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To you New Yorkers who have spent time in each borough what have you noticed as far as the differences that comes with each one? It can be any differences you've noticed. How would you say things in Brooklyn are compared to the Bronx? Or Manhattan compared to Queens? Do you find some boroughs more interesting than others?
Thats a pretty hard question to answer. Each borough has like over a million people and dozens of different neighborhoods. But a generalized statement would be that Manhattan is the most crowded and has the most traffic and least parking. Staten Island is the least crowded and looks suburban in some areas with big yards and all. Brooklyn varies, some neighborhoods are as crowded as Manhattan and some areas in southern Brooklyn look like Saten Island. Queens has the same thing, toward the north and east of Queens the more crowded, towards the south and east of Queens it looks close to Long Island. The Bronx is pretty crowded throughout except for certain neighborhoods in the north and east. Now like I said this is a pretty broad statement and there are numerous exceptions. But in general that is how the boroughs look. As far as good and bad neighborhoods, all boroughs have nice safe neighborhoods in some areas and poor high crime neighborhoods in other areas. So you can't make a statement like only the Bronx is ghetto and Queens isn't. All boroughs have ghettos and all boroughs have nice neighborhoods. Same thing for rent expenses, ethnicity etc.
I agree with BKTony, all boroughs are very similar. The Bronx and Brooklyn it is very similar. What is not similar it is in the ethnicities, but the landscape it looks very alike. Like if you would go to The Bronx, and then to Brooklyn, you would think you are in The Bronx or vice versa. In The Bronx you can find many hispanics (Dominica, Puerto Rican), and Blacks. You may find a small quantity of Indians here. However, a lot of Indians own a grocery store in The Bronx. The White people are the minority in The Bronx. Most of the White people that are in The Bronx are mainly Italians. But we have some Irish too. Etc... In Brooklyn everything is separated. Like a neighborhood for only Blacks(West-Indian people, African Americans etc..), a neighborhood that there are mainly Jewish, A neighborhood that is mainly Whites. However there are neighborhoods where blacks and hispanics are like Bushwick. I do not know a lot about Brooklyn like The Bronx though. That is why I am naming only one neighborhood that I know of. Manhattan, everything is divided too. Like there are neighborhoods that is mainly for the gay people. This neighborhood is called "The Village". Spanish Harlem used to be only Puerto Ricans. Now there are few Puerto Ricans that lives there. There is a growing population of Mexicans or South Americans. There are White people that lives here too, but only a few. Harlem mainly is Black people. There are few White people that lives there as well. In Manhattan you will find every ethnicity.
Queens. Also here you will find every ethnicity. There are many houses here. Not a lot of buildings like in Manhattan, The Bronx or Brooklyn. Queens is the most diverse borough according to statistics. Also it is one of the city of the world, which is most diversed. There are Indians to Greek people here. Many ethnicities can be found in Queens as well.
Please feel free to add more things to my post if you have any additional input=)
I agree with BKTony, all boroughs are very similar. The Bronx and Brooklyn it is very similar. What is not similar it is in the ethnicities, but the landscape it looks very alike. Like if you would go to The Bronx, and then to Brooklyn, you would think you are in The Bronx or vice versa. In The Bronx you can find many hispanics (Dominica, Puerto Rican), and Blacks. You may find a small quantity of Indians here. However, a lot of Indians own a grocery store in The Bronx. The White people are the minority in The Bronx. Most of the White people that are in The Bronx are mainly Italians. But we have some Irish too. Etc... In Brooklyn everything is separated. Like a neighborhood for only Blacks(West-Indian people, African Americans etc..), a neighborhood that there are mainly Jewish, A neighborhood that is mainly Whites. However there are neighborhoods where blacks and hispanics are like Bushwick. I do not know a lot about Brooklyn like The Bronx though. That is why I am naming only one neighborhood that I know of. Manhattan, everything is divided too. Like there are neighborhoods that is mainly for the gay people. This neighborhood is called "The Village". Spanish Harlem used to be only Puerto Ricans. Now there are few Puerto Ricans that lives there. There is a growing population of Mexicans or South Americans. There are White people that lives here too, but only a few. Harlem mainly is Black people. There are few White people that lives there as well. In Manhattan you will find every ethnicity.
Queens. Also here you will find every ethnicity. There are many houses here. Not a lot of buildings like in Manhattan, The Bronx or Brooklyn. Queens is the most diverse borough according to statistics. Also it is one of the city of the world, which is most diversed. There are Indians to Greek people here. Many ethnicities can be found in Queens as well.
Please feel free to add more things to my post if you have any additional input=)
Yeah I got a good dose of info from that and the first reply.
I never thought of Whites being a minority in the Bronx until I heard John Salley(former NBA player from BK)joking about seeing a lot of whites in the Bronx for a Yankees game. So I figured from that the Bronx must be largely Latino and BLK-Americans.
As far as good and bad neighborhoods, all boroughs have nice safe neighborhoods in some areas and poor high crime neighborhoods in other areas. So you can't make a statement like only the Bronx is ghetto and Queens isn't. All boroughs have ghettos and all boroughs have nice neighborhoods.
