Stranger
Not being a New Yorker, what’s wrong with Staten Island? If I were forced to live in New York City (and got to choose where), Staten Island seems like it would be an ideal place to be as un-city-like as possible. I mean, Long Island would be better, but I’d not meet the qualification of being forced to live in the NYC limits.
You’re missing the point. New Yorkers like being New Yorkers.
That’s where we put our garbage.
Fresh Kills, red ‘gravy’, and Jersey Italianos that make Tony Soprano and his crew look like Harvard professors. Oh, and the fact that the only way to Manhattan is the ferry (ugh) or the Verrazano Narrows (ugh-ugh). If you don’t want to live in the city, move to White Plains or Wichita.
Stranger
If you would only live in New York if you were “forced” to, then you would never understand.
I’m from the Bronx. If I had to live in New York again, I would definitely want to live in Manhattan instead of one of the outer boroughs. The outer boroughs have all the disadvantages of urban life, with less of the advantages.
Personally, I would rather live in either the middle of the city or way out in the boondocks. Suburbs like Long Island for me are the worst of both worlds.
Well, Queens is a big place, but a quick real estate search of several different neighborhoods shows listings for houses in the 600K to 1M range. The estimate of “a few hundred thousand” seems way low for a house anywhere in Queens.
You have to remember New York City LOST 822,000 people from 1970 to 1980. In the 70s the city was a joke. I recall watching Barney Miller and as a retirement present they all chipped in an gave the money to Wojo to buy Fish a gift and Wojo bought NY bonds. That was truly funny back then.
I think if it were up to Staten Island they would leave the City. I know many people there feel like they get stuck paying City taxes without more of the tangible benefits.
Jean Stapleton was exactly a week shy of her 48th birthday when the first episode of the first season of AITF aired on Jan. 12, 1971 (there had been pilots in 1968 and 1969, I see from Wiki).
I mentioned Long Island because I thought it was the boondocks! The eastern part, anyway. And what’s this about “Hicksville”? 
I had the great misfortune of living in Flushing for a few months and that is definitely not Flushing. That’s Rego Park, despite what the map says. I wish I had lived near the only Trader Joe’s in the borough.
Who would miss it? It’s so much more Jersey than NYC. And since it was the only borough that went for Trump, good riddance. It’s an awful place whose only value is providing land for Interstate 278.
As for brownstones, they are a relative rarity in Queens as compared to Brooklyn and Manhattan. Not sure why.
Oh, it’s definitely not actually Flushing- although there’s probably some debate about whether it’s Rego Park or Glendale. But the map most likely says Flushing because Flushing can be used as the Post Office city for all the 113XX zip codes.
It’s amazing all the ways they’ve cooked up to make addresses in Queens difficult to understand. The post office next to the Ditmars, Astoria subway stop says Woolsey Station, Long Island City, NY.
It goes back to the introduction of zip codes. The post office would no doubt have preferred to stick with the five “cities”, but residents continued to give their address with the neighborhood name.
That’s for sure. I’ve never quite figured out the whole Astoria/ Long Island City thing and I’ve lived there for over 30 years. I guess that technically, Astoria is a subset of Long Island City ( the north half, basically,) but if there’s a real border I don’t know where it is. And some people still use LIC as the mail designation for places in Astoria.
And it was only recently that the subway stations stopped using the positively archaic old avenue names ( the ones that predated the numbering system) alongside the current name.
So the 30 Ave / Grand Ave station was not a station located between two streets. It was called that because many decades ago 30th Ave was called Grand Ave.
Things have changed, bro. Manhattan living is the berries if you happen to have a multi-million dollar income and enjoy proximity to multiple Starbucks and Duane Reade drugstores.
If you like independent bookshops, butchers who make their own sausages, and places that repair shoes, you got to come to Brooklyn. Although we are RAPIDLY being Manhattanized.
I was never clear on how they define the “outer boroughs”? Is it all the boroughs other than Manhattan? Just the Bronx and Staten Island, which are a trek to get to? Is it any part of the non-Manhattan boroughs more than, say, 20 minutes or so by subway?
Parts of Brooklyn and Queens are a short distance from Manhattan (like DUMBO or Long Island City). But I have one friend who lives out in Bay Ridge. There’s NO good way to see him. Either I drive an hour over the Verrazano or take the R train for hours.
Personally, that’s why I like the Hoboken / Jersey City / Weehawken area now. It’s only a 10 minute ferry ride to Midtown or Lower Manhattan and it has a fair number of decent bars and restaurants in its own right.
It’s all the outer boroughs except Manhattan.
It’s true that there may be some parts of Manhattan that are uncool, and a few parts of (mainly) Brooklyn that may be cool. But as a general rule, Manhattan is cool, and all of the other boroughs are uncool.
Why would you choose the worst part of New York City if you were “forced” to choose anywhere in New York City?