.
Landmark 19th-century brownstones in the Greenpoint Historic District of Brooklyn, New York City's most populous borough.
The Unisphere in Queens, the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world.[5][6]
Borough Hall in the St. George neighborhood of Staten Island, the most suburban borough of New York City.
The Bronx, the northernmost borough of New York City and the only borough situated on the United States mainland.
Further information: Neighborhoods in New York City and List of parks in New York City

There are hundreds of distinct neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs of New York City, many with a definable history and character to call their own.

Governance

The percentage of New York City population residing in each borough (from bottom to top): 1. Manhattan, 2. Brooklyn, 3. Queens, 4. The Bronx, and 5. Staten Island. (Populations before 1898 are for the areas now enclosed in the present boroughs).
Main article: Borough president

Since 1914, each of New York City's five boroughs has been coextensive with a county of New York State – unlike most U.S. cities, which lie within a single county or extend partially into another county, constitute a county in themselves, or are completely separate and independent of any county.

Each borough is represented by a borough president. Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island each have a Borough Hall, while the Manhattan Borough President's office is situated in the Manhattan Municipal Building, and the Bronx Borough President's office is in the Bronx County Courthouse. Since the abolition of the Board of Estimate in 1990 (due to a 1989 ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court[18]), the borough president now has minimal executive powers, and there is no legislative function within a borough. Executive functions in New York City are the responsibility of the Mayor of New York City, while legislative functions reside with the New York City Council. The borough presidents primarily act as spokesmen, advocates, and ceremonial leaders for their boroughs, have budgets from which they can allocate relatively modest sums of money to community organizations and projects, and appoint the members of the 59 largely advisory community boards in the city's various neighborhoods. The Brooklyn and Queens borough presidents also appoint trustees to the local public library systems in those boroughs.

Because they are counties, each borough also elects a district attorney, as does every other county of the state. While the district attorneys of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island are popularly referred to as such by the media (e.g., "Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance, Jr.", or "Brooklyn D.A. Kenneth P. Thompson"), they are technically and legally the district attorneys of New York County, Kings County and Richmond County, respectively. There is no such distinction made for the district attorneys of the other two counties, Queens and The Bronx, since the borough shares the county's name. Because the five district attorneys are, technically speaking, state officials (since the counties are considered to be arms of the state government), rather than officials of the city government, they are not subject to the term limitations that govern other New York City officials such as the mayor, the New York City Public Advocate, members of the city council or the borough presidents.

Some civil court judges also are elected on a borough-wide basis, although they generally are eligible to serve throughout the city.

Sixth borough

The term sixth borough is used to describe any of a number of places that have been referred to as a part of New York City because of its geographic location, demographics, special affiliation, or cosmopolitan character. They have included adjacent cities and counties in the New York metropolitan area as well as in other states, U.S. territories, and foreign countries.[19][20][21] In 2011, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg referred to the city's waterfront and waterways as a composite sixth borough during presentations of a planned rehabilitation projects along the city's shoreline,[22][23][24][25][26][27] including Governor's Island in the Upper New York Bay.[28]

New Jersey's Hudson Waterfront lies opposite Manhattan on the Hudson River, and during the Dutch colonial era, was under the jurisdiction of New Amsterdam and known as Bergen. Jersey City and Hoboken in Hudson County are sometimes referred to as the sixth borough, given their proximity and connections by rapid transit PATH trains.[29][30][31][32] Fort Lee, in Bergen County, opposite Upper Manhattan and connected by the George Washington Bridge, has also been called the sixth borough.[33][34][35] In the 1920s, soon after the creation of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey there were calls to integrate the rail and subway system in New York and Northern New Jersey.[36][37] After Mayor Bloomberg called for the 7 Subway Extension to continue to Secaucus Junction, a feasibility study was conducted and released in April 2013.[38][39][40]

The Westchester County cities of Yonkers and Mount Vernon directly border the northern Bronx and share much of that borough's heavily urbanized character. In 1894, the voters of Yonkers and Mount Vernon, along with voters in other parts of southern Westchester, took part in a referendum to determine if they wanted to become part of New York City, along with the voters in Kings, Queens and Richmond Counties (today's Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island, respectively). At that time, the city consisted only of Manhattan and a portion of the present-day Bronx, which had been part of Westchester until it became part of New York City in 1874. While the results of the 1894 vote were positive elsewhere, including in several other adjacent sections of Westchester, which were then annexed to the city and which thus became part of the new borough of The Bronx, the returns were so negative in Yonkers and Mount Vernon that those two areas were not included in the consolidated city and remained independent municipalities.[41] A subway connection was planned between Getty Square in Yonkers' city center and the New York City Subway, but the project was abandoned after the failed merger vote. Local residents frequently refer to the area as "the sixth borough," referring to the two cities' location bordering the Bronx, the high number of local residents employed in Manhattan, and the area's similarly urban character.[42] In 1934, a bill was submitted by a New York City alderman that again proposed merging Yonkers into New York City as a sixth borough.[43]

