Welcome to Brownstoner Queens!

Well, here we are, just a hop, skip and a jump across the Newtown Creek from where Brownstoner started over eight years ago. And it’s about time! As anyone driving down the FDR drive can see, Queens has been undergoing its own development boom in recent years, with a slew of glass towers on the Long Island City waterfront and more to come in the form a major affordable housing complex in Hunters Point South. Meanwhile, the Queens food scene, its panoply of ethnic offerings always a citywide destination, continues to thrive and demand more coverage than it’s getting. As does the borough’s fine arts scene. And then there are the neighborhoods. That’s what’s going to make this the most interesting part of the journey for us. Exploring and reporting on the nooks and crannies of such an incredibly diverse borough. We’ve got a lot to learn, but that’ll be the fun part. Helping us on that journey will be such local writers (and personalities!) as Forgotten NY’s Kevin Walsh and the Newtown Pentacle’s Mitch Waxman. Montrose Morris, who’s been writing about Brooklyn history and architecture for years on Brownstoner, will be doing her thing in Queens too. And the whole ship will be helmed by Roland Li, who’s been covering real estate for the likes of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Observer for the past several years.

So whether you’re new to the borough, just starting to think about living here or a dyed-in-the-wool old-timer, we hope that Brownstoner Queens will have something to offer everyone. And we hope that readers can help us make the site as interesting and informative as possible by sending in tips, photos and suggestions to us at queens@brownstoner.com. Anytime you see a new storefront getting fixed up or a blue construction fence being installed, we want to know. Just snap a photo on your smartphone and send it in. We’ll do the rest. Thanks for reading!