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Queens Borough, New York

Queens is one of the five boroughs of New York City. Geographically the largest borough in the city, Queens is home to many immigrants and two of New York's major airports.

The borough of Queens is coterminous with Queens County, which is also the most ethnically diverse county in the United States. As of the 2000 census immigrants comprise 46% of its residents. It is estimated that by 2010 the majority of its population will be foreign born. With a population of 2.2 million it is the second most populous borough in New York City and the tenth most populous county in the United States.

NEIGHBORHOODS
The United States Postal Service divides the borough into five "towns" based roughly on those in existence at the time of the consolidation of the five boroughs into New York City: Long Island City, Jamaica, Flushing, Far Rockaway, and Floral Park. These ZIP codes do not necessarily reflect actual neighborhood names and boundaries; "East Elmhurst," for example, was largely coined by the United States Postal Service and is not an official community. Most neighborhoods have no solid boundaries. The Forest Hills and Rego Park neighborhoods, for instance, overlap.

Residents of Queens often closely identify with their neighborhood rather than with the borough or city as a whole. Postal addresses are written with the neighborhood, state, and then zip code rather than the borough or city. The borough is a patchwork of dozens of unique neighborhoods, each with its own distinct identity. Howard Beach and Middle Village are home to large Italian American populations, Rockaway Beach has a large Irish American population. Astoria, in the northwest, is traditionally home to one of the largest Greek population outside of Greece, and is home to a growing population of young professionals from Manhattan. Maspeth is home to many European immigrants, including a large Polish population, as well as a large Hispanic population.

Long Island City is a major commercial center and the home of the Queensbridge housing project. Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, and Corona make up an enormous conglomeration of Hispanic and Asian American communities. Richmond Hill, in the south, has the largest population of Sikhs outside of India; Forest Hills and Kew Gardens, in central Queens, have traditionally large Jewish populations (many of these communities are Jewish immigrants from Israel, Iran and the former Soviet Union) while Jamaica is home to large African American and Caribbean populations. There are also middle-class African American, Filipino American, Hispanic American and Caribbean neighborhoods such as Saint Albans, Cambria Heights, Queens Village, Rosedale and Laurelton along east and southeast Queens. Together, these neighborhoods comprise the most diverse county in the United States. Some Queens neighborhoods, such as Ozone Park, Bayside, Maspeth, Kew Gardens and Woodside are home to a very diverse mix of many different ethnicities.

ECONOMY
The economy of Queens is based on tourism, industry, and trade. Queens has two of the busiest airports in the world, John F. Kennedy International Airport, located in Jamaica, and La Guardia Airport, in Flushing. Queens is increasingly attracting film studios — a return of an industry that had departed decades earlier — notably the Kaufman Studios in Astoria and the Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, where a number of notable television shows are made.

The Queens Museum of Art and the New York Hall of Science are further east, in Flushing Meadows Park — site of both the 1939 New York World's Fair, the 1964 New York World's Fair and the annual US Open tennis tournament. Shea Stadium, home of the New York Mets baseball team, is just north of the park. The park is also the third largest park in New York City at 1,255 acres, making it 412 acres larger than Central Park in Manhattan.

Several large companies have their headquarters in Queens, including Bulova, Glacéau and JetBlue.

Long Island City is a major manufacturing and commercial center. Flushing, in the north-central part of the borough, is a major commercial hub for Chinese American and Korean American businesses, while Jamaica is a major business and transportation hub for the borough.

CULTURE
Queens was an epicenter of jazz in the 1940s. Jazz greats likes Louis Armstrong, Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald found refuge from segregation in the mixed communities of the borough, while a younger generation — Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, and others — were developing bebop in the clubs of Harlem.

Western Queens is becoming an artistic hub, including the Noguchi Museum, Socrates Sculpture Park, Museum for African Art, and the American Museum of the Moving Image. The P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in the neighborhood of Long Island City is one of the largest and oldest institutions in the United States dedicated solely to contemporary art. In addition to its renowned exhibitions, the institution also organizes the prestigious International and National Projects series, the Warm Up summer music series, and the Young Architects Program with The Museum of Modern Art. The current poet laureate of Queens is Ishle Yi Park.

Queens is home to many cultural institutions, including among others:
-American Museum of the Moving Image
-Jamaica Performing Arts Center
-New York Hall of Science
-Noguchi Museum
-Queens Botanical Garden
-Queens Theatre in the Park

Queens is the home of the New York Mets baseball team, the U.S. Open tennis tournament, and Aqueduct Racetrack. Just over the Queens line (in Nassau County) is Belmont Park Race Track, the home of the Belmont Stakes. In the past, Extreme Championship Wrestling has been held at an Elks lodge in Elmhurst.

TRANSPORTATION
Twelve New York City subway routes traverse Queens, serving 81 stations on seven main lines. About 100 local bus routes move people around within Queens, and another 15 express routes shuttle commuters between Queens and Manhattan. A commuter train system, the Long Island Rail Road, operates 20 stations in Queens with service to Manhattan and Long Island. Jamaica Station