Ep.4: Boroughs of New York City

August 22, 2023 Peter Jans

Intro

Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.

Today's episode will be on the five boroughs of New York City. Divided into five boroughs they came into existence in 1898, when New York County, Kings County, part of Queens County, and Richmond County were consolidated. Each borough has a diverse range of cultures and unique character, together making up the melting pot of what is New York City.

With that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_York_City_District_Map_2.svg

Wikipedia Summary

The Boroughs of New York City are the five major governmental districts that compose New York City. The boroughs are the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Each borough is coextensive with a respective county of the State of New York: The Bronx is Bronx County, Brooklyn is Kings County, Manhattan is New York County, Queens is Queens County, and Staten Island is Richmond County.

All five boroughs came into existence with the creation of modern New York City in 1898, when New York County (then including the Bronx), Kings County, Richmond County, and part of Queens County were consolidated within one municipal government under a new city charter. All former municipalities within the newly consolidated city were eliminated.

New York City was originally confined to Manhattan Island and the smaller surrounding islands that formed New York County. As the city grew northward, it began annexing areas on the mainland, absorbing territory from Westchester County into New York County in 1874 (West Bronx) and 1895 (East Bronx). During the 1898 consolidation, this territory was organized as the Borough of the Bronx, though still part of New York County. In 1914, Bronx County was split off from New York County so that each borough was then coterminous with a county.

When the western part of Queens County was consolidated with New York City in 1898, that area became the Borough of Queens. In 1899, the remaining eastern section of Queens County was split off to form Nassau County on Long Island, thereafter making the borough and county of Queens coextensive with each other.

Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boroughs_of_New_York_City]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_York_City_(New_York,_USA),_Empire_State_Building_--_2012_--_6436.jpg

Mnemonic

Boroughs of New York City Mnemonic – MQBBS

(Picture mobs of giant kangaroos roaming the streets of New York)

1. Manhattan

2. Queens

3. Brooklyn

4. Bronx

5. Staten Island

Five Fun Facts

1. The largest collection of Art Deco buildings in America is located in the Bronx.

2. The Bronx is also home to the largest zoo in the USA.

3. Staten Island has 170 parks in total.

4. Renting the space for a hot dog stand outside Central Park Zoo costs approximately $289,500 according to one merchant.

Now I did some figures here: At $3 per hot dog, that is 96,500 hotdogs to break-even. If you sell one per minute that would take you 201 days of an 8-hour day. Then you take weekends, public holidays, sick days, having half an hour for lunch, etc. That does not leave a lot. So, I think to get into the business of selling hotdogs in Central Park, you’d

have to be Barking mad!

5. Brooklyn is a popular place for beach-goers, with 30 miles of shoreline.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Usgs_photo_New_York_five_boroughs.jpg

Three Question Quiz

Q.1. Which borough has the most, green space?

Q.2. Which building in Manhattan has its own zip code?

Q.3. Which borough contains the nationally registered Cyclone Roller Coaster, which was opened in 1927?

Mnemonic Recap

Boroughs of New York City Mnemonic – MQBBS

(Picture mobs of giant kangaroos roaming the streets of New York)

1. Manhattan

2. Queens