What is Actually New York City. Explain to me how the city can be in 5 different counties?
Friday, April 9th, 2010 at
2:09 pm
I’m very confused about the New York City. From my experience, a city has to be in one county…how is it that New York has 5 burroughs each in a seperate county? Here’s my question…if I live in Queens county, do I write Queens, New York for my address or New York City? Is Manhattan actually New York City and the other borroughs suburbs that call themselves New York City? Like Pasadena residence like to say they live in L.A.?
Tagged with: burroughs • manhattan • new york city • queens county • queens new york • seperate
Filed under: Cities
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
New York City, actually the correct name is "The City of New York", was formed in 1898 with the merger of 5 counties, not 5 boroughs (the boroughs & counties are different) like most people think. The 5 Counties are: New York County, Kings County, Queens County, Bronx County, & Richmond County. All 5 counties combined make up The City of New York. Most people only know Manhattan, but its all 5 counties that make up The City of New York. The Suburbs would be Long Island, parts of Connecticut, Yonkers, New Jersey, etc.
New York County Includes –> The entire Borough of Manhattan plus Roosevelt Island, Randall’s Island, Ward’s Island, Governors Island, Liberty Island, Ellis Island, U Thant Island, and a small section of the borough of The Bronx.
Bronx County –> Almost the entire borough of The Bronx plus City Island, and Hart Island. By the way the county name is "Bronx", the borough name is "The Bronx"
Queens County –> Largest of the 5 counties. All of the borough of Queens plus several Islands part of Gateway National Park.
Kings County –> Most Populated of the 5 counties. All of the Borough of Brooklyn, plus several small islands.
Richmond County –> The Least populated county. All of Staten Island plus The Isle of Meadows, Prall’s Island, Shooters Island, Swinburne Island, & Hoffman Island.
Basically The City of New York is set up like a small USA. You have 1 mayor for the entire city (kind of like the president). Each borough has a Borough President (kind of like a governor of a state). The Borough Presidents do not really have any power, they are basically just a figure head.
When you mail a letter to New York City, it will never get there if you addressed it New York City, NY LOL. You need to know where in NY it is going and each borough you address not only differently but some you go by county name, others borough name, others the neighborhood name.
So to mail a letter to Manhattan you would address it to either Manhattan, NY plus the zip or NY, NY plus the zip. NY, NY is more common. The NY, NY stand for the county name plus the state.
To mail a letter to The Bronx, you address it Bronx, NY plus the zip. For the Bronx you use the county name without the "The" in front of Bronx.
To mail a Letter to either Brooklyn or Staten Island you use the borough names, not the county names. So would be Brooklyn, NY NOT Kings, NY. The same for Staten Island would be Staten Island, NY not Richmond NY.
Now Queens is unique when mailing a letter. The reason being, before Queens became part of the City of New York, each of Queen’s neighborhoods were individual cities, and the custom of mailing to that city continued after Queens became part of NYC. So to mail to Queens you would address it to Flushing, NY, or White Stone, or whatever the neighborhood name is.
So to sum it up. NYC is configured differently than any other city in USA. Most US cities are configured this way: the state then the county and lastly the actual city. New York is completely different. It’s the state then the city then 5 counties then 5 boroughs then lastly 100′s of individual neighborhoods.
I know it’s confusing, but its just 1 huge city, the boroughs might be prideful to those who live in that borough, and each borough has its own charm, but its 1 city and it doesn’t matter if you live in mid town Manhattan or the outer parts of Queens and Staten Island that looks like the middle of a forest, it’s still 1 city.
Also, when you live in the area, when you hear people say they are going to "the city", even if you are in Brooklyn when you hear that and you are in NYC, it means you are going to Manhattan. It’s an expression that started back in the 1800′s before there was a NYC. Also the reason it’s called "The Bronx" is in the 1600′s what’s now the borough was owned by a family called "Bronck" and people would say they were going to the Bronck’s to visit. As time went on the spelling changed from Bronck to Bronx, but the "The" remained, but only for the borough name you say "The" not the county name.
I think there is a difference between a borough and a county. And the main difference is that boroughs can fall within the boundaries of a single city. So, you can write NY, NY and a zip code on the mail and it will get to Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, or Staten Island just fine.
Your example is flawed because Pasadena is a separate city from LA. You wouldn’t want to write LA, CA on that piece of mail with a Pasadena zip. But it does work for the communities that fall in LA’s boundaries–like Sherman Oaks, Hollywood, Pacific Palisades, etc. All of these are in LA and you can use LA as the postal address.
Still, it is strange that different county boundaries can include a single city. But, it’s New York. They do whatever the F they want!
About Pasadena, it is in LA county. Anywhere in LA county is kind of considered LA to us. BUT, there are parts of Pasadena that are unincorporated LA county, and are not in the city of Pasadena, but have Pasadena addresses and are considered Pasadena. Go figure.
Just make sure the zip code is correct, that seems to be more important than anything else. = )
New York City IS different.
We are spread over 5 counties – it’s true. That’s because each section of our City (called a "Borough") is as large as a major U.S. city by itself. However, each borough IS a part of NYC – and have been since 1898. We have the same mayor, the same City council, the same school system.
That’s the political structure of this City. It has nothing to do with the post office. (Yes, you do write Brooklyn, NY on an envelope to send it to Brooklyn, and Flushing, NY to send it to that part of Queens.) So what? Postal addresses often do not reflect political or geographic reality. Before moving to NYC I lived in a rural part of New Jersey. My postal address was the next town over, not the town I actually lived in. (I remember taking my SATs in the local high school, where the teacher had to carefully instruct the kids to write the name of the town in the postal address of the school, not the name of the town the high school was actually in!)
The truth is, I find L.A. to be confusing. It seems so loosely consolidated compared to NYC. There’s LA city, LA county, LA schools system and none of them line up under one jurisdiction.
It’s just different.
Major props to Lisa for breaking it down!
The 5 boroughs are of New York City. Each borough is a county of New York State.
Its like this:
Manhattan= New York County
Brooklyn= Kings County
Queens= Queens County
Staten Island= Richmond County
Bronx= Bronx County
The other boroughs dont calls themselves New York City cause it is New York City. Its just that when you refer to "the city" your talking about Manhattan. Most people refer New York City and think about Manhattan because thats like where everything is. Like if some one refered L.A the first thing that comes to their minds in Hollywood.
Now if you are writing an address in Queens you put the neigborhood youre residing in such as 123 Laine Rd Forest Hills, NY 11375. Now if you live in the other 4 boroughs you would put 123 Deer St Brooklyn, NY 11210 or if you live in Manhattan 123 James Rd New York, New York 10002 . You can also put Queens, NY and the zip code cause the zip code really matter.
I want two points, but there’s no use in answering–Lisa’s is pretty comprehensive and she wins the prize for including some history!