Infobox Settlement
name = The City of New York
native_name =
nickname = "The Big Apple, Gotham, The City That Never Sleeps, The Capital of The World (Caput Mundi), The Empire City, The City So Nice They Named It Twice."
settlement_type =
motto =
imagesize = 270px
image_caption = From top left: Manhattan south of Rockefeller Center, the Brooklyn Bridge, United Nations Headquarters, Statue of Liberty, and Times Square
flag_size =
image_
seal_size =
image_shield =
shield_size =
city_
citylogo_size =
citylogo_size =
mapsize = 200px
map_caption = Location in the state of New York
mapsize1 =
map_caption1 =
image_dot_
dot_mapsize =
dot_map_caption =
dot_x =
dot_y =
pushpin_
pushpin_label_position =
pushpin_map_caption =
pushpin_mapsize =
subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = United States
subdivision_type1 = State
subdivision_name1 = New York
subdivision_type2 = Boroughs
subdivision_name2 = The Bronx
Brooklyn
Manhattan
Queens
Staten Island
government_foonotes =
government_type =
leader_title = Mayor
leader_name = Michael Bloomberg (I)
leader_title1 =
leader_title2 =
leader_name2 =
established_title = Settled
established_date = 1624
established_title2 =
established_date2 =
established_title3 =
established_date3 = 1898
area_magnitude = 1 E9
unit_pref = Imperial
area_footnotes =
area_total_km2 = 1214.4
area_land_km2 = 789.4
area_water_km2 = 428.8
area_total_sq_mi = 468.9
area_land_sq_mi = 304.8
area_water_sq_mi = 165.6
area_water_percent =
area_urban_km2 = 8683.2
area_urban_sq_mi = 3352.6
area_metro_km2 = 17405
area_metro_sq_mi = 6720
area_blank1_title =
area_blank1_km2 =
area_blank1_sq_mi =
population_as_of = July 1, 2007
population_footnotes = [cite web | url = http://www.census.gov/popest/cities/tables/SUB-EST2007-01.csv | title = Annual Estimates of the Population for Incorporated Places Over 100,000, Ranked by July 1, 2007 Population: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2007| format = CSV | publisher = United States Census Bureau, Population Division | date = 2008-07-10 | accessdate = 2008-08-31] ]
population_note =
population_total = 8274527 (1st U.S., 12th World)
population_density_km2 = 10482
population_density_sq_mi = 27147
population_metro = 19750000
population_density_metro_km2 =
population_density_metro_sq_mi =
population_urban = 18498000
population_density_urban_km2 =
population_density_urban_sq_mi =
population_blank1_title = Demonym
population_blank1 = New Yorker
population_density_blank1_km2 =
population_density_blank1_sq_mi =
timezone = EST
utc_offset = -5
timezone_DST = EDT
utc_offset_DST = -4
latd=40 | latm=43 | lats= | latNS=N
longd=74 | longm=00 | longs= | longEW=W
elevation_footnotes =
elevation_m = 10
elevation_ft = 33
postal_code_type =
postal_code =
area_code = 212, 718, 917, 347, 646
blank_name =
blank_info =
blank1_name =
blank1_info =
website = [http://www.nyc.gov/ www.nyc.gov]
The City of New York, most often called New York City, is the most populous city in the United States, in a metropolitan area that ranks among the world's most-populous urban areas. It is a leading global city, exerting a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, and entertainment. The city is also an important center for international affairs, hosting the United Nations headquarters.