Places outside of the New York metropolitan area that are home to large populations of former New Yorkers have also been referred to as the "sixth borough," including Philadelphia,[44][45] Miami (and South Florida in general),[46] Los Angeles,[47] and, outside the continental U.S., Puerto Rico and Israel.[48]

The term also applies to other entities as well. For instance, Manhattan College, located in Riverdale, Bronx, refers to its Jaspers student cheering section as "The 6th Borough" at home basketball games played in Draddy Gymnasium.[49] In addition, the University of Connecticut Huskies is often referred to as the Sixth Borough, given its dominance in games played at Madison Square Garden;[50] the school sells a T-shirt making this claim as well.[51]

See also

References

  1. ^ "A Story Map: 2020 Census Demographic Data Map Viewer". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
  2. ^ "QuickFacts New York County, New York; Richmond County, New York; Kings County, New York; Queens County, New York; Bronx County, New York; New York city, New York". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved June 13, 2023.
  3. ^ "NYC Population: Current and Projected Populations". NYC.gov. Retrieved June 10, 2017.
  4. ^ "Gross Domestic Product by County and Metropolitan Area, 2022". Bureau of Economic Analysis.
  5. ^ a b Christine Kim, Demand Media. "Queens, New York, Sightseeing". USA TODAY. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  6. ^ a b Andrew Weber (April 30, 2013). "Queens". NewYork.com. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  7. ^ Mann, Camille; Valera, Stephanie. "10 Most Crowded Islands in the World". The Weather Channel. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  8. ^ Barry, Dan (October 11, 2001). "A Nation challenged: in New York; New York Carries On, but Test of Its Grit Has Just Begun". The New York Times. Retrieved March 27, 2016. A roaring void has been created in the financial center of the world.
  9. ^ Sorrentino, Christopher (September 16, 2007). "When He Was Seventeen". The New York Times. Retrieved March 27, 2016. In 1980 there were still the remains of the various downtown revolutions that had reinvigorated New York's music and art scenes and kept Manhattan in the position it had occupied since the 1940s as the cultural center of the world.
  10. ^ Immerso, Michael (2002). Coney Island: The People's Playground. Rutgers University Press. p. 3. ISBN 0-8135-3138-1.
  11. ^ a b Joe Dorish. "10 Largest Parks in New York City". ZipfWorks, Inc. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  12. ^ O'Donnell, Michelle (July 4, 2006). "In Queens, It's the Glorious 4th, and 6th, and 16th, and 25th ..." New York Times. Retrieved July 20, 2014.
  13. ^ "Staten Island Greenbelt | New York-New Jersey Trail Conference". Nynjtc.org. Retrieved October 28, 2010.
  14. ^ Frazier, Ian (June 26, 2006). "Utopia, the Bronx". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 1, 2008.
  15. ^ "Bronx Zoo Animals & Exhibits". Wildlife Conservation Society. Retrieved March 20, 2016.
  16. ^ Ward, Candace (2000). New York City Museum Guide. Dover Publications. p. 72. ISBN 0-486-41000-5.
  17. ^ Toop, David (1992). Rap Attack 2: African Rap to Global Hip Hop. Serpents Tail. ISBN 1-85242-243-2.
  18. ^ Board of Estimate of City of New York v. Morris, 489 U.S. 688 (1989).
  19. ^ Popik, Barry (January 24, 2006). "Sixth Borough Yonkers, Scarsdale, Fort Lee, Jersey City, Hoboken, Nassau County, Rockland County, S". Big Apple. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  20. ^ Walker, Ken (May 10, 2007). "That Mythical Sixth Borough". Daily Newarker. Archived from the original on March 27, 2016. Retrieved May 1, 2013. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; October 5, 2013 suggested (help); Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  21. ^ Carlsen, Jen (December 10, 2010). "Poll: Where is New York's 6th Borough?". Gothamist. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  22. ^ "Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Quinn Unveil Comprehensive Plan for New York city's Waterfront and Waterways" (Press release). NYCEDC. March 14, 2011. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  23. ^ Rovzar, Chris. "Mayor Bloomberg Attempts to Rebrand the 'Sixth Borough'". New York Magazine. Retrieved November 28, 2012.
  24. ^ Mainland, Alex (February 18, 2011). "A Blog for the 'Sixth Borough'". The New York Times. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  25. ^ Yeh, Richard (March 14, 2011). "City Reclaims Waterfront as 'Sixth Borough'". WNYC. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  26. ^ "Sixth Borough Stories from New York's Waterfront". Columbia School of Journalism. 2011. Retrieved May 1, 2013. The sixth borough. That's what Mayor Bloomberg calls the 578 miles of shore land that encircle the five boroughs of New York City.
