This is NOT to attack the borough itself, but rather I just wanted to get a better understanding of the culture surrounding it as I read on some wiki that Staten Island tends to draw in eccentric people, and again not an attack, but rather I just wanted to know why that happens.
Sort by:
Best
Open comment sort options
Best
Top
New
Controversial
Old
Q&A
Yea, I've never heard that before.
“Staten Island is gradually acquiring a new pop culture cachet for being very weird”
This was a quote I found from a wiki on the borough itself, if it helps.
Some hipster from Brooklyn probably wrote that. Sounds like someone who stepped off the ferry, walked to Cargo for a few beers and went back home.
Nah, it’s probably written by somebody who did some research into the island and started going down the rabbit hole of weirdness. From the free love cult, to the telephone being invented there, to the guy who unified Italy and the guy who invented the telephone running beer breweries, to bigfoot sightings, to long abandoned tunnel to Brooklyn, to Vanderbilt’s masoleum, to a u-boat landing on south beach and doing repairs only feet away from a machine gun tower meant to stop u-boats from landing. Then there’s families who’ve never set foot outside of the island, the woods, the deer swimming across from New Jersey, the abandoned tuberculosis farms, to the stone head dug up by a farmer in Clifton, to the largest private collection of Tibetan artifacts, to magnesium soil, and there’s other stuff that I’m probably forgetting.
Oh, that's pretty amazing., but sh-h-h, or the normies will invade.
Don't forget the roving turkeys and peacocks.
The Japanese Gardens, and our dependable groundhog.
We are different, and I for one love it.
when the dalai lama visited staten island
I do remember the popularity of The Staten Island Advance. Everybody got it delivered.
When we lived in Brooklyn we'd turn on the radio or buy a paper, especially the New York Times which did cover Staten Island - all boroughs. But before the internet, on Staten Island a lot of people got both the Times on Sunday and absolute every day: The Advance.
That must’ve been what happened then.
I would frequently hear native New Yorker's refer to Staten Island as "The Forgotten Borough" because it was "behind the times". People would say: There's nothing there except a ferry ride and then stick your nichol in the turn-style and ride back.
It was accused of "lacking any culture of it's own unless you like their Pizza and their Italian-American accent". but that was back in the 70s
Not a whole lot has changed, it seems. I do like the pizza and the italian-american accents.
To me..:.being called Forgotten Borough is because we’re not mentioned when reporting about the area’s weather or other event affecting NYC, we’re forgotten.
Citation needed
I don’t understand.
Someone made a claim on a wiki without citing their primary source.
https://youtu.be/OXq06V_Rh0g?si=VxeMiOY-o_T8QBJL
I never heard that said but I found this that might amuse:
https://www.movoto.com/guide/staten-island-ny/staten-island-stereotypes/
I gotta check out this article you linked.
It's part of a real estate business add but amusing. A lot of it is after my time. I left in 72
Wikipedia is written by the public..anyone can write anything they want. Including utter bullshit.
The one eccentric thing on the Island is that house on Todt Hill with all the animal statues
We also have those houses that go balls to the wall on holiday decorations. I always enjoyed driving by them during Halloween. I think one of the decorators had sadly passed a few years ago.
I should go check out that particular place.
You definitely should. I think it's quite cool to look at. Just my opinion of course.
Thanks as I gotta find the address.
724 Todt Hill Rd, however, they had an estate sale and the property was listed for $4M. Not sure if it sold, but, I've seen the same eclectic statues elsewhere now. Either someone bought the lawn decorations from the estate sale, or the owners significantly downgraded. I pass the place on my Friday commute, I'll try to pay attention to the address of the new place.
Better hurry, it was for sale the last time I passed.
I love looking at those statues whenever I drive by there. Wasn't it for sale not too long ago?
I believe it was. I've heard conflicting stories as to why those statues are there. One was that some eccentric celebrity lived there, someone from Howard Stern I believe. The other story is that the owner's daughter was sick and the statues were to cheer her up
The one we heard most was the owner was a big shot movie producer and liked to decorate his yard with prop pieces.
