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With a population of about 465,000, Staten Island is often called 'the forgotten borough' or 'the step-brother borough', as it is much less well-known than its four other boroughs, The Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, and Brooklyn. It is the smallest of the 5 boroughs in population, and third largest in area, being 59 sq. mi. (approx. 153 km²). By far the least populated, most ethnically homogeneous and most remote borough of New York City, Staten Island is primarily suburban. Much of the central and southern sections of the island were once dominated by dairy and poultry farms, some of which were still in existence as recently as the early 1960s. Some areas have an urban feel comparable to the areas of Eastern Queens and Northern Bronx. The borough's steady rise in population since the opening of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge has added to a sharp increase in traffic that plagues the island and is a cause of frequent road repairs and accidents. Staten Island is also known for the Fresh Kills Landfill, the repository of garbage from all of New York City for 53 years. The landfill was closed in 2001,[2] and there is an ongoing attempt to decontaminate the land and rehabilitate it for recreational uses.
History
Image:StatenIslandNature.jpg Staten Island Nature As in much of North America, human habitation appeared in the island fairly rapidly after the retreat of the ice sheet. Archaeologists have recovered tool evidence of Clovis culture activity dating from approximately 14,000 years ago. The island was probably abandoned later, possibly because of the extinction of large mammals on the island. Evidence of the first permanent American Indians settlements and agriculture date from about 5,000 years ago (Jackson, 1995). In the Sixteenth Century, the island was part of a larger area known as Lenapehoking that was inhabited by the Lenape, an Algonquian American Indians people also called the "Delaware". The band that occupied the southern part of the island was called the Raritans. To the Lenape, the island was called "Aquehonga Manacknong" and "Eghquaons" (Jackson, 1995). The island was laced with foot trails, one of which followed the south side of the ridge near the course of present day Richmond Road and Amboy Road. The Lenape did not live in fixed encampments, but moved seasonally, using slash and burn agriculture. The staples of their diet included shellfish, including the oysters that are native to both Upper New York Bay and Lower New York Bay. Staten EylandtThe first recorded European contact with the island was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano who sailed through the Narrows. In 1609, Henry Hudson established Dutch trade in the area and named the island Staaten Eylandt after the Staten-Generaal, the Dutch parliament. Although the first Dutch settlement of the New Netherlands colony was made on Manhattan in 1620, Staaten Eylandt remained uncolonized by the Dutch for many decades. From 1639 to 1655, the Dutch made three separate attempts to establish a permanent settlement on the island, but each time the settlement was destroyed in the conflicts between the Dutch and the local tribes. In 1661, the first permanent Dutch settlement was established at Oude Dorp (Dutch for "Old Village"), just south of the Narrows near South Beach, by a small group of Dutch Walloon and Huguenot families. Richmond CountyImage:RichmondtownStreet.jpg Historic Richmondtown, museum complex is located in the heart of Staten Island At the end of the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1667, the New Netherlands colony was ceded to England in the Treaty of Breda, and what was now anglicized as Staten Island became part of the new English colony of New York. In 1670, the Native Americans ceded all claims to Staten Island to the English in a deed to Gov. Francis Lovelace. In 1671, in order to encourage an expansion of the Dutch settlements, the English resurveyed Oude Dorp (which became known as Old Town) and expanded the lots along the shore to the south. These lots were settled primarily by Dutch and became known as Nieuwe Dorp (meaning "New Village"), which later became anglicized as New Dorp. Captain Christopher Billopp, after years of distinguished service in the Royal Navy, came to America in 1674, in charge of a company of infantry. The following year, he settled on Staten Island where he was granted a patent for 932 acres of land. According to one version of an often-repeated, but inaccurate myth, Capt. Billopp's seamanship secured Staten Island to New York, rather than to New Jersey: the Island would belong to New York if the captain could circumnavigate it in one day. Which he did according to the myth. According to a story on The Associated Press (February 21, 2007), Mayor Michael Bloomberg perpetuated the myth