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The majority of people I incountered don't know what a borough is. And if they know what a borough is they think Long Island is part of NYC and that Harlem is its own borough or its own city and that Brookyln is also seperate city I hear little about Queens and nothing about Staten Island which leads me to believe a lot of people outside the New York part of the NYC metro don't know they existand know next to nothing about the way NYC is set up. Most of these misconseptions about NYC are from people I lived with in suburban NJ inside the NYC metro area so imagine what people in Kansas think. Does this suprise you or do you think its not a big deal at all?
doesn't surprise me. To me, a borough is related to a city, while a county is relative to a state. Staten Island may be a boro of NYC, but it's Richmond that is a county of NY. Same with Kings(Brooklyn) and New York (Manhattan)Counties
"Long Island" to me has no formal definition. It's just a term people use which could mean anything from the east river to the end of LI, depending on how the term is used. It comprises Brooklyn, Queens(NYC) and Nassau and Suffolk (non NYC)
I've spoke to people from NYC who thought Yonkers was part of NY City; I've also spoken to some people from out of town who actually knew that Yonkers, Mt vernon and new Rochelle were near NY but not in it and these people actually knew those cities were their own municipality. Go figure
well for these people who think Harlem is it's own boro/city and that brooklyn is it's own city, the bronx being part of the mainland idea would be going WAYY over their heads!!
Misconceptions are not surprising when people are just watching a place from a tv set and have no idea what the place is all about, let alone actually visiting the place.
I actually find that the majority of people PRETEND to know about all five boroughs. Ive run into fools from other states or countries who will tell me things like "Brooklyn is up and coming" even though they have no idea what they are talking about and have never even been to the borough. Or midwesterners who think Yonkers is part of the city and also think Westchester is upstate, even though Yonkers is in Westchester. I just laugh at these idiots.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FTLkid754
The majority of people I incountered don't know what a borough is. And if they know what a borough is they think Long Island is part of NYC and that Harlem is its own borough or its own city and that Brookyln is also seperate city I hear little about Queens and nothing about Staten Island which leads me to believe a lot of people outside the New York part of the NYC metro don't know they existand know next to nothing about the way NYC is set up. Most of these misconseptions about NYC are from people I lived with in suburban NJ inside the NYC metro area so imagine what people in Kansas think. Does this suprise you or do you think its not a big deal at all?
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I try to explain the NYC boroughs and metro area to people out of state, and they look at me like they're totally confused. It's confusing to explain. I don't think they would totally understand unless they lived here for a little while.
It doesn't surprise me and it doesn't seem like a big deal. My entire childhood (not in NY) I had a relative who lived in Whitestone NY. All of the thank you cards we sent her for gifts she had given us were mailed to an address that ended with "Whitestone, NY."
We even went to visit her once and she lived in a house with a driveway. Imagine my surprise when I eventually moved here and finally realized she actually lived in NYC all those years! (And I didn't even realize this until I moved out of Brooklyn and into Queens.)
my grandmother lived in Riverdale since the late 60's. I was surprised at age 14 when my dad told me that it was actually the Bronx she lived in. Today I live there and i am glad i do
The boroughs of New York can be confusing to some people. I know when I go out of town, you have a city or town within a county. I have not seen many places where the county only encompasses one thing, i.e., Kings County is only Brooklyn. Queens can be entirely confusing since it is thought of as neighborhoods (postal) instead of town/city/borough. As Henna mentioned when you address mail to Whitestone, NY you think that Whitestone is a town or city, not a neighborhood in Queens. In fact, Queens shares more of a naming convention with Long Island then it shares with any other borough of New York City.
As a New Yorker, everything seems very normal to me but when you look at other places, it does appear to be unique.
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I hear little about Queens and nothing about Staten Island which leads me to believe a lot of people outside the New York part of the NYC metro don't know they existand know next to nothing about the way NYC is set up. Most of these misconseptions about NYC are from people I lived with in suburban NJ inside the NYC metro area so imagine what people in Kansas think. Does this suprise you or do you think its not a big deal at all?