That's interesting too. Thank you for the info.
I honestly hope I never find out and I just keep hearing different stories like it's the Joker's origin or something
Very interesting. Thank you for the info.
Sign still says “in contract”
Thank you for the info.
Don't forget the one on Richmond Road.
Right, that one. Why do we have two of these. Maybe the Island IS eccentric
Do you think they know each other?
I think they're bitter rivals
Never saw that. People talk about going to beaches but in the 60s and 70s the beaches were covered with garbage and empty syringes and medical equipment. You never ever went into the water
The medical waste was an 80s thing. They were still extremely popular through the 70s.
No I was personally long gone by the 80s and there was nasty medical waste and trash on the beaches in the late 60s for sure.
I saw it and I left NY in the early 70s. The beaches were horrendous
Also the house with the driftwood across from SI University hospital on Seaview.
It doesn't.
That’s actually surprising to hear.
If anything, Staten Island has more of a reputation of being boring and culturally closer to the NJ suburbs. "The Forgotten Borough."
So they get the "eccentric" label from a bunch of bored suburbanites living perpetual midlife crisis?
Oh I didn’t know that about the borough itself.
Yep, thats 100% true. More in common with NJ than any other borough.
I recently heard it called “the Florida of New York City” and I find that descriptor charming.
I lived there from about five to 18 and S.I. never had that reputation. In general, it was conservative and boring.
Oh ok as I just wanted to understand the culture there better.
I found it hard to adapt to so I find it interesting to do research on how it ended up that way.
I left as soon as I married and raised my children in new Norther England - totally different country :) My brother always said it felt like you were in Switzerland or Bavaria
The Fresh Kills Land Fill (the garbage dump) was a famous site that was the highest peak on the east coast. It became a landmark literally but the smell was horrible and there was a drive in movies theatre right next to it when we were kids and it was oppressive. It made me ill.
There a NYT's article about it I read about three years ago. Back then I noticed an awful lot of women on on block near the landfill were going bald. That's the honest truth. It looked like a mountain after it was reopened to put the reckage of the twin towers there and then plant grass over it.
It's a NYC Park now.
False. You're confusing the SI dump being the largest dump (at one point) with the highest peak on the atlantic coastline, which is todt hill (also on Staten Island)
This is correct.
Exactly.
I was struggling with the word "peak" - I shouldn't be trying to cook and post :)
That belief came from an Advance article printed before the dump was closed. The article said that if the dump continued to be filled at the rate it was going it would be the highest point on the eastern seaboard when it was closed. It was closed before that happened.
YEP
I always remember Todt Hill being the highest point on the eastern seaboard south of Maine. I remember the landfill being the only other man-made structure besides the great wall of China being visible from space.
I visited the FKLF a few times when it was a dump. I was working at Historic Richmondtown one summer and we had to dump garbage. It was quite a sight, but it was not the highest peak on the East Coast. It also wasn't visible from space -- another myth. I've also visited the new park.
That did not make S.I. interesting and certainly not "eccentric."
I loved Richmondtown - not that anything really makes SI "eccentric" -I owned a very old copy of book that was fascinating. I can't remember the title - Something like Staten Island afield - Some amazing people lived there through the centuries and I stayed in a house built in the 1600's that was part of a farm owned by Fredrick Laws Olmsted. It was sold to the city but was never taken care of - Doesn't even look like the same place.
I always heard that the highest natural elevation on the east coast was Sunset Park, BK.
I believe Todt Hill is the highest point on the Atlantic Seaboard.
As I wrote above: I read it was the highest MANMADE peak on the east coast but most of what we read these days is a lot of bunk so it's very possible.
