The reporting done for this article was not as good as I had anticipated. Being a Queens native, I expected a lot more from this article, given the rich history of the borough, but the article lacked depth and had poor sourcing. For starters, the feature’s title doesn’t even resonate with the story. While tourists are discovering that Queens is a lot more hip than it was in previous years, they clearly are not here to stay, and some tourists (like the last anecdote in the piece) do not even know what Queens is. Even the feature’s opening story did not do the piece justice. There was a lot of fill-in material that may have been used to hit a word count rather than support a strong thesis in the story. For example, when mentioning that Queens is the No.1 travel destination, the writer then lists other popular cities that are not chosen as the top destination. It is arbitrary, and excess information to early in the piece. The sourcing of information and interviewing was poor. As a Queens native, I instantly knew that the author was referring to the sitcom King of Queens, but he fails to mention that, rather using fill-in words to fluff the article. It seemed as though Rob MacKay was the only person he got the chance to speak to. One instance that bothered me was the quoting of someone else quoting another person. The conversation that was quoted was, again, a fluff to the article.

The writer could have explored more in depth what Queens has to offer to tourists. There were several brief mentions of places, but what makes them so relevant. A cultured Astoria, with museums like P.S.1 deserves far more than a mention in the piece. Corona is one of the more diverse areas in Queens with different cuisines that cost a fraction of the price they would in Manhattan. I was upset to find that Lemon Iced King was not even mentioned but an indirect reference to the sitcom King of Queens was made. Instead, the article was filled with a plethora of adjectives that become agitating to read over and over.