Astoria Beaten By Jackson Heights In NYC Best Neighborhood Poll

ASTORIA, QUEENS — Thousands of people agree: Astoria is New York City's second best neighborhood.

The conciliatory title comes from Autumn Florek's days-long bracket poll, dubbed Big Apple Madness, which attempted to determine the best neighborhood in New York City (and, per its name, made people mad in the process).

After winning four rounds of play, Astoria lost to Jackson Heights in the neck-and-neck final championship, which came down to the difference of about 152 votes (out of 3,800 total).

The final vote — including a third-place contest between the East Village and Flushing, which the latter won — means that New York City's top three neighborhoods are all in Queens (according to Twitter).

Queens Twitter reacted accordingly. Longtime NYC journalist, and Jackson Heights resident, David Freedlander shared a GIF of the Golden State Warriors winning the 2017 NBA Championship, people tweeted photos of the neighborhood — including scenes from the beloved 34 Avenue Open Street — and a couple of local politicians shared the news, too.

"Never a doubt! #JacksonHeights for the win!!!" wrote local Assembly Member Catalina Cruz.

When Florek posed a question about the results, most agreed with the outcome: one person aptly said Jackson Heights was a winning neighborhood because it "scores well in quality of life and is just interesting."

Others, however, pushed for their neighborhoods; several people, for instance, asked why Forest Hills wasn't included in the original bracket, which seeded 68 neighborhoods on the basis of many factors, including transit access, parks, cultural institutions, and geographic diversity (neighboring Kew Gardens was included).

Notably, very few people reacted in outrage about Astoria losing out to Jackson Heights, though one person (jokingly) said fights were breaking out in the neighborhood.

In fact, at least one person had the oposite reaction, commenting that they understand why Astoria lost. "Astoria has great food, but aside from that I'm not sure what qualifies it as 'best neighborhood,'" they wrote.

Astorians who are bruised by this can take solance in knowing that at least 1,800 people on Twitter think their neighborhood is the best, and at very least it's the second-best in the city.

Anyone who participated or enjoyed the Big Apple Madness can tip Florek for her work on Venmo, at @Autumn-Florek.