Sunset Park? really. I practically spent 1/2 my childhood in Sunset Park :)
And the woods had the worst smell - like sewerage. I used to walk up Old Amboy Rd to get to the train station; I pass an Episcopalian Church called St. Albans, and the road would flood because none of the homes were connected to city sewerage and woods on one side would make you choke. Yet kids would wade through the street through the water. The row houses before the bridge opened all had septic tanks that would overflow and people were all sewing their builders.
Im almost positive this was planned as a lot of homes back then didnt have sewers and theyd flood out spots and everyone would have to come up with big money to fix septic tanks when sewers were about to start being built and would have to sell bwcause they didnt have the big time money to fix it.
Happened to my family in 94 we had to move to jersey. Before sewer went into south shore. The EPA came to our house and somehowThey knew our septic flooded before we even did…. That said it all. Mind you that house had been there 50 years no problems.
eventually the whole block went. It was the prettiest block despite the fact the beach water was brown when j was a kid.
I went to my old block a few years ago and dropped a few tears and now theres 3 multi million dollar mansions on my spot and neighbors spot, and the water isnt brown anymore its blue as fuck.
I came across an old article in the archives of the Staten Advance before the internet and two women were relating (around 1960) that all the new homes had septic and they were attempting to sell their "dream homes" and move "back to Brooklyn" because people could not afford to have their septic systems cleans "every month".
I never knew it had gotten that bad but tons of people were suing their real estate investors/developers who were making a fortune building duplexes on tiny plots -you owned only "half a house", no garage and one neighbors septic would flood into the other neighbors "land" and whose septic was it? apparently the court system was backed up.
I found it interesting since they were being filmed yet were in big rollers (curlers) and one article they were in bath robes sitting on their front stoops. These people had been seriously poor living in apartments we today can't picture yet they wanted to go home.
These homes are still there but others were plowed down for apartment buildings and McMansions
This is literally the opposite of what Staten Island is known for. It’s known for being conservative compared to the rest of NYC
That is interesting to know.
kind of "tribal" using the term academically having nothing to do with Native people and tribes but more like "acting together in groups". which made sense since the Brooklyn neighborhoods were initially broken up into ethnic groups who spoke the same languages and ate similar foods. I grew up in a "Norwegian Neighborhood" We had some German families but mostly everybody was Norwegian. They had the Sons of Norway where people met and every May a huge Norwegian Independence Day Parade when kids mostly held Norwegian flags. Rather quiet people
Other neighborhoods were full of much more verbal people
Norwegian-American here ... 17th of Mai is coming up! Time to dig out the flag. And yeah, we're quiet. Except around the holidays. There's a lot of singing involved.
I remember asking my parents for a Norwegian flag - I felt left out.
I'm of Swedish Descent and my grandmothers accent when speaking Swedish sounded to my young ears, the same as my neighbors, plus my father spoke Norwegian - I learned later one is a dialect of the other. I remember the partying and pictures of the parade going through Bay Ridge.
The movie theatre shut down in the 50s and became the Sons of Norway. My father took a second job to save for a house on SI and worked at the SON.
Staten Islands north shore is a refuge for artists. It also has a history of civic groups that bring neighbors together.
There are several very prolific theater companies here. There are a ton of musicians doing their thing.
👏🏻 100% on the north shore.
we do?
Idk I rather have that rep than having the rep of being a cesspool like the other boros are becoming 🙇🏻♀️
NYC was pretty bad in the 60s and 70s - it's an ancient city but had a lot of culture back then .Best schools, Central Park, Broadway shows, Times Square, Incredible museums, Rockefeller Center, Greenwich Villages, amazing restaurants endless. and the best stores. Hi brow or ethic - NY had it all.
That’s what I heard recently.
Eccentric, absolutely not. One of the last vestiges of “old New York”, yes. That makes it unique, bot not eccentric.
That’s cool then.
Not eccentric. Originally Native Americans and British and Dutch settled SI. until pretty much the mid 20th century when the ethnic neighborhoods of Brooklyn drew immigrants from Ellis Island and the major influx of immigrants at that time - around the turn of the century - were Southern Italians and Irish both of which were dealing with famines and poverty - you had less northern Italians because they had no reason to want to leave.