by referring to it at a news conference in Brooklyn on February 20, 2007. The article quotes historians as pointing out that Staten Island has always been a part of New York since the Dutch ceeded it to the British. In 1683, the colony of New York was divided into ten counties. As part of this process, Staten Island, as well as several minor neighboring islands, were designated as Richmond County. The name derives from the title of an illegitimate son of King Charles II. In 1687-1688, the English divided the island into four administrative divisions based on natural features, called the North, South, and West divisions, as well as the 5100 acre (21 km²) manorial estate of colonial governor Thomas Dongan in the central hills known as the "Lordship or Manner of Cassiltown." These divisions would later evolve into the four townships Northfield, Southfield, Westfield and Castleton. Image:RichmondtownNature.jpg Richmond town is nature-rich Land patents in rectangular blocks of eighty acres (320,000 m²) were granted, with the most desirable lands being along the coastline and inland waterways. By 1708, the entire island had been divided up through this fashion into 166 small farms and two large manorial estates, the Dongan estate as well as a 1600 acre (6.5 km²) parcel on the southwestern tip of the island belonging to Christopher Billop (Jackson, 1995). In 1729, a county seat was established at the village of Richmond Town, located at the headwaters of the Fresh Kills near the center of the island. The island played a significant role in the American Revolutionary War. In the summer of 1776, the British forces under William Howe evacuated Boston and prepared to attack New York City. Howe used the strategic location of Staten Island as a staging ground for the attack. Howe established his headquarters in New Dorp at the Rose and Crown tavern near the junction of present New Dorp Lane and Amboy Road. It is here that the representatives of the British government reportedly received their first notification of the Declaration of Independence. The following month, in August 1776, the British forces crossed the Narrows to Brooklyn and routed the American forces under George Washington at the Battle of Long Island, resulting in the British capture of New York. Three weeks later, on September 11, 1776, the British received a delegation of Americans consisting of Benjamin Franklin, Edward Rutledge, and John Adams at the Conference House on the southwestern tip of the island (known today as Tottenville) on the former estate of Christopher Billop. The Americans refused the peace offer from the British in exchange for the withdrawal of the Declaration of Independence, however, and the conference ended without an agreement. British forces remained on Staten Island throughout the war. Although local sentiment was predominantly Loyalist, the islanders found the demands of supporting the troops to be onerous. Many buildings and churches were destroyed, and the military demand for resources resulted in an extensive deforestation of the island by the end of the war. The British again used the island as a staging ground for their final evacuation of New York City on December 5, 1783. After the war, the largest Loyalist landowners fled to Canada and their estates were subdivided and sold. On July 4, 1827, the end of slavery in New York state was celebrated at Swan Hotel, West Brighton. Rooms at the hotel were reserved months in advance as local abolitionists and prominent free blacks prepared for the festivities. Speeches, pageants, picnics, and fireworks marked the celebration, which lasted for two days. In 1860, parts of Castleton and Southfield were made into a new town, Middletown. The Village of New Brighton in the town of Castleton was incorporated in 1866, and in 1872 the Village of New Brighton annexed all the remainder of the Town of Castleton and became coterminous with the town. New Brighton became the summer home of President Lincoln. Consolidation with New York CityImage:Verrazano-Narrows-Bridge.jpg The Verrazano Narrows Bridge connected the island to Brooklyn and accelerated a new era of development All these towns and the villages within them were abolished in 1898 when the City of Greater New York was consolidated, with Richmond as one of its five boroughs. Except for the areas along the harbor, however, the borough remained relatively underdeveloped until the building of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in 1964, which is considered the watershed event in the history of the borough, since it opened up the island to explosive suburban development by giving it direct road access to Brooklyn. The Verrazano, along with the other three major Staten Island bridges, created a new way for commuters and travelers to reach Brooklyn, Manhattan, and areas further east on Long Island, by car from New Jersey, and the network of highways