Staten Island

Somehow when I think of the five boroughs of NY I keep forgetting about Staten Island. After all, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Bronx and Queens are all locations which make sense. Never mind that there are Islands involved – more than one as a matter of fact. What is important is that there is no “Island” in the name of the other boroughs so that you can ignore the fact that the particular portion of the city is surrounded by water and originally could only be reach by ship. Building bridges was an early access requirement for both use and investment.

After all, the principle still holds – access and perceived exclusiveness are what determine use and cost. Take, for example, some of the islands off Seattle. Small but liveable; accessible by ferry. Exclusive and expensive. Or, look at Manhattan. Mostly expensive and status.

Now take Staten Island – 8 miles wide, 17 miles long which makes it bigger than Manhattan but certainly much smaller in population. Do you suppose it is being so close to New Jersey on three sides that is the problem? Staten Island connects to the mainland with three bridges and to Brooklyn (aka another island with one) for all those who just have to drive their own car or want to go somewhere other than Manhattan via the the passenger only Staten Island ferry (which is free).
If you want to drive or otherwise travel in the traditional US fashion it is going to take longer and cost more, but I guess we all expect that.

Meanwhile – about 400,000 live in their little section of paradise. And I don’t see anything at all that looks like Pilgrims or Native Americans.

-Holly

Staten Island, NY
(and yes, Miriam was more than happy with her birthday presents)

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
This entry was posted in Travel, Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to Staten Island

  1. Steve says:

    YOU are ON ‘Stat-niland’? Humph…whereabouts.
    I grew up just across the Bayonne Bridge Most of the old farm markets are long gone as is one of the greatest ice cream factories…seudetto’s…, as well as the Bayonne ferry, the Brooklyn ferry (last to go, the Narrow’s bridge killed it)
    Problem these days is it costs almost the national debt to go on and off the island on a regular basis….
    We set an all time record yesterday…68 degrees. It’s currently about 62 but will be dropping.

    BTW, Staten Island is the name of the island, NOT the borough, it is RICHMOND….

  2. JAB says:

    Another factoid that your listeners might find of interest is that Staten Island is connected to New Jersey by the Goethals Bridge and the Outerbridge Crossing, but the latter is not a geographical reference though the bridge is the outer bridge. It is actually named after its designer James Outerbridge. If the fathers had wanted to describe it in geographical terms, they would have had to call it the Outerbridge outerbridge crossing which is a mouthful. Or perhaps the outer Outerbridge Crossing. Or perhaps the outer Outerbridge Bridge crossing which I like because of the nominal alliteration

  3. Carmen says:

    For the most part, I find NY surreal and frightening, and avoid it. Weird, I know.

  4. Bob says:

    Been there, done that. How well I also remember Governor’s Island, back when it was still home to Headquarters, 1st US Army. When I graduated from the court reporter school at Newport, Rhode Island, my first reporter position was with the OSJA, HQ, 1st US Army. If memory serves, this was 1965-1967 before my deployment to Vietnam in Dec ’67. Lots of living and memories from those old days.

Leave a Reply to Carmen Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.