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Here are the results of our first Queens Board survey. I was very pleased with the number of responses, considering the relative newness of this board. While The Queens Board seems a little "timid" compared with its sister boards (The Bronx Board and The Brooklyn Board), the volume and nature of the responses says otherwise. Apart from Staten Island, Queens has always been the least urban of the five boroughs, and that fact seems to permeate a lot of the survey responses. People stayed longer in Queens. There were many fewer people leaving because of crime and deterioration of the neighborhood than in the Bronx and Brooklyn.
Two people submitted more than one response (I accepted only one from each), and three responses didn't contain enough usable information. For the statisticians out there, you'll know what I mean when I say that the sample is insufficient for valid interpolation. (Hey, we English majors are allowed to know other subjects too!) Regardless of the data's shortcomings, it's interesting to know some of this stuff. I'll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions from these results.
The total number of unique, usable responses was 83.
The average of the span of years of people living in Queens was 1950 through 1976.
This means that the average number of years you guys lived in Queens was 26, and this is almost 20% higher than the Bronx or Brooklyn Board's results.
The neighborhood breakdown was as follows:
| Neighborhood | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Bayside | 4 | 5% |
| College Point | 1 | 1% |
| Corona | 1 | 1% |
| Douglaston | 1 | 1 |
| Flushing | 24 | 29% |
| Forest Hills | 6 | 7% |
| Fresh Meadows | 2 | 1% |
| Hollis | 1 | 1% |
| Howard Beach | 3 | 4% |
| Jackson Heights | 3 | 4% |
| Jamaica | 3 | 4% |
| Kew Garden Hills | 6 | 7% |
| Laurelton | 6 | 7% |
| Little Neck | 2 | 1% |
| Maspeth | 1 | 1% |
| Ozone Park | 3 | 4% |
| Queens Village | 6 | 7% |
| Rego Park | 2 | 1% |
| Richmond Hill | 2 | 1% |
| Rosedale | 1 | 1% |
| Springfield Gardens | 1 | 1% |
| Whitestone | 2 | 1% |
| Woodhaven | 2 | 1% |
| Woodside | 1 | 1% |
How old were you when you left Queens?
| Age | Count | | Younger than 12 |
1 |
1% |
12 - 20 |
18 |
22% |
21 - 30 |
35 |
42% |
31 - 40 |
24 |
29% |
41 - 50 |
5 |
6% |
Older than 50 |
0 |
0% |
|
|---|
What were the reasons you left Queens?
(Multiple responses were allowed, so the sum of the percentages exceeds 100.)
| Reason | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| A Better Life | 26 | 31% |
| Career Opportunities | 24 | 29% |
| College/Graduate School | 12 | 14% |
| Crime/Lack of Safety | 6 | 7% |
| Educational Opportunities (i.e. better schools) | 4 | 5% |
| Family Obligations (marriage/divorce/etc.) | 32 | 39% |
| General Deterioration of the Neighborhood | 4 | 5% |
| Hated City Life | 8 | 10% |
| Housing Opportunities | 11 | 13% |
| Just Needed A Change | 9 | 11% |
| Military Service | 6 | 7% |
| Never Left | 2 | 1% |
| Other* | 4 | 5% |
*Some of the responses marked as "Other" were applied to one of the specific reasons listed. Here are the "Others":
Do you still think of Queens as "home"?
| Count | Percentage | |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 77 | 93% |
| No | 5 | 6% |
| Sometimes | 1 | 1% |
Thanks again to those who participated. A number of neighborhoods were listed in the survey, but drew no responses, such as Middle Village, Rockaway, etc. To conserve space here, I only included those neighborhoods that had at least one response. Having lived in queens, I'm not surprised by the overwhelming portion of the response set from Flushing. It's a big, densely populated area, with lots of public transportation and shopping, and one of the most urban parts of the borough.
So what will the next survey be? Where you're living now, and what schools you attended while living in Queens. Look for them soon.