'Neighborhoods Of Queens' Tours Borough
BY LINDA J. WILSON

The Neighborhoods of Queens
Claudia Gryvatz Copquin
Introduction by Kenneth T. Jackson
300 p., 8 1/2 x 10
225 b/w illus; 56 maps
ISBN: 9780300112993
ISBN-10: 0300112998
Cloth: $35
A joint publication of the Citizens Committee for New York City and Yale University Press

In his Introduction to The Neighborhoods of Queens, Kenneth T. Jackson, Director of the Herbert Lehman Center for American History and Jacques Barzun Professor of History at the Social Sciences, Columbia University, notes, "If Queens had been an independent municipality in 2000, it would have been the fourth largest city in the nation, trailing only New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, and a bit ahead of Houston." But, Jackson goes on, "Queens is more distinctive for diversity than size.…Queens has a larger proportion of foreign-born than London and a larger number of foreignborn than Miami."

Those who live in Queens identify more closely with their neighborhoods than with the borough. This, Jackson says, is due in part to the U.S. Postal Service having divided the borough into five towns, Long Island City, Flushing, Jamaica, Floral Park and Far Rockaway, based on governmental organizations in place when the borough was incorporated into New York City in 1898, and with which many inhabitants still identify. "Moreover," Jackson adds, "perhaps more than other places residents of Queens identify more with their neighborhoods rather than with their borough or with the city as a whole."

Photo Dominick Totino Office of the Queens Borough President Queens Borough President Helen Marshall welcomed author Claudia Gryvatz Copquin to Borough Hall on Wednesday, December 5 to celebrate the publication of The Neighborhoods of Queens, a new book that profiles 99 neighborhoods in Queens. The book was published jointly by the Citizens Committee for New York City and Yale University Press. Citizens Committee President Peter Kostmayer joined Copquin for Wednesday's presentation of the book to the borough president.

Those neighborhoods of Queens- 99 of them, according to author Claudia Gryvatz Copquin, South-American born who immigrated with her family to Jackson Heights in the 1960s- each differ to a certain extent in history, people, and cultural activities, yet are all linked by the events that make up the borough's shared past and which have brought about its present diversity. From Astoria on the borough's westernmost boundary, the shore of the East River, to Whitestone and Little Neck bordering Nassau County on the east, Queens, the most diverse county in the country, offers a cornucopia of cultures, sights, tastes, and sounds. In The Neighborhoods of Queens, Copquin has put together a book that, like the borough it describes, celebrates the diversity that makes each neighborhood special and the spirit of unity that lets all those diverse neighborhoods exist side by side in one civic entity.

Copquin sought input from residents, historians, demographers, politicians, borough officials, shopkeepers, and many others, and the result is that The Neighborhoods of Queens captures the unique character of each neighborhood. For each of the 99 neighborhoods, the book features practical tips (subway and bus routes, libraries, fire departments, hospitals), quirky and unusual neighborhood facts, and information on famous residents. A separate chapter includes characteristics from the 2000 U.S. Census Bureau listing the total population, age, race, marital status, housing, education, region of birth of foreign born residents, language spoken at home and household income for each of the 99 neighborhoods. "Queens Timeline" by James Driscoll, president of the Queens Historical Society, begins at about 7,000 B.C. and follows developments in the borough through 2007.

The book is generously illustrated with more than 200 photographs, both contemporary and historical, and more than 50 new maps by cartographers William L. and Colette Nelson that chart precise neighborhood boundaries. Four sections known as "Photo Spreads" interspersed throughout the book depict the corridor of parkland comprised of Flushing Meadows-Corona, Kissena, Cunningham and Alley Pond Parks, Shea Stadium, the many bridges that link various parts of Queens to the borough and the borough to the rest of New York City and the airports, which link Queens to the rest of the United States and the world.

"This is not a big book," Jackson adds. "But it does have a big objective- to remind both residents and visitors that Queens is in fact one of the most exciting, most diverse, most American and most promising places on earth." It would seem to have succeeded admirably in this effort. "Enjoy The Neighborhoods of Queens and the fascinating facts and figures that Claudia Gryvatz Copquin has gathered for your enjoyment," Borough President Helen Marshall tells readers in her Forward to the book. "I hope that they inspire those of you who live here to venture out of our own neighborhood and learn more about the areas around you…And if you don't live in Queens, come and visit us! As I tell everyone, 'Visit Queens and see the world.'"

For anyone who lives in Queens, visits its neighborhoods or remembers it from earlier times, this book is an unsurpassed treasure. The timetable includes such noted incidents as the rise of Native American settlers in what would become the borough of Queens around 4,500 B.C., the signing of the Flushing Remonstrance in 1657, in 1703 the establishing of a highway from the East River ferry terminus in Brooklyn through Queens to Easthampton in Suffolk County that would become Jamaica Avenue, the first census in 1790 (5,393 people, including 1,095 slaves lived in Queens County), establishing of ferry service between Astoria and East 92nd Street, Manhattan in 1843, the first baseball game for which admission was charged (for 50 cents a ticket spectators watched as the best players of Manhattan and Brooklyn met on Fashion Race Course in Corona; Manhattan won, 20-18), in 1875 the opening of Flushing H.S., the first state chartered high school in what is now New York City, and in 1919 Famous Players-Lasky Studio opening in Astoria. The events of the 20th and early 21st century crowd in too thick and fast to mention here, but the timetable alone is a good reason to look into The Neighborhoods of Queens.

This is not a guidebook per se, although in our opinion it has more and more accurate information than several other purported guidebooks to the borough that we have reviewed. Anyone who lives, works, plays or even occasionally visits the borough will find this book invaluable. It should be not only on every shelf of reference and history works, but also on coffee tables and in family libraries as well. "This book is only an introduction to [Queens'] history, its treasures and its people," Jackson concludes, and we agree. We feel, however, that it does what any good introduction should- provide the seeker of basic information with the requisite facts and at the same time, open the door to those who would look into the subject further. It is within reach of many a family budget, but we recommend that every branch of the Queens Borough Public Library have several copies on hand for those in other circumstances. A treasure trove of information of this magnitude should be readily available to all.