  27. ^ Cunningham, Ryan A. (January 22, 2012). "Will NYC have a 6th Borough?". Metropolis Magazine. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  28. ^ "Studio Report The Speculation Studio: Governors Island, The Sixth Borough?". Urban Omnibus. January 11, 2012. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  29. ^ Strunsky, Steve (December 9, 2001). "CITIES; Bright Lights, Big Retail". The New York Times.
  30. ^ Holusha, John. "Commercial Property / The Jersey Riverfront; On the Hudson's West Bank, Optimistic Developers", The New York Times, October 11, 1998. Accessed May 25, 2007. "'That simply is out of the question in midtown,' he said, adding that some formerly fringe areas in Midtown South that had previously been available were filled up as well. Given that the buildings on the New Jersey waterfront are new and equipped with the latest technology and just a few stops on the PATH trains from Manhattan, they become an attractive alternative. 'It's the sixth borough', he said."
  31. ^ Belson, Ken (May 21, 2007). "In Stamford, a Plan to Rebuild an Area and Build an Advantage". The New York Times.
  32. ^ Olear, Greg (December 2002). "The Sixth Borough A good look at Hoboken". The Copperator. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  33. ^ Lefkowitz, Melanie. "Bergen County's Fort Lee: Town With a View". The Wall Street Journal - Copyright ©2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. April 30, 2011. Accessed September 16, 2012.
  34. ^ Linh Tat (June 12, 2012). "Fort Lee grapples with questions on future development". © 2012 North Jersey Media Group Inc. All rights reserved. Retrieved September 16, 2012.
  35. ^ Vera Haller (September 7, 2012). "Living In Fort Lee, N.J. Close to the City, but With a Life of Its Own". © 2012 The New York Times Company. Retrieved September 16, 2012.
  36. ^ "Transportation for Greater New York (1920)". Electric Railway Journal · Vol. 56, No. 22. November 27, 1920: 1095–1106. Retrieved May 21, 2013. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  37. ^ "The New Jersey Commuter in New York Subway". Vol. 58, No. 27. December 31, 1921: 1151–1152. Retrieved May 21, 2013. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  38. ^ Parsons Brinkerhoff (April 2013). No 7 Secaucus Extension Feasibility Analysis Final Report (PDF) (Report). NYCEDC. Retrieved April 10, 2013.
  39. ^ Frasinelli, Mike (April 10, 2013). "Plan to extend No. 7 subway from NYC to New Jersey could be back on track". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved April 10, 2013.
  40. ^ Rouse, Karen (April 10, 2013). "Report: Extending NY No. 7 subway line to Secaucus would accommodate commuter demand". The Record. Retrieved April 10, 2013.
  41. ^ Nevius, Michelle & Nevius, James (2009), Inside the Apple: A Streetwise History of New York City, New York: Free Press, ISBN 141658997X, p.177-78
  42. ^ travelfrosch. "The Sixth Borough". The Virtual Tourist. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  43. ^ "ADDING OF YONKERS TO CITY IS SOUGHT; Alderman Jacobs Says He Will Present Bill Seeking Merger as a Sixth Borough.", The New York Times, November 3, 1934. Retrieved August 26, 2007. "Merging the city of Yonkers with New York City as a sixth borough was proposed last night by Alderman Elias H. Jacobs, Washington Heights Democrat, who said he would introduce a local bill in the Board of Aldermen branch of the Municipal Assembly at its next meeting on Nov. 13."
  44. ^ Carlson, Jen. "Sixth Borough Stealing NYC Residents". Gothamist. Retrieved November 28, 2012.
  45. ^ Pressler, Jessica (August 14, 2005). "Philadelphia Story: The Next Borough". The New York Times. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  46. ^ "Sixth Borough".
  47. ^ "The 32 Sixth Boroughs of New York City, According to the 'Times,' in Order from Worst to Best". The Awl.
  48. ^ Barry Popik. "The Big Apple: Sixth Borough (Yonkers, Scarsdale, Fort Lee, Jersey City, Hoboken, Nassau County, Rockland County)".
  49. ^ "STUDENT ACTIVITIES". Manhattan College Student Activities. Retrieved November 13, 2015.
  50. ^ "Sixth Borough". UConn's Ticket To Power Five Conference Goes Through New York. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  51. ^ "Sixth Borough Shirt". Husky Fan Shop. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
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