Talk:The Five Boroughs

Meaning of New York in New York City

The term New York itself is often taken to refer to the State of New York.

I don't agree. The term New York (by itself) is highly ambigious in New York City, but almost never is it used to refer to the State of New York (to which city residents might refer as New York State or even Albany.) New York can refer to the (entire) city (as in "Only in New York...") or to Manhattan (esp. in the outer boroughs.) E.g., in Staten Island Ferry terminology, the northern destination of the ferry route is known only as New York, never as Manhattan. --ThorstenNY 06:40, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

Avoiding the Elephant

In reading about this fake "colloquialism", notice how the word "Manhattan" was avoided in the former text:

"'The Five Boroughs' is a colloquialism often used by residents of New York City to unambiguously refer to the city itself, as opposed to any particular borough or to the greater metropolitan area."

Manhattan is the elephant in the room. As a real New Yorker, I have substituted some reality-based text for this wishful evocation of "grassroots" fakelore and linked it specifically to the map. --Wetman 05:46, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

"Invariable"

There's definitely no "invariable answer" as to the order the boroughs are listed. I live in New York City and it's not like people memorize them in school in some fixed order. I've removed the last paragraph... I myself say "Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island", and it's just the way that I think about bridges. Anyone who answers this merely shows a bias one way or another. MMZach 02:22, 4 January 2006 (UTC)

New York = the State (Disagree)

I also disagree that the term "New York" refers to the state. Although I am from Bergen County, NJ, I have almost never heard anyone use "New York" to refer to the state--instead, it is used for the city, usually Manhattan. Even when people cross the NY/NJ border 10 minutes from my house into Suffern, NY, and say "I was in NY today," usually they will end up clarifying themselves later when someone asks "What did you do? Shop? See a play? ..." to mention they were NOT in the city, which is what is assumed.

Furthermore, the State of New York itself uses "NYS" for the state, since "New York" is often taken to mean the city. ny.gov / nysegov.gov (nys = new york state, e = electronic, or at least that's what I would assume) along with the usage of "New York State" on its homepage and many other pages.

Consequentially, I think this should be corrected, as many times "New York State," "Rockland"/"Orange"/... (counties in NY), "NYS," "Upstate"/"Upsate New York," or something like "New York... the state" are used to refer to the state because "New York" alone is used for the city. (Obviously NY is usually taken as the state becuase it is the postal abbreviation, unless it's simply used as shorthand in, for example, an instant message converstation.)

Upstate Opinion

Being from Upstate NY, and going to school with a major population of students residing in the five boroughs and L.I.. I wholeheartedly disagree that NY = the city. I have hardly ever heard it used as a reference purely to the aforementioned areas. When reciting the states in our fine nation: no one ever says: "New York State." Not that is credential for it to be called whatever, but from perspective, I have to disagree.

FiftyOneWicked 23:35, 21, February 2006

Move

This should probably be moved to omit "The", per naming conventions. 81.104.165.184 17:15, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Survey

Add *Support or *Oppose followed by an optional one-sentence explanation, then sign your opinion with ~~~~

• Oppose - Only because I feel that this article should not even exist, but should be merged into the article Borough (New York City) anyway. No point in having two separate articles about two almost identical topics. — Larry V (talk) 18:32, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
• Merge to Borough (New York City) as per Larry V. ~ trialsanderrors 21:12, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

Well, merge it, then. —Nightstallion (?) 11:39, 7 June 2006 (UTC)