Reply #5: How F**KING DARE you ... say Queens is Long Island! [View All]

[HamdenRice]

Do you know what an insult that is to people from Queens? I grew up in Queens, lived away for many years and recently moved back.

And Queens is definitely not (and not considered) to be Long Island (or Lon-Gisland, as they say on Long Island).

While it is true that "Long Island" in a geographic sense is a long island that includes Queens, that geographic body also includes Brooklyn. The famous Revolutionary War battle, the "Battle of Long Island" was fought in Brooklyn in what is now Prospect Park and along a ridge that is now Eastern Parkway, both in Brooklyn.

But ever since towns in Brooklyn and Queens began to incorporate, and since those became boroughs that are parts of New York City, the political/cultural term Long Island refers to Nassau County and Suffolk County.

If you think I am nitpicking, consider this: I live in what is probably the bluest Congressional District in the nation -- the Sixth, which borders on Nassau County, which surprisingly is not a college town, but a working/middle class African American and Caribbean neighborhood. The Socialist Workers Party and Green Party get more votes than the Republican party in my district. The Dems typically receive about 98% of the vote.

But if you walk about ten blocks and cross the Cross Island Expressway, you are in Bush country.

Also Queens is considered to be the most ethnically diverse county in the United States. This is definitely not true of Nassau or Suffolk counties.

DO NOT CALL QUEENS "LONG ISLAND." EVER AGAIN. EVER. AGAIN. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Now what was that about LaGuardia airport ....