A Guide To The 2003 Official Guide To Queens

It’s getting to be a habit. That’s what happens when you do the same thing year after year — and you do it well!

You get better at it, but alas, you look for greater challenges.

Perhaps that’s not what the publisher of the Tribune’s Blue Book, should be telling you. But read the book anyway because we’re giving you the best right now, and pretty soon, we’re going to give you the rest.

The Blue Book – which, was printed by the PRESS’ sister paper the Tribune on Jan. 30 – stands as the most comprehensive guide ever prepared about our Borough of more than two million people who call Queens their home — the most ethnically diverse group anywhere on earth. It is indeed the compilation of all things official in our multi-cultural mecca.

At the Tribune, we have chronicled, for the past 33 years, the lives of the people of Queens and tried our best to bring some order to the hodgepodge of County and City government, civic and cultural officialdom.

We’ve tried to help the people who live here cope with Queens . We’ve tried to serve as a sounding board reflecting the images and thoughts of the people who make Queens unique.

Our “Official Guide To Queens” was born more than a decade ago and has become a working annual reference book for all who have occasion to navigate through Queens and its information, bureaucracy and life.

We believe it to be indispensable to anyone living in, doing business in, researching or even passing through Queens , New York . We keep a copy of The Queens Blue Book next to our desk at home and one in the office.

We use it as a regular phone directory to everything Queens, an elected-officials-names spell checker, an atlas (for school districts, community boards, legislative districts and much more), an emergency contact guide and a mini-encyclopedia/history fact checker. It provides us with tidbits for our column. It provides you with contact information for all the resources to unjangle your chaos, soothe your soul, enrich your mind and get you where you want to go.

But that is just the beginning.

Because in just two months — scheduled for publication on April 3 — will be a sort of companion volume. It’s working title, “The Insider’s Guide to Queens .”

We view it as a combination of the Unofficial Guide as well as a Survival Guide to living in our Borough.

It will share with you some of the less common and less official aspects of our borough. You’ll also want to keep this one by your desk or your bed. It’ll keep you informed, chuckling and give you part of Queens ’ other side and perhaps even darker side — hmmm!

As you read about the Blue Book, we at the Tribune are compiling its companion edition.

If you have any thoughts, ideas or contributions for our “Insider’s Guide to Queens ” please email them to me at the address below. If you’ve yet to enter modern civilization, the Tribune’s snail mail address can be found on a nearby page.

Hundreds of people have contributed to the 2003 Queens Blue Book. This Official Guide is the culmination of the work of Tribune staff members over a 13-year period. We’ve seen it improve, evolve and grow. Through the years, each editor, art director, designer, photographer, writer, compiler even salesperson and office staff member brought to the effort their own uniqueness and perceptions. Then our talented editor – with a little help from me – twists and tweaks it to make it more understandable, easy to use and – we hope – an invaluable reference manual to our home, Queens .

It’s been imitated — by many — but never equaled.

Michael Nussbaum, our Executive Vice President, who has been around the Queens scene since the ice thawed, has commented on the several imitation versions others have produced. He reminds us that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The fact that several smaller local papers now publish their own form of guides is a tribute to our vision and ideas. A number of papers throughout the City and State have also followed our lead.

The Tribune has pioneered much more than just the Official Guide concept. In addition to our annual bound and glossy covered favorites “The Best of Queens” and our historic “Anniversary Edition,” community journalism on the east coast saw its first four-color pages in 1988 in the Trib. The glossy covers first appeared way back in 1990; our website first appeared in 1996, before the web took off and was soon followed by an “e-mall,” Queens ’ first online shopping portal.

We‘re not stopping now. This year’s offering of the “Insiders Guide to Queens ,” is just the first of a number of new ideas we hope will have as great an impact as some of our previous contributions.

In this year’s Official Guide, like last, Tamara Hartman, our unheralded editor, has outdone our previous efforts. She started early, being born a Queens journalist thirty plus years ago (yup, she’s that old). Her mom, a Long Island Star Journal veteren, raised her on ink and newsprint. Tamara, who has a decade of community newspaper journalism under her belt, graduated from Queens College where she also recently taught journalism. She has had every phone number, every fact and every comma checked and double-checked. Still, we are certain that our readers will find some things less than perfect.

Please let us know. We want to print corrections, correct our online edition and update our files for next year’s Blue Book. You can send suggestions, comments or corrections to: bluebook@queenstribune.com, or fax or mail them to us at the Tribune.

The production and art effort of getting the words and pictures to you in an attractive readable form was spearheaded by Trib art director, Lianne Procanyn whose relationship with the Trib began some 16 years ago. Lianne, a Queens native, has been restyling, developing and perfecting her skill and our look. Her superb department makes her and us look good.

The sales effort under the direction of Ted Olczak, our Vice President of Sales and Marketing, continue to demonstrate that the Queens marketplace is alive, well and prospering.

The Tribune is proud to publish the Guide – the paper of record.

Of course there are many, many others who contributed to this year’s effort: editorial, art, sales, classifieds and office staffs have all undergone a bit more stress and for the most part offered to do a bit more than usual; our readers who throughout the year emailed, faxed and mailed us advice, omissions and errors; and our advertisers loyally support this annual effort because they believe in the Trib and they believe in Queens.

And then, there are my new partners: a dozen or so special people — friends — who believed in me and in this marvelous product and came up with the funding that enabled me and my longtime friend and partner Gary Ackerman — you’ve heard of him — to buy our paper back and give it new life and a renewed mission in chronicling and advocating for Queens, the most exciting home on earth.

To them and to you I am grateful. I consider it a privilege to lead the Trib on its meaningful and exciting Queens publishing adventure.

The Blue Book is for you; may it fill your days with Queens information and color.