Twenty-four contemporary writers reflect on life in New York City’s biggest underdog, the “forgotten borough” of Queens.

What sets Staten Island apart from the rest of New York City? The island’s identity has in part been defined in opposition to the city, its physical and cultural differences, and the perception of neglect by city government. It has long been whiter, wealthier, less populated, and more politically conservative. And despite many attempts over the years, Staten Island is not connected by the subway to any of the other four boroughs. Kenneth M. Gold argues that the lack of a subway connection has deeply shaped Staten Island’s history and identity. He chronicles decades of recurrent efforts to build a rail link, using this history to explore the borough’s fraught relationship with New York City as a whole. The Forgotten Borough ranges from when Staten Island first contemplated joining the city in the 1890s to the opening of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in 1964, highlighting pivotal moments when the construction of a subway appeared possible. The economics and engineering of tunnel construction, the difficulty of uniting Staten Islanders around a single solution, competition from the other boroughs, and resistance from powerful corporations and public authorities all undermined a rapid transit connection. Gold demonstrates that the failure to establish a rail link during this period caused Staten Island to diverge culturally, demographically, and politically from the other four boroughs. Drawing on extensive archival research, The Forgotten Borough shows how transportation infrastructure and politics shed new light on urban history.

Presents a collection of short stories featuring noir and crime fiction about Staten Island, New York, by such authors as Todd Craig, Linda Nieves-Powell, S. J. Rozan, and Patricia Smith.

From Manhattan and Brooklyn's trendiest neighbourhoods to the far-flung edges of the outer boroughs, Ellis captures the lost and lonely corners of New York. Step inside the New York you never knew, with 200 eerie images of urban decay

Inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, this collection of loosely linked tragicomic short stories travels across time to explore defining moments in the island's history, from the 2003 Staten Island Ferry crash and the New York City blackout to the growing opioid and heroin crisis, Eric Garner's murder, and the 2016 presidential election.

Taken in the "forgotten borough" of Staten Island between 1983 and 1984, the photographs in Christine Osinski's (born 1948) Summer Days Staten Islandcreate a portrait of working-class culture in an often overlooked section of New York City. Captured on Osinski's large format 4x5 camera as she wandered the island, her candid portraits of strangers, vernacular architecture and quotidian scenes reveal an invisible landscape within reach of the thriving metropolis of Manhattan. The neighborhoods that Osinski captured are devoid of the skyscrapers, swarms of pedestrians and choking masses of traffic that are a short ferry ride away. Instead, she captures kids riding bikes on open, empty streets, suburban homes with neatly tended yards and the small-town feel of New York's least populous borough. Accompanying the series of images is an essay by Paul Moakley, Timemagazine's Deputy Director of Photography and Visual Enterprise.

This book chronicles how the "forgotten borough" has grappled with its uneasy relationship with the rest of the City of New York since the 1920s. The authors analyze the politics behind events that have shaped Staten Island.

The 1964 Little League World Series was unique and memorable. The final game was won on a no-hitter spun by a pitcher on an All-Star team from the middle of Staten Island, the "forgotten borough" that appeared to have more in common with the American heartland than the rest of New York City. Not only had a Big Apple team never before even qualified for the World Series, but it was the first time a U.S. team defeated an international one for the championship. The members of the victorious Mid-Island Little League team were treated to a ticker-tape parade in lower Manhattan and a reception by the mayor as well as meetings with celebrities and baseball icons. When the Forgotten Borough Reigned takes the reader back to 1964, a transformational year for America in which baseball still firmly held its position as the treasured national pastime. Months before the opening of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, which quickly led to a tidal wave of change throughout Staten Island, there was a magical summer during which fourteen boys, none older than twelve, experienced a degree of fame few adults ever do while uniting the borough and city in frenzied celebration.

Imagine at nineteen loving a man so deep that you would risk your entire life for him? Loving him so hard that despite his small pockets, you love him for love . Freedom McGurrry loved Ghost like no other. Even though she was nineteen and he was a bit older, broke and trying to trap, she loved him. One night in 2009 causes her to rethink things and she disappears off the face of the earth. She leaves Ghost wondering what ever happened to his love?Liberty, Freedom's twin loved her man Pook. After he caught a drug case, she loved him so much that she would have held him down to the end of time. That is until she sees another woman pregnant with his baby and wearing the same exact ring he had gifted to her. Leaving the courtroom, pregnant and confused, she has no clue what to do. Priest has been raised by his older sister, who is drying from lung disease. She's all he has known. When she passes, she leaves behind three daughters, who Priest must raise. A college student himself, how is he supposed to put money on the table for three little girls? Putting down his books, he goes to see Ghost to provide for his family. On the back of the bus in 2009, he comes across Justice McGurry, Freedom and Liberty's younger sister. A quick smile and a few words are exchange before they both exit the bus and go their own ways. Ten years later, Ghost is the head nigga in charge in Staten Island. All the hard work and broke days sculpted him into the trap king that he is today. With his baby brother, Staten, and Priest by his side, nothing moves in Staten Island unless they know about it. Find out how ten years changed all these people's lives and how life forces them to come back together.

In 1951 Miami Beach, Florida was one of the most popular resort cities in America; the warm weather and tranquil beaches of this tropical paradise attracted thousands of winter visitors, mostly Jewish tourists who made the two day drive from New York. In addition, the resident population of this small island was primarily from New York. Thus, the city of Miami Beach was sometimes referred to as the SIXTH BOROUGH of New York. However, if you ventured off the island and crossed the beautiful expanse of Biscayne Bay you were in another world; you were in the deep south, where Jews were often envisioned as demons with horns, colored people were second class citizens, and racial laws were reminiscent of Nuremberg and Berlin. Myron Lindell was twelve when he moved from Chicago, where he was a secular Jew, barely aware of his religious or ethnic heritage. But, In Miami Beach, on a Jewish Island, he had an odd feeling he was different. He survived the move by blending fantasy with reality, and if reality was more than he could handle, he escaped by writing adolescent observations in a journal, creating imaginative short stories and essays, which he rarely shared with anyone except his father, a few teachers, and a street smart female classmate. This compilation of memoirs is not a documentary; it is just a testimony to the value of simple memories. Too often, historians have forgotten the individual view, the poetic view, which might be closer to reality than the consensus.