running between the bridges has effectively carved up many of the borough's old neighborhoods. This road expansion was planned initially by Robert Moses. Some of the island's open space and historic areas were incorporated in 1972 into Gateway National Recreation Area, part of the National Park System. The Staten Island Unit of Gateway NRA is joined by the Jamaica Bay Unit in Brooklyn and Queens and the Sandy Hook Unit in New Jersey. The Staten Island Unit is comprised of Great Kills Park, Miller Field, Fort Wadsworth, as well as Hoffman Island and Swinburne Island. Throughout the 1980s, a movement which had as its goal the secession of Staten Island from the city steadily grew in popularity, reaching its peak during the mayoral term of David Dinkins. The movement largely evaporated with Rudolph Giuliani's election as mayor in 1993, although some pro-secession sentiment remains. In the 1980s, the United States Navy had a base on Staten Island, Naval Station New York. It was composed of two sections, a home port in Stapleton, and a larger section around Fort Wadsworth, where the Verrazano Narrows Bridge enters the island. Originally, this base was to be the homeport for the battleship USS Iowa (BB-61); however, an explosion in one of the ship's turrets led to the vessel's decommissioning. A number of other vessels, including frigates, destroyers, and at least one cruiser, the USS Normandy (CG-60), were based there. It was closed in 1994 through the Base Realignment and Closure process. The small size of the base and the expense of basing personnel there led to closure. The base was to be used as a movie studio headed by actor and New York native Danny Aiello, but money problems ended that plan. It was recently announced that the property will be converted into a mixed use waterfront neighborhood with an announced completion date of 2009. For the last half of the 20th Century, Staten Island was arguably best known as the site of the Fresh Kills Landfill, the primary destination for garbage from the five boroughs of New York City and the largest single source of methane pollution in the world. The landfill was closed in early 2001 but was temporarily reopened later that year to receive the ruins of the World Trade Center after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Staten Island suffered a large proportion of the fatalities in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, as nearly 300 of the fatalities were Staten Island residents, many of whom were firefighters or office workers in the World Trade Center. The Fresh Kills Landfill was chosen to hold the debris from the towers and served as a crime lab for police investigators searching for human remains.
GeographyImage:Wpdms nygis staten island small.jpg Staten Island, shown in an enhanced satellite image. According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough / county has a total area of 265.5 km² (102.5 mi²). 151.5 km² (58.5 mi²) of it is land and 114.0 km² (44.0 mi²) of it (42.95%) is water. Staten Island is separated from Long Island by the Narrows and from mainland New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull. It is connected to New Jersey via the Bayonne Bridge, the Outerbridge Crossing, the Goethals Bridge, and to Brooklyn by the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. The Staten Island Ferry connects the island to lower Manhattan. The Staten Island Railway traverses the island from its northeastern tip to its southwestern tip. In addition to the main island, the borough and county also include several small uninhabited islands:
The highest point on the island, the summit of Todt Hill, elevation 410 ft (125 m), is also the highest point in the five boroughs, as well as the highest point on the Atlantic Coastal Plain south of Great Blue Hill in Massachusetts and the highest point on the coast proper south of Maine's Mount Desert Island. In the late 1960s the island was the site of important battles of open-space preservation, resulting in the largest area of parkland in New York City and an extensive Greenbelt that laces the island with woodland trails. Adjacent Counties
GovernmentSince New York City's consolidation in 1898, Staten Island has been governed by the New York City Charter that provides for a "strong" mayor-council system. The centralized New York City government is responsible for public education, correctional institutions, libraries, public safety, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply, and welfare services on Staten Island. The office of Borough President was created in the consolidation of 1898 to balance centralization with local authority. Each borough president had a powerful administrative role derived from having a vote on the New York City Board of Estimate, which was responsible for creating and approving the city's budget and proposals for land use. In 1989 the Supreme Court of the United States declared the Board of Estimate unconstitutional on the grounds that Brooklyn, the most populous borough, had no greater effective representation on the Board than Staten Island, the least populous borough, a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause pursuant to the high court's 1964 "one man, one vote" decision.