The question became whether Brooklyn was prepared to engage in the still-grander process of consolidation then developing throughout the region, whether to join with the county of
Richmond and the western portion of
Queens County, and the county of
New York, which by then already included
the Bronx, to form the five boroughs of a united City of New York.
Andrew Haswell Green and other progressives said yes, and eventually, they prevailed against the
Daily Eagle and other conservative forces. In 1894, residents of Brooklyn and the other counties voted by a slight majority to merge, effective in 1898.
