The unsung treasures of Staten Island

Staten Island, which sits 5.2 miles south of New York City’s Financial District and measures 58.5 square miles, has been called many things: the greenest borough, the Forgotten Borough, Staten Italy, the Rock, the city’s dump. (It was the site of a noxious 2,000-plus-acre landfill, one of the world’s largest, for more than 50 years. A project to turn it into green space is underway, with some sections now open to the public.) In recent years, its reputation, shall we say, lacked sophistication. The borough rose to national prominence thanks to “Mob Wives,” the VH1 series that portrayed the lives of local women over the course of six seasons whose respective husbands have run up against the law. Arguably today’s most famous Staten Islander is SNL prodigy and boyfriend to the stars Pete Davidson, who wrote and starred in Judd Apatow’s “The King of Staten Island” in 2020.