Long Island City in western Queens, just across the East River from Midtown Manhattan and the Upper East Side, is one of the most vibrant areas in Queens and all of New York City. Visitors come for its museums, artists for its cheap studio rents, and residents for its neighborhoods and quality of life so close to Manhattan. A large geographic area of many neighborhoods, Long Island City has a distinct history from the rest of Queens, and is in the midst of a major transformation.
In the last twenty years overwhelmingly industrial Long Island City has become a major cultural center with world-class art and working artists. The latest trend is for more residential growth. Though areas like Astoria have always been residential, zoning changes and the Queens West development of the East River waterfront have spearheaded the renovation of warehouses into condos.
Long Island City's transformation, however, is told in the stories of its many neighborhoods, some touched by development, other bypassed. Once an independent city, Long Island City officially comprises a swath of western Queens including over 250,000 inhabitants and the neighborhoods of Hunters Point, Sunnyside, Astoria, and lesser-known ones like Ravenswood and Steinway.