Located on the Atlantic coast of the Northeastern United States, the city consists of five distinct boroughs: The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. It is the most densely populated major city in the United States, with an estimated 8,274,527 people[cite web |publisher=New York City Department of City Planning |title=NYC Profile |url=http://home2.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/lucds/nycprofile.pdf |accessdate=May 22, 2008|format=PDF] ][cite web |publisher="The New York Times" (May 22, 2008) |title=It’s Still a Big City, Just Not Quite So Big |first=Sam |last=Roberts |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/22/nyregion/22shrink.html |accessdate=May 22, 2008] [Union City, New Jersey is more densely populated but has a population of 63,930.] [cite web |url=http://www.demographia.com/db-2000city50kdens.htm |title=2000 Census: US Municipalities Over 50,000: Ranked by 2000 Density |publisher=Demographia |accessdate=September 1, 2008] [cite web |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau |title=Annual Estimates of the Population of Combined Metropolitan Statistical Areas: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2006 |url=http://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/metro_general/2006/CBSA-EST2006-01.csv |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20080115171647/http://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/metro_general/2006/CBSA-EST2006-01.csv |archivedate=January 1, 2008 |accessdate=September 1, 2008] The New York metropolitan area's population is also the nation's highest, estimated at 19,750,000 people over convert|6720|sqmi in three states. [Consists of two separate metropolitan statistical areas (MSA's): the New York-Northern New Jersey Long Island MSA and the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk MSA.] ]New York is largely unique among American cities for its high use of mass transit, and the overall density and diversity of its population. In 2005, nearly 170 languages were spoken in the city and 36% of its population was born outside the United States.[cite web |publisher=New York State Office of the State Comptroller |title=Queens: Economic Development and the State of the Borough Economy |month=June | year=2006 |url=http://www.osc.state.ny.us/osdc/rpt3-2007queens.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2008-09-01] ][cite web |title=The Newest New Yorkers: 2000 |publisher=New York City Department of City Planning |year=2005 |url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/census/nny_briefing_booklet.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2008-09-01] The city is sometimes referred to as "The City That Never Sleeps" due to its extensive 24-hour subway system and constant bustling of traffic and people, while other nicknames include Gotham and the Big Apple. [ [http://www.gothamcenter.org/faq.shtml Nicknames for Manhattan] ] [Irving's mocking "Salmagundi Papers", 1807, noted by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, "Gotham: A History of New York to 1898" (Oxford) 1999:xii.] ]Founded as a commercial trading post by the Dutch in 1624, it served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790,[cite web|url=http://www.senate.gov/reference/reference_item/Nine_Capitals_of_the_United_States.htm|title=The Nine Capitals of the United States |publisher=United States Senate|accessdate=2008-09-07] and has been the nation's largest city since 1790. The Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Wall Street, in Lower Manhattan, has been a dominant global financial center since World War II and is home to the New York Stock Exchange. Today, the city has many renowned landmarks and neighborhoods that are world famous. The city has been home to several of the tallest buildings in the world, including the Empire State Building and the twin towers of the former World Trade Center.]New York is the birthplace of many cultural movements, including the Harlem Renaissance in literature and visual art, abstract expressionism (also known as the New York School) in painting, and hip hop,[cite book |first=David |last=Toop |title=Rap Attack 2: African Rap to Global Hip Hop|publisher=Serpents Tail |year=1992 |isbn=1852422432] punk, [cite web |url=http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/american.html |accessdate=2008-09-01 |title=A timeline of the USA |first=Piero |last=Scaruffi] salsa, disco and Tin Pan Alley in music. It is also the home of Broadway theater.]History
