1. POPULATION
“Brooklyn. For sheer population.”
–Mara Gay, editorial writer at the New York Times
Well, not necessarily. If military history teaches us anything, a large population doesn’t always equate to winning; a small force can effectively stave off a much larger one if it has the right resources, skills, and local knowledge on its side. (Exhibit A: nearly every American military campaign since the Korean War.) There stands to reason that Staten Island, with its relatively minuscule numbers, could survive sustained attacks due to its isolated position, weaponry, and bad transit. (We’ll discuss these factors in depth later.)“Brooklyn also has the population size for conscripting an army.”
–Michelle Young, founder of Untapped Cities
“I've given this a lot of thought in the last 30 seconds, so here you go: Manhattan would be the first to go. It's indefensible, would suffer attacks from all sides.”
–Janos Marton, former lead organizer of the Close Rikers campaign
Winner: The Bronx
2. TERRAIN AND WATERFRONT
Of course, the terrain in 1776 was much different than what exists today, largely due to land use. If you look at a topographical map of modern New York, there’s little advantageous elevation in Manhattan, which is almost entirely flat, save for uptown. Most of the hills in Brooklyn and Queens lie along the borderlands, and their enormity—Queens is 108 square miles and Brooklyn is 69 square miles—only encourages further in-fighting along their long shared border. Up north, the Bronx is the only borough on the North American mainland; elevations heighten west of the Bronx River and in the north, making it ideal terrain for frontal defense, and retreat.Staten Island is home to the highest altitude in New York, at Todt Hill. Hypothetically, that is where their forces could gather, or put up a last stand. As mentioned, Staten Island’s distant location offers up its own barrier—even today, in peacetime, there are a lot of New Yorkers who have never stepped foot onto the island.“I want to say Brooklyn, but we already lost a war.”
–Daniel Radosh, senior writer for The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Another important factor to consider is the sixth borough: water. New York’s coastline stretches over 520 miles, and leaves every borough open to some degree of maritime attack. (Of course, New Yorkers would likely be operating personal boats, or kayaks.) That’s where coastal defenses could come in handy. Although Queens has an elongated strip of defense with the Rockaways and Broad Channel, and a handful of small islands in Jamaica Bay, they’re located way in the south, which isn’t strategically helpful. The Bronx has the largest number of small islands in its territory, including its very own potential Gitmo near Queens in the form of Rikers Island.“[Attacking Staten Island would] be like the US invading Vietnam or Afghanistan. No one else knows the terrain.”
–Dan Rivoli, transit reporter at the New York Daily News
“Manhattan… long the envy and enemy of the other boroughs, finds itself for the first time on the losing end of New York City history, surrounded in a war of the boroughs, and with too much stuff on the island not to expect an invasion by its three neighbors.”
–Peter Aigner, deputy director of the Gotham Center for New York City History
Winners: Staten Island and the Bronx
3. WEAPONRY
“Which borough has the most guns?”
–Richard Betts, director of Columbia University’s Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, who has advised the CIA, the State Department, and the Department of Defense
“Manhattan. Wealth. Weaponry. Cold-hearted ruthlessness.”
–Alyssa Katz, editorial writer at the Daily News
“We know which one has the money.”
–Beth Fertig, legal affairs reporter at WNYC
“The Warriors were Brooklyn-based and beat everyone on the way back home, so.”
–Benjamin Kabak of Second Ave. Sagas
Winner: Brooklyn
4. RESOURCES
“Duh, Manhattan. We'd pay some rough dudes to fight for us.”
–Joel Siegel, managing editor of NY1
In order to survive, New York would have to return to its agrarian roots. That would happen most notably in Queens and the Bronx. Queens, which was once wealthy Manhattanites’ “rural escape” from the city, still has a number of farms active in the east that would have to be readjusted to wartime production. However, according to experts at CUNY’s Gotham Center the Bronx has the most farmable parkland in the five boroughs, providing it with the best opportunity to produce for the population. The question is how long this would all take to develop.“Staten Island, if disconnected from the world, is toast.”
–Justin Rivers, tour guide and history columnist at Untapped Cities
But the most immediate threat is water. This entire scenario could shake out to a battle for New York’s H2O, all of which comes through aqueducts located in the Bronx, which can basically hold the city’s water supply hostage, forcing the other boroughs to either invade, or die of dehydration.“Bronx wins. The rest of us starve in just weeks as they cut off the food chain, and also blow up the system bringing water down.”
–Harry Siegel, senior editor at the Daily Beast and Daily News columnist
Winner: The Bronx
5. TRANSIT
A borough’s lack of mobility is the biggest strength here.“Obviously Staten Island… All the other boroughs are so close to one another that they would have to protect many borders at once. Let the other boroughs destroy themselves first, then attack!”
–Augustin Pasquet, co-founder of Untapped Cities