About
New York
Richmond County,
New York, known worldwide as Staten Island, is actually a county in
the state of New York. Richmond County is one of the five
boroughs or counties that make up what the world knows as New
York City.
The 16th century Florentine explorer Giovanni
Da Verrazano is commonly considered to be father of Staten
Island (Richmond County). He sailed into New
York Harbor in 1524 and landed on the island. In 1687 the Duke
of York offered the island as a prize in a sailing
competition, which the team from Manhattan won. Since that
time, Manhattan has claimed the island as its own. Until 1713,
when the first public ferry was started to Staten island,
there was no way to get back and forth unless you had a boat.
Finally, in 1964 the Verrazano-Narrows
Bridge was built by Othmar Amman. The bridge made it
relatively easy to travel back and forth to this island whose
land mass covers 58.5 square miles. Farms, primarily dairy and
poultry farms, some of which were still in existence as
recently as the early 1970’s, once dominated much of the
central and southern sections of the island. Except for the
areas along the harbor, however, the borough remained
relatively underdeveloped until the building of the Verrazano
Narrows Bridge. 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.
Richmond County, NY is the fastest growing county in the
state of New York but still has the nickname, "the
forgotten borough," as it is much less well known than
its four sisters, The Bronx, Queens, Manhattan, and Brooklyn.
Even as the fastest growing county, it is still the least
populated, most ethnically homogeneous, and most remote
borough of New York City. Thought of as rustically suburban by
other New Yorkers, the island is often referred to as
"The Sticks". Banishment to Staten Island was once a
common threat in the New York City uniformed services. To
punish a police officer for some minor infraction he was often
threatened with walking a beat on Staten Island. Many comical
references to this have been made in movies and television.
For the 53 years prior to 2001, the repository of garbage
from all of New York City was the Fresh
Kills Landfill on Staten Island, NY, best known as being
the largest single source of methane
pollution in the world. Closed in early 2001, the landfill
was temporarily reopened to receive the ruins and debris of
the World Trade Center from the September 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks. There is an ongoing attempt to decontaminate the land
and rehabilitate it for recreational uses.
2000
U.S. Census shows Richmond County, NY with a population of
443,728 and an estimated 2004 population increase of 4.4%.
Median household income from Census 2000 on Staten Island was
55,039, higher than the national and state wide averages.
Richmond County, New York has the largest Italian ancestry
group of any U.S. county.
The business economy of Richmond County, NY has had healthy
growth, right along with its population. Richmond’s active Chamber
of Commerce and a myriad of powerful and responsible civic
organizations like the Staten
Island Economic Development Corp have worked together for
a strong retail and professional representation. Services are
not only provided to the residents, but to some international
markets as well.
The youngest of the five NY boroughs, Richmond County, New
York is growing up nicely.
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