[3] Since 1990 the Borough President has acted as an advocate for the borough at the mayoral agencies, the City Council, the New York state government, and corporations. Staten Island's Borough President is James Molinaro, a member of the Conservative Party elected in 2001 and re-elected in 2005, with the endorsement of the Republican Party. Molinaro is the only Republican-supported borough president in New York City. A mainly Caucasian (largely Italian-American), Roman Catholic borough that is suburban in character, Staten Island's politics differ considerably from New York City's other boroughs. Although in 2005 44.7% of the borough's registered voters were registered Democrats and 30.6% were registered Republicans, the Republican Party holds a small majority of local public offices. Staten Island is the base of New York City's Republican Party in citywide elections. In the 2001 mayoral election borough voters chose Republican Michael Bloomberg, with 75.87% of the vote, over Democrat Mark Green, with 21.15% of the vote. Since Green narrowly lost the election citywide, Staten Island provided the margin of Bloomberg's victory. The main political divide in the borough is demarcated by the Staten Island Expressway; areas north of the Expressway tend to be more liberal while the south tends to be more conservative. Local party platforms center on affordable housing, education and law and order. In national elections Staten Island is not the Republican stronghold it is in local elections; neither is it a Democratic stronghold, however, like the rest of New York City. The borough is a Republican-leaning swing county, though like the New York suburbs in Long Island and Westchester County it has become increasingly Democratic since the 1990s. Each of the city's five counties (coterminous with each borough) has its own criminal court system and District Attorney, the chief public prosecutor who is directly elected by popular vote. Daniel Donovan, a Republican, has been the District Attorney of Richmond County since 2004. Staten Island has three City Council members, two Republicans and one Democrat, the smallest number among the five boroughs. It also has three administrative districts, each served by a local Community Board. Community Boards are representative bodies that field complaints and serve as advocates for local residents. Staten Island has voted for a Democratic presidential nominee only three times since 1952 - in 1964, 1996 and 2000. In the 2004 presidential election Republican George W. Bush received 57% of the vote in Staten Island and Democrat John Kerry received 42%. By contrast, Kerry outpolled Bush in New York City's other four boroughs by a cumulative margin of 77% to 22%. Staten Island Flag The flag is on a white background in the center of which is the design of a seal in the shape of an oval. Within the seal appears the color blue to symbolize the skyline of the borough, in which two seagulls appear colored in white. The green outline represents the countryside of the borough with white outline denoting the residential areas of Staten Island. Below is inscribed the words "Staten Island" in gold. Below this are five wavy lines of blue to symbolize the water that surrounds the island borough on all sides. Gold fringe outlines the flag.
Demographics
As of 2006, there were 464,573 people, 256,341 households, and 214,128 families residing in the borough/county. The population density was 2,929.6/km² (7,587.9/mi²). There were 163,993 housing units at an average density of 1,082.7/km² (2,804.3/mi²). The racial makeup is 77.60% White, 9.67% Black, 0.25% Native American, 5.65% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 4.14% from other races, and 2.65% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 12.07% of the population. 71.3% of the population were Whites not of Hispanic origins. Some main European ancestries of Staten Island, 2000: Since the 2000 census, a rather large Russian community has been growing on Staten Island, particularly in the South Beach and Great Kills area. The vast majority of the island's African American and Hispanic residents live north of the Staten Island Expressway, or Interstate 278. In terms of religion, the population is largely Roman Catholic, and the Catholic Church exerts strong influence on many aspects of the island's social and cultural life. The Jewish community is large enough that it would be significant in most other parts of the country, but it is relatively small compared to other parts of the New York Metropolitan Area.
