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New York City resembles multiple cities in one, with numerous divisions that reflect the vast number of people who live there. One of the most prominent of these divisions is the city's five boroughs. The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island are each separate governmental entities within New York's larger system of governance. Every borough has its own president, a degree of administrative power, unique cultural characteristics, and is tied to a county in New York State with its own district attorney.
But why is this the case? How did these five boroughs come to exist?
Four of the five boroughs are linked to counties established by the English during their colonial rule, as seen on a 1683 map. These counties were New York (Manhattan), Richmond (Staten Island), Kings (Brooklyn), and Queens (the borough of the same name). At the time, the City of New York was confined to the southern tip of Manhattan Island, while the surrounding areas were a patchwork of rural settlements and farming communities that evolved and merged over time. Eventually, the cities of New York and Brooklyn coalesced. These transformations are explored in the article "Before the Five-Borough City: The Old Cities, Towns and Villages That Came Together to Form ‘Greater New York,’" written by Harry Macy Jr. and published in the September 1998 edition of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society’s newsletter.
By the late 1800s, 40 different municipalities governed what is now New York City, creating a significant challenge for industrial leaders who needed to implement utilities and transport goods by rail and through the harbor. According to various articles in Columbia University professor Kenneth T. Jackson’s Encyclopedia of New York City, lawyer and urban planner Andrew Haswell Green advocated for the merging of the four counties into a single large city. He also suggested annexing a valuable portion of land from Westchester County, which became The Bronx.
All the affected towns and cities held referendums on the proposal. According to the Pulitzer-winning Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, most New Yorkers were supportive of the idea, partly due to the fear that Chicago might overtake New York as the nation's most populous city. However, residents of Brooklyn and other outer boroughs were more cautious. Local newspapers and civic organizations expressed concerns about losing local control and the potential disruption to the Protestant demographic. Ultimately, the benefits of lower taxes from consolidated city services and the prestige of living in the largest city in the country prevailed.
The consolidation in 1898 gave rise to a new city with a population of 3 million. The state legislature established a special committee to draft a new city charter. Finalized in 1901, this charter, as described in Jackson’s encyclopedia, defined the roles of the mayor, comptroller, and Board of Aldermen. It also formalized the creation of the five boroughs and the position of borough president. The primary responsibility of the borough presidents was to cast votes on the Board of Estimate, which handled matters related to budgeting and land use.
In 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the Board of Estimate unconstitutional. The justices argued that it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because the borough presidents each had one vote, despite the boroughs having vastly different populations.
Since then, the boroughs have had limited governing authority, and the borough presidents have mostly become advocates, helping to organize non-governmental civic groups and nonprofits. Today, the boroughs serve mostly as geographic labels—and sources of intense local pride for New Yorkers.
