City names on Mail

When you send a letter to someone in Manhattan you write New York, NY (name of county), when you send a letter to someone in Queens i.e. Forest Hills you would write Forest Hills, NY (name of neighborhood), and when you send a letter to someone in Brooklyn you write Brooklyn, NY (name of city).

Why is this?

City names on Mail

Great question! Hope I can answer it.

While Brooklyn has neighborhoods (Bensonhurst, Park Slope, Coney Island, Flatbush, etc.), Brooklyn itself was once a city. In fact, if it was still a city, it would be the 4th largest city in the U.S. When Brooklyn became part of New York City it became one of the boroughs. Brooklyn is also a county. It is Kings County. Unlike Queens, Brooklyn%26#39;s neighborhoods were not autonomous entities.

When you write ';New York, NY';, the first New York is New York county (Manhattan). The second NY is for the state of New York. Which is why we say it%26#39;s so nice they named it twice.

New York also has neighborhoods (Murray Hill, Greenwich Village, Chelsea, etc.) but since it started as a city, like Brooklyn, you don%26#39;t use the neighborhoods in addresses.

Queens was never a city and isn%26#39;t a city today. Beginning as rural farmland, it was a collection of incorporated and unincorporated villages and towns. Some of them had their own police and fire departments and own governments. When it became a county (Queens County) and ultimately a borough, the neighborhoods maintained their individual identities.

The Bronx, oddly enough, is a little of both. You can mail a letter to an address in Bronx, NY, but you can, for some areas, mail it to a specific neighborhood (e.g. Parkchester, NY) and it will get there.

If you%26#39;re comfortable with addressing a letter with New York, NY or Brooklyn, NY and uncomfortable with Forest Hills, NY, I%26#39;d recommend telephoning the folks in Forest Hills instead.

City names on Mail

Thanks alot for the answer, though you have cleared Queens up, I still do not understand why we go by the county in Manhattan but not in Brooklyn or vice versa with city name.

It worries me when I learn something new. I%26#39;m sure I%26#39;ve got a limited number of memory cells, so anything new has to overwrite an old cell. Geez, hope I remember how to get home!

Thanks a lot!