Staten Island

Most parts of NJ are more cosmopolitan than Staten Island. It is not all "Sopranos." Staten Island could be in Indiana.

OP has stated her boundaries.

Here's why it's a part of NYC, if you're interested

We don’t! 😂😂😂

A lot of cops live there. To them, it’s a step up from Bensonhurst & Sunnyside, though those two areas are becoming more fashionable these days.

Because when Henry Hudson was discovering Manhattan he saw this big thing on the horizon and asked, "S dat an island?"

(My grandmother's joke.)

I love that it's not easy to get to. People I despised growing up moved to Staten Island. And they can have it.

How close are the islanders' ties to New Jersey? It looks like you could just wade across that little stream. Is there a lot of coming and going?

[quote] Here's why it's a part of NYC, if you're interested

That answers why it's a part of New York State, not New York City.

Lifelong NYer here and I've never been there even once.

I used to work at Merrill Lynch and would occasionally take the SI ferry over and back to get away for lunch. Never set foot on the island.

It’s an island full of racist cops. Hell on earth.

R2 I was taught that very story (about the boat race) in grammar school (Manhattan native here). And when a Boy Scout I spent many a fun weekend at Pouch. But frankly they can fuck off.

What was it like in the old days, though? Like 20s - 60s?

One day, there will be a storm with big waves and will wash it away. Then Manhattan people can move and re do the place.

IIRC R7, it's not that easy to get off the island.

There are only two bridges that go to NJ and there's lots of marsh land on both sides of that waterway

It’s actually not that bad.

There's a lot of russians on Staten Island

[quote]There's a lot of russians on Staten Island

And Italians. They both keep the blacks out.

Just kidding!

R14, yeah because Manhattanites are doing such a great job in their borough.

How's the dick there?

I love the free ferry ride.

It fucking smells!!! The world's largest garbage landfill is there, visible from fucking space!!! It's now closed.

Why not have it part of NYC? It add color and diversity. I have no problem with this. I lived there for 6 months once. It was OK. It's own place. Not NJ.

OP, we just recently had this thread.

Fuck off you 2015 troll fucking PIECE OF SHIT.

It has the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, which is a gem.

It has the Jacques Marchand Museum of Tibetan Art, also a gem.

St. George will be beautiful, assuming we can ever have our lives back.

The Staten Island Ferry ride is magical. And you can drink on it (the only public transportation in the US where this is legal).

The Richmond Town Restoration is charming.

It is the location of New York's only houses by Frank Lloyd Wright and Henry Hobson Richardson.

Other than that - I got nothing.

R26 You can drink on the LIRR and the Metro North too.

R27 - true - I had forgotten that. Also, I suppose you can drink on Amtrak, so once again I am full of shit.

:(

If SI had been a part of NJ, would there be a free ferry to Manhattan?

Back in the day, the staten Island ferry was VERY inexpensive. 25 cents round trip in my time. It was a great cheap thing to do on a hot summer day, when Manhattan was sweltering. You got the breeze off the water, you got great views, etc. I lived in NYC in the early 1980s. At that time, after disembarking from the ferry, you could take the strange little street car that operated on Staten Island down to South Beach or else transfer to a bus that took you there. (I don't remember, this is ancient history). There was a public beach there with a great view of the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge, and once upon a time it had an extensive boardwalk and probably changing rooms, amusement park rides, etc. That had all burnt down by the early 1980s, but gay men still cruised in the ruins. Unfortunately the beach itself was a receptacle for the tides coming in from the ocean, and the garbage ships must have dumped a lot of stuff overboard, because it seemed you could always find a couple of syringes on the beach, or other types of garbage, even though some sort of cleaning trucks must have gone along the beach periodically. Consequently, I never swam there, although I sunbathed there a few times. Ethnically the area was very blue collar Italian, and the men who cruised there were very attractive - beautiful bodies, handsome Italian features. I was none of that, but just different enough from the locals to attract sufficient attention to make it worth my while. However, like the guys on Jersey Shore, the guys I met there were not men with whom you'd normally attempt to have a serious discussion about art or literature.

[Quote]How close are the islanders' ties to New Jersey? It looks like you could just wade across that little stream. Is there a lot of coming and going?

There are 4 bridges which connect New York City and New Jersey. 3 of them are between Staten Island and Jersey.

Vampires live there!

Staten Island has Miss Vanessa del Rio.

R30 Great post. Thanks! I can almost picture it. I love reading posts of how NYC used to be.

So, per R30, Staten Island is a gay cruising spot?

Big Italian cocks. Yep.

