The area known to most New Yorkers as the Waste Land is actually Westborough, a small community between Brooklyn and Queens.

Sparsely populated by New York City standards, Westborough still has a population in excess of a hundred thousand. Because of bad management by the local town council, and the fiscal austerity regime recently instituted by the city goverment, many of the usual city services (health, waste management, etc) do not reach much of the residents on a regular basis. As a result, most of the streets here are strewn with garbage.

In the early 1950s the area became a major producer of naval vessels under the management of the community's main employer, Nastrum Enterprises. Heavy industrialization sustained the area's economy.

Bad times started in the mid 1970s when Nastrum, the community's main employer, pulled up stakes for Mexico. With little tax base and corrupt officials looting the local treasury, the borough remains New York's most embarassing example of inefficiency and corruption.

The area was later dubbed the "Waste Land" in the early 80s.