Two Points Apart, at the Wrong End
average livability score, Staten Island streets vs Queens streets
BestAge livability score
Staten Island averages 49 and Queens 47 on our livability score, third and last of the five boroughs, with Queens level with the Bronx at the foot of the table. The reason is the same in both cases: roughly a third of the score is what a street can reach on foot, and neither borough reaches much.
What makes the pairing worth reading is that they arrive at nearly the same number from opposite directions.
The Island's Trade, in Two Columns
Staten Island posts the best quietness average in the city and the best traffic-safety reading of this pair, 58 and 56. Both are counted against the number of people on each street, so a quiet block with nobody on it earns no discount.
Scores count 311 complaints, HPD violations, and NYPD crash records against the people who live on a street, add what that street reaches on foot, and rank it against streets of the same kind. Updated weekly.
What it pays for that is total: the island posts the weakest walkable-food readings in the city and shares the weakest transit readings with Queens. A quiet block with nothing within a walk is a real choice, and the score is honest about what it costs.
Queens Owns the Sidewalks and Loses the Roads
Queens holds the best cleanliness average in the city and the worst traffic-safety average. Staten Island beats it on that column 56 to 43, one of the widest single-column gaps between any two boroughs.
That is a genuinely useful split for anyone weighing these two. If you are moving with children and the arterial outside the window matters, the crash column says one thing very loudly. If you want the trash collected and the sidewalk swept, Queens is the better bet in the city.
Suburban Complaints, City Complaints
Both boroughs' 311 logs lead with illegal parking, and the supporting cast splits. Queens follows with blocked driveways. Staten Island's third most-filed type is snow removal, a rank snow reaches in no other borough, followed by street condition.
A grades are close to nonexistent on both sides: roughly 1,511 scored Staten Island streets produce 5, and Queens 11 across a far larger grid. Queens also carries the largest failing population in the city, more than 120 streets at an F.
Which log sounds like your life is a fair tiebreaker, and the ferry-or-subway question is one our data stays out of. For everything at street level, run the comparison yourself.