[Quote]What we do in the dark

I don't know that one r32. Is it as good as What We Do in the Shadows?

Found this resource online- pictures of South Beach, Staten Island in its heyday - with the Bridge in the background

There is so little information on the internet about some of these old cruising sites, sometimes I think I made them up in my mind. But I found this gruesome reference, so at least I know the place I visited was real:

"In the spring of 1986, Taylor, Sarlo and two others kidnapped a man at a gay pickup spot in South Beach, Staten Island, motivated by what police called "hatred of homosexuals." They locked him in a car trunk and threatened to drive into the Arthur Kill. The victim escaped, and the perps were charged with attempted murder but pleaded to robbery. Sarlo served three years and Taylor, a juvenile at 16, was locked up barely 18 months."

Whoops! Thanks, r37. Time for me to climb back in my coffin and snooze.

I've sucked some hot married cock going back home at the end of the day in the ferry restroom.

At one point in the derelict 80s the Ferry Terminal in St. George was a wreck and there were high ceilinged, tiled, corridors and rooms that were cruisy in the evening, also they stank of shit and piss and homelessness sometimes.

R19 Yeah NYC=CorporationInc. Brooklyn is turning to shit too. Posers with no soul or humor.

One day I was talking to a birdwatcher in Central Park & noticed a lot of seagulls traveling in groups overhead, all going in the same direction. “They’re going to Staten Island” he said. “They always do at about 4pm this time of year.”

Why are seagulls going to Staten Island?

“The landfill. They scavenge in different areas during the day. Now they’re going home.”

Face it, Ramona, Staten Island is a part of New York City.

The ferry is now free R30

The Staten Island ferry has been free for over 20 years.

The Japanese garden Snug Harbor is worth a visit.

I dated a woman who lived there and it felt like parts of Long Island or even Queens. I met a few people who seemed to be doing their own thing out there. An antique furniture collector with an impressive collection. Artists painting and making music. That part of Staten Island was a reminder that affordable rents are affordable rents, and if you work downtown, you can float to work. Other parts of Staten Island feel run down. I had excellent bagels and pizza there. Diners are pretty good.

Yes it feels like grittier parts of Southern Connecticut, New York State (Yonkers) and in a bit of New Jersey. Its not really dense enough to feel like Brooklyn and Queens.

When you look at the density of people per square mile.

Manhattan- 71,341

Brooklyn- 36,147

Bronx- 33,867

Queens- 20,767

Staten Island- 8,157

It's a dramatic difference.

A Staten Islander was so incensed at Robert De Niro’s “F–k Trump” statement at the Tony Awards that he smashed a cherished portrait of the actor from his role in “Goodfellas.”

Joseph DeVito pulled the De Niro picture off the wall in his hallway and dragged it out to the garbage pail before destroying it, frame and all, according to video obtained by SILive.

“This used to be my idol, I used to love this guy,” DeVito said while pulling the picture off the wall.

“But after what he did last night at the Tonys — this is where Robert goes.”

After placing the picture in the garbage pail, DeVito reaches into an outdoor bin holding a variety of tools, gloves and a large rope before pulling out a hammer-like object.

“You’re a real piece of s-t,” DeVito says after smashing the glass to pieces. “Another Trump hater down.”

Staten Island is the last stop before lifelong NYers move permanently to NJ. In NJ, Middlesex and Monmouth county are filled with former NYers. Some towns seem to only have former NYers.

It's always interesting to trace the path of immigrants to NYC. Jews started in the Lower East Side, then Williamsburg and Bushwick, then Flatbush and then out to Long Island, particularly the 5 towns. Italians started out in Little Italy, Brooklyn, Bensonhurst, then Staten Island and far reaches of the Bronx. Chinese started out in Chinatown, then spread into Little Italy and the Bowery, and have now migrated out to Flushing. Some of the Brooklyn mob families, like the Lucchese crime family, the Gambinos, and the Colombos are now well-established on Staten Island and some of the biggest mob hits of recent years have taken place there.

It’s the Gateway to Garbage.

R14 I wouldn't want see that boutique vibe on SI like Manhattan and certainly not the corporate vibe. Something with more home grown charm. Once the other crap invades it ruins everything. Like what happened to the Village. Pink Tea Cup gone.

Lots of low-life MAGATS live on Staten Island. Horrible trashy place.

The real 5th borough of NYC is Hudson county NJ. Far more interlinked with the rest of the city than Staten Island.

[quote] The Japanese garden Snug Harbor is worth a visit.

It's actually a Chinese garden, but thanks for the recommendation. It looks wonderful. I'll check it out if it ever reopens