And/but ... Manhattan differs from the other boroughs due to
-- its grid pattern, which allows one neighborhood to flow into the other ... so you can walk from one end or side of New York County (Manhattan) to the other, unimpeded by industrial zones, waterways/canals, or mega-expressways; and
-- ample transit, so that virtually _noplace_ is really off the beaten path.
So no matter what Manhattan neighborhood you're in, all of Manhattan is accessible to you, and you'll inevitably do business outside your neighborhood and mix with people unlike yourself.
In contrast: The other boroughs started out as collections of town and villages -- with boundaries between them, and with their own street plans. (FYI: The mind-numbing Queens street-numbering system reflects that. It was an attempt to impose order on the varied neighborhood street names.)
The general assumption was that people would stay in their own "village," unless they had business in Manhattan.
Mass-transit routes followed these separations, and highway construction reinforced it (and cut off some neighborhoods even more).
Result is that
-- it's often easier to each Manhattan than to reach some places in your own borough;
-- the boroughs are more neighborhood-centric, and people are often oblivious to what's happening outside of their immediate turf; and
-- in the boroughs, whole neighborhoods can reflect one ethnicity or culture, with little outside mingling, influence, or foot-traffic from outside.
So while Manhattan's Little Italy, "German" Yorkville, and "Jewish" Lower East Side/Upper West Side have pretty much vaporized, the boroughs are chock-full of all-Asian, all-Latino, all-Caribbean, all-Russian, all-Hasidic-Jewish, etc., neighborhoods.
And before those groups arrived, the neighborhoods were all-Irish, all-Polish, all-German, all-Norwegian, or whatever ... because change generally is based on affordability: one lower-income/striving group moves in, does better, moves out, and is replaced by the next lower-income/striving group in line.
Thats a pretty hard question to answer. Each borough has like over a million people and dozens of different neighborhoods. But a generalized statement would be that Manhattan is the most crowded and has the most traffic and least parking. Staten Island is the least crowded and looks suburban in some areas with big yards and all. Brooklyn varies, some neighborhoods are as crowded as Manhattan and some areas in southern Brooklyn look like Saten Island. Queens has the same thing, toward the north and east of Queens the more crowded, towards the south and east of Queens it looks close to Long Island. The Bronx is pretty crowded throughout except for certain neighborhoods in the north and east. Now like I said this is a pretty broad statement and there are numerous exceptions. But in general that is how the boroughs look. As far as good and bad neighborhoods, all boroughs have nice safe neighborhoods in some areas and poor high crime neighborhoods in other areas. So you can't make a statement like only the Bronx is ghetto and Queens isn't. All boroughs have ghettos and all boroughs have nice neighborhoods. Same thing for rent expenses, ethnicity etc.
Staten Island is the only borough not over 1 million.
Manhattan and the Bronx have a very long history together. Manhattan is, of course, a world center of finance, media, and culture. It has every sort of amenity, except perhaps for middle-class neighborhoods. The Bronx is pretty much a continuation of uptown Manhattan (in fact, Bronxites say "going downtown" instead of "going into the city" when they take the subway to Manhattan). It is the most urban of the outer boroughs, with plenty of apartment buildings, coops and projects. It's home to a number of NY icons--the Yankees, Fordham University, the Bronx Zoo, and the Botanical Gardens. It also, unbeknownst to some, has plenty of low-density and even suburban-type housing. It's more famous for the crime and poverty of the 1970s. It's still poor, in fact, the poorest county in the nation.
Brooklyn and Queens were tacked on to the city in 1899. Downtown Brooklyn is very urban, once was an independent city (the second-largest in the country), flanked by some of the most beautiful 19th century brownstone neighborhoods, some gentrified (Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope) some not (Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights). Beyond the brownstones is mostly 20th century residential development: semi-detached housing (think All in the Family) and suburban housing--with some high rises here and there (Coney Island, Starrett City). Brooklyn is also home to an ever-growing hipster and yuppie community composed mainly of youngish Americans who were born outside the city.
Queens is very much like the 20th century-developed parts of Brooklyn--lots of semi-detached and detached housing built around the wars to house immigrants and the working-class children of immigrants. Queens is the most diverse county in the nation. You'll find every sort of person in Brooklyn and Queens--rich black people (Queens is the only US county where blacks are wealthier than whites) and poor whites (Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn), Bukharian Jews, Hasidic Jews, Afghani Jews, Pakistanis, Ecuadorians, Colombians, Arabs, Israelis, Filipinos, Jamaicans, Haitians, Russians, Chinese, Koreans, Poles, Irish-born Irish, and whole lot of Italian Americans--everything except perhaps for WASPs.
Staten Island is the unloved stepchild of the city. Mutual dislike and political differences lead to a failed secession movement in 1993. SIers think of themselves as forming the wealthiest, most congenial, most suburban community in the city, and are thankful to live there instead of the more urban sections of Brooklyn or Queens. In turn, much of the rest of the city view them as racist and without any class (think "Growing up Gotti"). In reality, it's a bit more complex. For instance, SI has a very large Sri Lankan population on the north shore, is the home of Wu-Tang Clan ("Shao-Lin"), and has a nice Tibetan Buddhist museum (The Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art (http://www.tibetanmuseum.org/calendar.htm - broken link)).
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