The secret is out about Queens. Sure, those who fly in or
out of LaGuardia or John F. Kennedy International Airports have always found
themselves in the borough and county of Queens. And at 112 square miles, it’s
the largest and most obvious of New York’s boroughs in terms of land
mass. But who knew it was such a desirable place to live? Apparently, plenty
of people. The population grew more in Queens from 1990 to 2000 than it did
in any other borough—it accounted for half of all growth in
New York City.
Enhancing this working-class borough’s popularity are its low rents
(compared with Manhattan’s) and strong ethnic diversity. Between the
last two national censuses, an influx of immigrants dramatically dipped the
non-Hispanic white population from 47 percent to 32 percent, undercutting
Brooklyn’s 35 percent. Queens’ poverty rate keeps pace with the
rest of the boroughs, but its rapid growth has overcrowded its high schools
to almost 25 percent over capacity.