The region was inhabited by about 5,000 Lenape Native Americans at the time of its European discovery in 1524 [ [http://www.gothamcenter.org/ "Gotham Center for New York City History"] Timeline 1500 - 1700] by Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian explorer in the service of the French crown, who called it "Nouvelle Angoulême" (New Angoulême).[cite book |title=New York: the World's Capital City, Its Development and Contributions to Progress |author=Rankin, Rebecca B., Cleveland Rodgers |publisher=Harper |year=1948] European settlement began with the founding of a Dutch fur trading settlement, later called "Nieuw Amsterdam" (New Amsterdam), on the southern tip of Manhattan in 1614. Dutch colonial Director-General Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan from the Lenape in 1626 for a value of 60 guilders (about $1000 in 2006); [ cite web|url=http://www.iisg.nl/hpw/calculate.php |title=Value of the Guilder / Euro |accessdate=2008-08-19 |publisher=International Institute of Social History ] a legend, now disproved, says that Manhattan was purchased for $24 worth of glass beads. [The message of the purchase, which was sent to Amsterdam, is present in the National Archive in The Hague.] [cite journal |last=Miller, Christopher L., George R. Hamell |month=September | title=A New Perspective on Indian-White Contact: Cultural Symbols and Colonial Trade |journal=The Journal of American History |volume=73 |issue=2 |url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723%28198609%2973%3A2%3C311%3AANPOIC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-A |accessdate=2007-03-21 |month=Sep |year=1986 |pages=311 |doi=10.2307/1908224] In 1664, the English conquered the city and renamed it "New York" after the English Duke of York and Albany. [cite book |title=The Historical Atlas of New York City: A Visual Celebration of 400 Years of New York City's History |author=Homberger, Eric |year=2005 |pages=p. 34 |publisher=Owl Books |isbn=0805078428] At the end of the Second Anglo-Dutch War the Dutch gained control of Run (a much more valuable asset at the time) in exchange for the English controlling New Amsterdam (New York) in North America. By 1700, the Lenape population was diminished to 200. [ [http://www.gothamcenter.org/ "Gotham Center for New York City History"] Timeline 1700-1800] ]New York City grew in importance as a trading port while under British rule. The city hosted the seminal John Peter Zenger trial in 1735, helping to establish the freedom of the press in North America. In 1754, Columbia University was founded under charter by George II of Great Britain as King's College in Lower Manhattan. [cite book |title=An Historical Sketch of Columbia College, in the City of New York, 1754-1876 |author=Moore, Nathaniel Fish |year=1876 |pages=p. 8 |publisher=Columbia College] The Stamp Act Congress met in New York in October of 1765.
The city emerged as the theater for a series of major battles known as the New York Campaign during the American Revolutionary War. After the Battle of Fort Washington in upper Manhattan in 1776 the city became the British military and political base of operations in North America until military occupation ended in 1783. The assembly of the Congress of the Confederation made New York City the national capital shortly thereafter; the Constitution of the United States was ratified and in 1789 the first President of the United States, George Washington, was inaugurated there; the first United States Congress assembled for the first time in 1789, and the United States Bill of Rights drafted; all at Federal Hall on Wall Street. [cite web |title=The People's Vote: President George Washington's First Inaugural Speech (1789) |publisher=U.S. News and World Report |url=http://www.usnews.com/usnews/documents/docpages/document_page11.htm |accessdate=2008-09-01] By 1790, New York City had surpassed Philadelphia as the largest city in the United States.
In the 19th century, the city was transformed by immigration and development. A visionary development proposal, the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, expanded the city street grid to encompass all of Manhattan, and the 1819 opening of the Erie Canal connected the Atlantic port to the vast agricultural markets of the North American interior. [cite book
author=Bridges, William |title=Map Of The City Of New York And Island Of Manhattan With Explanatory Remarks And References |year=1811; Lankevich (1998), pp. 67–68.] Local politics fell under the domination of Tammany Hall, a political machine supported by Irish immigrants. [cite book |title=Fernando Wood: A Political Biography |author=Mushkat, Jerome Mushkat |publisher=Kent State University Press |year=1990 |pages=p. 36 |isbn=087338413X] Public-minded members of the old merchant aristocracy lobbied for the establishment of Central Park, which became the first landscaped park in an American city in 1857. A significant free-black population also existed in Manhattan, as well as in Brooklyn. Slaves had been held in New York through 1827, but during the 1830s New York became a center of interracial abolitionist activism in the North.