So Staten Island became predominately ethnic when the Verrazano Bridge was built. So many s. Italian families moved to Staten Island that the bridge took on the name: "The Guinea Gangplank'. With S. Italians had come groups like "The Black Hand" (later the Mafia). That's how 75% of the South Shore is still from Italian Ancestry today - They are not eccentric they have a strong southern Italian identity.
All I know is that there was an initial divide between ethnic groups and Southern Italians dominated a large section of the Island which is only 15 miles long. The Natives were killed off early on.
A large portion of the original Dutch and British moved off the Island and settled first in NJ and then towards Pennsylvania.
You have to understand that Italy was not a country but only city states until the 19th cen I think and they had been warring against each other and even spoke a different language - Italian today is from Tuscany - Northern Italian and typically N. Italians feel that the poorer Southern sections extending down to Sicily are using up all their taxes.
Believe it or not the history of Italy has a strong connection to the evolution of Staten Island and it's current identity - but you have to read some history - some honest Italian and then New York city history to understand.
That was very interesting to learn as I never knew how much history was behind the borough itself, so I appreciate the insight you shared.
I Found this by doing a search:
Staten Island, located in New York City, has a \history that dates back to the early 17th century. The island was first inhabited by the Lenape N tribe, and later, in 1630, the Dutch purchased the island from the Munsee tribe and named it Staaten Eylandt, after the Staten-Generaal, the Dutch parliament.
The first recorded European contact on the island was in 1524 by Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano, who sailed through The Narrows on the ship La Dauphine and anchored for one night.
The Dutch did not establish a permanent settlement on Staaten Eylandt for many decades and built isolated farms but there was conflict between Indian Tribes who saw white settles had done away with Native people.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, Staten Island was a popular spot for farming and trade, and the British forces settled their troops on SI taking over many Dutch and English farms and businesses on the island. The island’s proximity to NYC and its amazing natural harbor made it an attractive location for shipping and commerce and the British conquered Amsterdam from the Dutch, renaming it after the Duke of York.
The first Italian to reside in New York was Pietro Cesare Alberti, a Venetian seaman who, in 1635, settled in the Dutch Business colony of New Amsterdam, so over time, more Italians arrived on the island, drawn by its economic opportunities and proximity to the city.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, Staten Island underwent significant changes, with the construction of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge in 1964, and the development of the Staten Island Ferry, which connected the island to Manhattan. The island’s population grew, especially after the announcement of the bridge, and it became a popular destination for italian families and commuters from Southern Brooklyn and Little Italy in Manhattan, which later became part of Chinatown.
Today, Staten Island is home to a diverse population with a significant Italian-American community. The island’s history and culture are reflected in its many landmarks, including the small Staten Island Museum, the Staten Island Historical Society, and the Conference House Park where the treaty was signed that ended the Revolution; it features a historic house and a burial ground that dates back to the 17th century. Most landmarks after that period reflect Italian American culture and food.
Some notable Italian-American landmarks on Staten Island include the Italian-American Museum, which showcases the history and culture of Italian-Americans, and the annual Staten Island Italian Festival, which celebrates the island’s Italian heritage with food, music, and cultural events. Staten Island is noted as the only borough of New York city that votes almost exclusively Republican and is passionately conservative
The way I understand it the conference house was the site of a failed attempt at a treaty.
Edit to add: Historical Background
The Conference House is named in honor and commemoration of the famous peace conference of 1776.
On September 11, 1776, Continental Congress representatives John Adams, Edward Rutledge, and Benjamin Franklin met with the King’s representative, Lord Richard Howe, at Colonel Christopher Billopp’s home on Staten Island. The British would not consider independence a negotiable term and the congressional representatives had been authorized only to negotiate terms that included independence.
No reconciliation was reached. With the failed peace conference, both the Crown and the colonists faced the inevitability of war.
conferencehouse.org