Staten Island Strengths

A High-Quality of Life

As the most suburban borough of New York City, Staten Island has 59% of green spaces and 170 parks - making it the “Borough of Parks”. Living in Staten Island offers a delightful experience, beautiful sandy shores, convenient connections to neighboring boroughs, serene residential areas, and an abundance of verdant landscapes. The Island’s schools are consistently ranked as some of the best in the city. The housing stock is affordable and well-built within towns that are diverse and each possess their own unique characteristics.

Staten Island features the most extensive expanse of industrially designated land within New York City. With nearly 1,000 acres stretching from the North, West, and South shores of land suitable for maritime, manufacturing, transportation, and industrial purposes, the borough offers unmatched opportunities. Furthermore, Staten Island stands out as the only borough possessing a freight rail connection to the mainland (via New Jersey), bridges and roadways that connect maritime entry points, highlighted by New York City's exclusive freight rail bridge, linking it to Elizabeth, New Jersey. Additionally, it's connected to Brooklyn through the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and maintains connections to New Jersey. Staten Island is connected to New Jersey by three bridges, the Goethals, the Outerbridge Crossing, and the Bayonne Bridge. 

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In recent years, the Staten Island community has made impressive efforts to improve the local school system. The borough’s high school graduation rates have increased by over 8%, resulting in an 86.6% graduation rate for the class of 2023, in contrast to the 78.1% graduation rate in 2011. Staten Island has a total of 20 public high schools and 11 private high schools.

In total, the Island has two senior colleges, one public and one private: CUNY-College of Staten Island (CSI) and Wagner College.

The College of Staten Island offers students a variety of degree-levels to pursue, such as: Associate’s, Bachelor's, Master’s, Doctorate, and post-graduate. The school has over 80 programs with over 120 different majors to match student interests. 

Wagner College is a co-educational private liberal arts college, whose most popular majors include: business administration, nursing, theater/speech, physician assistant, arts administration, psychology.

Staten Island is home to almost 500,000 people, but it remains the least populated borough despite the fact that the Island is the third largest borough in NYC. The Island is described as having a small town feel. The suburban area is made up of 62 neighborhoods that each hold their own unique identities. Local organizations, such as the SIEDC, have initiated merchant coordination and Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in an attempt to invigorate economic expansion within these communities. There are four BIDs on the Island: the West Shore Industrial BID, New Dorp BID, the Forest Avenue BID, and the South Shore BID. In addition, there are a number of merchants groups; six are managed by the SIEDC: Richmond Road, Victory Boulevard, North Hylan, Graniteville-Mariners Harbor, Richmond Avenue, and Rosebank. This effort has resulted in millions of dollars in public and/or private investments and infrastructure, real estate transactions, as well as enhancements in quality of life.