Anger at military conscription during the American Civil War (1861–1865) led to the Draft Riots of 1863, one of the worst incidents of civil unrest in American history. [cite book |title=The Armies of the Streets: The New York City Draft Riots of 1863 |author=Cook, Adrian |year=1974 |pages=pp. 193-195] In 1898, the modern City of New York was formed with the consolidation of Brooklyn (until then an independent city), the County of New York (which then included parts of the Bronx), the County of Richmond, and the western portion of the County of Queens. [ [http://www.nyc.gov/html/nyc100/html/classroom/hist_info/100aniv.html The 100 Year Anniversary of the Consolidation of the 5 Boroughs into New York City] , New York City. Accessed June 29, 2007.] The opening of the New York City Subway in 1904 helped bind the new city together. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the city became a world center for industry, commerce, and communication. However, this development did not come without a price. In 1904, the steamship General Slocum caught fire in the East River, killing 1,021 people on board. In 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the city's worst industrial disaster, took the lives of 146 garment workers and spurred the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and major improvements in factory safety standards.[cite web |url=http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/ |title=Cornell University Library: Triangle Factory Fire |publisher=Cornell University |accessdate=2008-09-01] ]In the 1920s, New York City was a major destination for African Americans during the Great Migration from the American South. By 1916, New York City was home to the largest urban African diaspora in North America. The Harlem Renaissance flourished during the era of Prohibition, coincident with a larger economic boom that saw the skyline develop with the construction of competing skyscrapers. New York City became the most populous urbanized area in the world in early 1920s, overtaking London, and surpassed the 10 million mark in early 1930s becoming the first megacity in human history. [ [http://www.demographia.com/db-nyuza1800.htm New York Urbanized Area: Population & Density from 1800 (Provisional) ] ] The difficult years of the Great Depression saw the election of reformer Fiorello LaGuardia as mayor and the fall of Tammany Hall after eighty years of political dominance. [cite book|title=The Tiger – The Rise and Fall of Tammany Hall |author=Allen, Oliver E. |publisher=Addison-Wesley Publishing Company |accessdate=2007-05-25 |chapter=Chapter 9: The Decline |year=1993]
Returning World War II veterans and immigrants from Europe created a postwar economic boom and the development of huge housing tracts in eastern Queens. New York emerged from the war unscathed and the leading city of the world, with Wall Street leading America's ascendance as the world's dominant economic power, the United Nations headquarters (completed in 1950) emphasizing New York's political influence, and the rise of abstract expressionism in the city precipitating New York's displacement of Paris as the center of the art world. [cite web |title=The Center of the World - New York: A Documentary Film (Transcript) |author=Burns, Ric |publisher=PBS |url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/newyork/filmmore/pt.html| accessdate=2008-09-01 |date=2003-08-22] In the 1960s, New York suffered from economic problems, rising crime rates and racial tension, which reached a peak in the 1970s.
In the 1980s, resurgence in the financial industry improved the city's fiscal health. By the 1990s, racial tensions had calmed, crime rates dropped dramatically, and waves of new immigrants arrived from Asia and Latin America. Important new sectors, such as Silicon Alley, emerged in the city's economy and New York's population reached an all-time high in the 2000 census.
The city was one of the sites of the September 11, 2001 attacks, when nearly 3,000 people died in the destruction of the World Trade Center. [cite news |url=http://www.nysun.com/new-york/missing-doctor-added-to-list-of-9-11-victims/81626/ |title=2008 9/11 Death Toll |date=July 2008|publisher=Associated Press |accessdate=2006-09-11] The Freedom Tower, along with a memorial and three other office towers, will be built on the site and is scheduled for completion in 2013.[cite news | title = Report: WTC Faces Up To 3-Year Delay | url = http://www.nypost.com/seven/06302008/news/regionalnews/report__wtc_faces_up_to_3_year_delay_117912.htm | work = Associated Press via "New York Post". | location = New York, New York | date = 2008-06-30 | accessdate = 2008-07-05 ] ]Geography
New York City is located in the Northeastern United States, in southeastern New York State, approximately halfway between Washington, D.C. and Boston. [Washington, DC is convert|228|mi|km|0 driving distance from New York City, and Boston is convert|217|mi|km|0 driving distance from New York. - [http://maps.google.com/ Google Maps] ] The location at the mouth of the Hudson River, which feeds into a naturally sheltered harbor and then into the Atlantic Ocean, has helped the city grow in significance as a trading city. Much of New York is built on the three islands of Manhattan, Staten Island, and Long Island, making land scarce and encouraging a high population density.