There were 156,341 households out of which 35.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.0% are married couples living together, 13.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.0% were non-families. 23.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.78 and the average family size was 3.31. The population is spread out with 25.5% under the age of 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 30.9% from 25 to 44, 23.4% from 45 to 64, and 11.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 93.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.6 males. The median income for a household is $55,039, and the median income for a family was $64,333. Males had a median income of $50,081 versus $35,914 for females. The per capita income for the borough was $23,905. About 7.9% of families and 10.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.2% of those under age 18 and 9.9% of those age 65 or over. Culture: MuseumsStaten Island is home to a surprising variety of museums: the Alice Austen House Museum, the Conference House, the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum, Historic Richmond Town, Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, the John Noble Collection, Sandy Ground Historical Museum, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, the Staten Island Children's Museum, and the Staten Island Museum. It has also been selected to become the future site of the National Lighthouse Museum.
Culture: MediaMovies filmed partially or wholly on Staten Island include The Godfather; Working Girl; War of the Worlds; Sorry, Wrong Number; Sisters; Splendor in the Grass; GoodFellas; Donnie Brasco; Shamus; School of Rock; Two Family House; He Knows You're Alone; Analyze This; Big Daddy; The Astronaut's Wife; Scent of a Woman; Toxic Avenger; and Easy Money. Also independent films The Atomic Space Bug (1999), Stairwell: Trapped In The World Trade Center (2002) and A Conversation with Norman (2005) were filmed on Staten Island and directed by Jonathan M. Parisen as well as Combat Shock (1986) and No Way Home (1996) by Staten Island director Buddy Giovinazzo. The movie School of Rock starring Jack Black was filmed all over Staten Island, including Wagner College, St. George Theater, Cargo Cafe, etc. The movie Joe the King was filmed in the area of New Dorp in Staten Island. It was filmed in several places including Miller Field and Staten Island Technical High School. Sisters, the 1973 Brian de Palma thriller starring Margot Kidder and Jennifer Salt, takes place on Staten Island and was largely filmed there. In the movie, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, the character Ben takes Kate Hudson's character to visit his family on Staten Island. The music video for the song "Papa Don't Preach" by Madonna was shot at various Staten Island locations, including the stairs leading up to the Stapleton train platform and the white picketted fenced house on Ward Hill is on Edgar Terrace. Also, the "You Get What You Give" video by the New Radicals was partially filmed at the Staten Island Mall. Television series shot partially or wholly on Staten Island include The Education of Max Bickford and The Book of Daniel. FOX and WB sitcom Grounded for Life is about a family living in Staten Island. The characters of the NBC sitcom Will & Grace, have traveled to Staten Island in two episodes:
Banishment to Staten Island was once a common threat in the New York City uniformed services, and is reflected in both film and television. In Arsenic and Old Lace an officer is threatened with walking a beat on Staten Island. On Law & Order, Detective Mike Logan (played by Chris Noth) is sent to Staten Island for punching a councilman. The title character in Barney Miller dreaded the thought of being transferred to Staten Island. On The Honeymooners Ralph resists being reassigned to a Staten Island bus route. And Denis Leary's character, Tommy Gavin, on Rescue Me also does time working in a firehouse on Staten Island. This theme was also used on other TV shows such as The Odd Couple, Car 54 Where Are You?, Welcome Back Kotter, Sex in the City, Seinfeld, All in the Family and even the Andy Griffith Show. John Lennon's Live in New York album was a live recording of his "One to One" concert at Madison Square Garden on August 30, 1972. The concert was a fundraiser for the mentally-challenged children, inspired by the horrid conditions at Willowbrook State School. The album also features Staten Island guitar player Earl Slick. The Willowbrook issue was initially exposed by the Staten Island Advance and brought to Lennon's attention by his friend and broadcast journalist Geraldo Rivera who covered the story for WABC-TV, New York. Notable Natives and Residents
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