Why is Staten Island so Republican?

[Elessar Zappa]

I don’t live in New York but I was reading up on the boroughs and noticed that Staten Island was the only one of the five where a majority voted for Trump. Why is this the case?

[SheilaAnn]

1. As a former Jersey Girl I can assure you that many mobsters have homes there. Hey, we all have to live somewhere..

[Sanity Claws]

2. Lots of cops live there.

Ethnically it tends to have heavier concentration of second and third generation Italian families, some Irish.
If you want to be active in the arts, music, theater, or any of the other things that NYC offer, you don't live there because it is too far away from everything. It is physically closer to NJ than to the NYC.

[marybourg]

3. Its remoteness attracts people who want to get as far away from what makes NY NY,

while still living in NY because of work or family.

[MOMFUDSKI]

4. I have snowbird neighbors here in Florida that

live in Staten Island. Italian. He was a firefighter. Trumpers. Hate blacks/browns. They don’t see the humor in that. Don’t get it.

[Lucky Luciano]

5. Working class whites.

[IbogaProject]

6. It's mostly suburbs w lots of Wall Street workers

That is the main thing. NYC has some GOP strongholds in SI, Brooklyn & queens.b

[Lucky Luciano]

7. Very few Wall Street types live in SI.

They’re usually in Fairfield County, Westchester County, much of nearby NJ, parts of Brooklyn that are practically extensions of Manhattan, and Long Island. Not sure I ever met anyone commuting from Staten Island, though one guy did commute via a long haul ferry from Rumson, NJ each day. That’s a helluva commute!

[Rhiannon12866]

8. And then there's my friend who grew up in Staten Island, moved to the Northeast about 9 years ago

And she's a lifelong Democrat, dislikes TFG as much as those of us here do, and now her daughter's at voting age (my friend moved here so her daughter could go to a smaller school), and she feels just the same.

[BigmanPigman]

9. Tony Bourdain went there with native David Johansen

of The New York Dolls in 2009.

https://vimeo.com/6644355
Jump to the 19:00 minute mark.

[electric_blue68]

10. I think Northernmost Staten Island has become more racially mixed in the last ?20+ yrs. Parts of Brooklyn ..

... Southeastern Brooklyn a lot of Italians. Definitely some Mobsters there.

But Italians do range like just about any group from liberal to conservative. The percentages may vary.

I think some sections of Queens may still be very white don't know quite where - maybe by the Eastern city line into Long Island.
A lot of Asians in Queens.

And, yeah, a lot of cops, and firefighters live in S.I. .