The Hudson River flows through the Hudson Valley into New York Bay. Between New York City and Troy, New York, the river is an estuary. [cite web |url=http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/marinebio/fc.1.estuaries.html |title=Information about the Hudson River estuary] The Hudson separates the city from New Jersey. The East River, actually a tidal strait, flows from Long Island Sound and separates the Bronx and Manhattan from Long Island. The Harlem River, another tidal strait between the East and Hudson Rivers, separates Manhattan from the Bronx.
The city's land has been altered considerably by human intervention, with substantial land reclamation along the waterfronts since Dutch colonial times. Reclamation is most notable in Lower Manhattan, with developments such as Battery Park City in the 1970s and 1980s.[cite book |author=Gillespie, Angus K. |year=1999 |title=Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center |publisher=Rutgers University Press |pages=p. 71] Some of the natural variations in topography have been evened out, particularly in Manhattan. [cite book |author=Lopate , Phillip |title=Waterfront: A Walk Around Manhattan |publisher=Anchor Press |year=2004 |isbn=0385497148] ]The city's land area is estimated at convert|304.8|sqmi|km2|2|.
Climate
New York City has a humid subtropical climate according to the Köppen climate classification, because the coldest month's (January's) average temperature is 29°F (–1.5°C) at John F. Kennedy International Airport and 32°F (0°C) in Central Park. The city enjoys an average of 234 sunny days a year.
Summers are typically hot and humid with average high temperatures of 79–84°F (26–29°C) and lows of 63–69°F (17–21°C).Winters are cold, but the city's coastal position keeps temperatures slightly milder than inland regions, with high temperatures of just above freezing and lows of just below freezing.[cite web |title=The Climate of New York |publisher=New York State Climate Office |url=http://nysc.eas.cornell.edu/climate_of_ny.html |accessdate=2008-09-01] Spring and autumn are erratic, and can range from cool to hot, although they are usually pleasantly mild with low humidity.][cite web |title=Weatherbase |publisher=New York State Climate Office |url=http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=330527&refer=&units=metric |accessdate=2008-09-01] Temperature extremes do occur, with temperatures rising above 90°F (32°C) on an average of 20–25 days each year, and dropping down to 10°F (–12°C) during a few days each winter. ]The annual precipitation, which is spread fairly evenly throughout the year, is around 46 inches (117 cm). [For the 30 years between 1971 and 2000, the average annual precipitation was 49.69 inches (126.2 cm) at the airport. U.S. Census Bureau, "Statistical Abstract of the United States 2003", Table no. 392: "Normal Monthly and Annual Precipitation — Selected Cities", citing the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, "Climatograpy of the United States", No. 81] The average winter snowfall is around 25 inches (63.5 cm), but this often varies considerably from year to year. Thunderstorms, which occasionally reach severe limits, are common during the summer months.
