Bloomberg May Need Lesson in Staten Island History

Mayor Bloomberg says he studies Spanish every morning, but perhaps he should add a history review to his daily schedule.

Speaking at a news conference in Brooklyn yesterday, the mayor trailed off on a tangent about the origins of another city borough, Staten Island.

Mr. Bloomberg, who is originally from Massachusetts, confidently told the crowd that in the late 1600s, a governor used a boat race to settle a dispute over whether Staten Island should be part of New York or New Jersey.

"He set up a race — I forget whether it was rowing or sailing — around Staten Island, and New York won," Mr. Bloomberg said. "And so we've got the great borough of Staten Island as part of New York rather than part of New Jersey."

But there's one problem with the story.

"It is absolutely a myth," a librarian at the Staten Island Historical Society, Carlotta DeFillo, said. "It is a lovely, persistent myth, but it is a myth."

Ms. DeFillo said the origin of the oft-repeated legend is unclear, but it has been traced as far back as The New York Evening Post in 1873 and has popped up in other written histories since then.

The borough was named Staaten Eylandt in the early 1600s by the explorer Henry Hudson.

After the Revolutionary War, the borough operated for many years as a county of townships.

Staten Island became part of New York City in 1898, along with the other outer boroughs — Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. About half a million people live there now.

Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser said the mayor was telling a tale that he recalled reading long ago and that Staten Islanders had repeated to him over the years.