Though not usually associated with hurricanes, New York City is susceptible to them, notably the 1821 Norfolk and Long Island hurricane, which flooded southern Manhattan, and the New England Hurricane of 1938, which brushed the eastern end of the city. The city's long-term climate patterns have been affected by the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, a 70-year-long warming and cooling cycle in the Atlantic that influences the frequency and severity of coastal storms in the region. [cite web |author=Riley, Mary Elizabeth |title=Assessing the Impact of Interannual Climate Variability on New York City's Reservoir System |year=2006 |publisher=Cornell University Graduate School for Atmospheric Science |url=http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/2623/1/MER+Thesis-new.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2008-09-01] Although direct strikes from hurricanes are very rare in New York, the city has been identified as one of the three cities in the United States most vulnerable to hurricanes, mainly due to its many narrow river channels, tall skyscrapers, large population, and low-lying infrastructure and coastal subway system, the other two cities being New Orleans and Miami.[cite book|last=Tidwell|first=Mike|title="The Ravaging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, and the Coming Death of America's Coastal Cities|publisher=Free Press|year=2006|isbn=0-7432-9470-X] ]Infobox Weather
metric_first=
single_line=Yes
location=New York City (Central Park)
Jan_Hi_°F = 38 | Jan_REC_Hi_°F = 72
Feb_Hi_°F = 41 | Feb_REC_Hi_°F = 75
Mar_Hi_°F = 50 | Mar_REC_Hi_°F = 86
Apr_Hi_°F = 61 | Apr_REC_Hi_°F = 96
May_Hi_°F = 71 | May_REC_Hi_°F = 99
Jun_Hi_°F = 79 | Jun_REC_Hi_°F = 101
Jul_Hi_°F = 84 | Jul_REC_Hi_°F = 106
Aug_Hi_°F = 82 | Aug_REC_Hi_°F = 104
Sep_Hi_°F = 75 | Sep_REC_Hi_°F = 102
Oct_Hi_°F = 64 | Oct_REC_Hi_°F = 94
Nov_Hi_°F = 53 | Nov_REC_Hi_°F = 84
Dec_Hi_°F = 43 | Dec_REC_Hi_°F = 75
Year_Hi_°F = | Year_REC_Hi_°F =
Jan_Lo_°F = 26 | Jan_REC_Lo_°F = -6
Feb_Lo_°F = 28 | Feb_REC_Lo_°F = -15
Mar_Lo_°F = 35 | Mar_REC_Lo_°F = 3
Apr_Lo_°F = 44 | Apr_REC_Lo_°F = 12
May_Lo_°F = 54 | May_REC_Lo_°F = 32
Jun_Lo_°F = 63 | Jun_REC_Lo_°F = 44
Jul_Lo_°F = 69 | Jul_REC_Lo_°F = 52
Aug_Lo_°F = 68 | Aug_REC_Lo_°F = 50
Sep_Lo_°F = 60 | Sep_REC_Lo_°F = 39
Oct_Lo_°F = 50 | Oct_REC_Lo_°F = 28
Nov_Lo_°F = 41 | Nov_REC_Lo_°F = 7
Dec_Lo_°F = 32 | Dec_REC_Lo_°F = -13
Year_Lo_°F = | Year_REC_Lo_°F =
Jan_Precip_inch = 4.13
Feb_Precip_inch = 3.15
Mar_Precip_inch = 4.37
Apr_Precip_inch = 4.28
May_Precip_inch = 4.69
Jun_Precip_inch = 3.84
Jul_Precip_inch = 4.62
Aug_Precip_inch = 4.22
Sep_Precip_inch = 4.23
Oct_Precip_inch = 3.85
Nov_Precip_inch = 4.36
Dec_Precip_inch = 3.95
Year_Precip_inch =
source=[cite web]
url=http://www.erh.noaa.gov/okx/climate_cms.html |from=yest_bottomnav_undeclared |title=Average Weather for New York, NY - Temperature and Precipitation |accessmonthday=August 12 |accessyear=2008 |publisher=NOAA/National Weather Service ]
accessdate=
Environment
Mass transit use in New York City is the highest in United States and gasoline consumption in the city is at the rate the national average was in the 1920s.[cite book |first=Ben |last=Jervey |title=The Big Green Apple: Your Guide to Eco-Friendly Living in New York City |isbn=0762738359 |publisher=Globe Pequot Press |year=2006] New York City's high rate of transit use saved 1.8 billion gallons of oil in 2006; New York saves half of all the oil saved by transit nationwide. [cite web |title=A Better Way to Go: Meeting America's 21st Century Transportation Challenges with Modern Public Transit |publisher=U.S. Public Interest Research Group |month=March | year=2008 |url=http://www.uspirg.org/uploads/2q/fV/2qfVu2ZrflTk-TnRQEDdDw/A-Better-Way-to-Go-vUSPIRG.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2008-04-23] The city's population density, low automobile use and high transit utility make it among the most energy efficient cities in the United States. [cite news |author=Owen, David |title=Green Manhattan |publisher=The New Yorker |date=October 18, 2004] New York City's greenhouse gas emissions are 7.1 metric tons per person compared with the national average of 24.5.][cite web |title=Inventory of New York City Greenhouse Gas Emissions |publisher=New York City Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability |month=April | year=2007 |url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/pdf/ccp_report041007.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2008-09-01] though comprising 2.7% of the nation's population. The average New Yorker consumes less than half the electricity used by a resident of San Francisco and nearly one-quarter the electricity consumed by a resident of Dallas. [cite web |url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/planyc2030/html/challenge/faq.shtml |title=Global Warming and Greenhouse Gases |publisher=PlaNYC/The City of New York |date=2006-12-06 |accessdate=2008-09-01] ]In recent years the city has focused on reducing its environmental impact. Large amounts of concentrated pollution in New York City led to high incidence of asthma and other respiratory conditions among the city's residents. [cite journal |title=Urban Asthma and the Neighbourhood Environment in New York City |author=Coburn, Jason, Jeffrey Osleeb, Michael Porter |journal=Health & Place |month=June | year=2006 |volume=12(2) |pages=pp. 167–179 |pmid=16338632] The city government is required to purchase only the most energy-efficient equipment for use in city offices and public housing. [cite news |author=DePalma, Anthony |title=It Never Sleeps, but It's Learned to Douse the Lights |publisher=The New York Times |date=December 11, 2005 |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/nyregion/11efficiency.html |accessdate=2008-09-01] New York has the largest clean air diesel-hybrid and compressed natural gas bus fleet in the country, and some of the first hybrid taxis. [cite web |url=http://www.mta.info/nyct/bus/centennial/page2.htm |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20060525043420/http://mta.info/nyct/bus/centennial/page2.htm |archivedate=2006-05-25 |title=A Century of Buses in New York City |publisher=Metropolitan Transportation Authority |accessdate=2008-09-01 See also cite press release |url=http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/releases/pr2005-07-01a.asp |title=New York City's Yellow Cabs Go Green |publisher=Sierra Club |date=July 1, 2005 |accessdate=2008-09-01] The city government was a petitioner in the landmark Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency Supreme Court case forcing the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases as pollutants. The city is also a leader in the construction of energy-efficient green office buildings, including the Hearst Tower among others.[cite news |title=7 World Trade Center and Hearst Building: New York's Test Cases for Environmentally Aware Office Towers |publisher=The New York Times |date=April 16, 2006 |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/16/arts/design/16gree.html |accessdate=2008-09-01 |author=Pogrebin, Robin] ]New York City is supplied with drinking water by the protected Catskill Mountains watershed. [cite web |url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/maplevels.html |title=Current Reservoir Levels |publisher=New York City Department of Environmental Protection |accessdate=2007-06-04] As a result of the watershed's integrity and undisturbed natural water filtration process, New York is one of only four major cities in the United States with drinking water pure enough not to require purification by water treatment plants. [cite news |title=City's Drinking Water Feared Endangered; $10B Cost Seen |publisher=The New York Sun |date=August 6, 2008 |url=http://www.nysun.com/new-york/citys-drinking-water-feared-endangered-10b-cost/83288/ |accessdate=2008-08-09 |author=Lustgarten, Abrahm]
Cityscape
Architecture
The building form most closely associated with New York City is the skyscraper, that saw New York buildings shift from the low-scale European tradition to the vertical rise of business districts. As of August 2008, New York City has 5,538 highrise buildings, [cite web|url=http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/bu/sk/?id=101028|title=High-rise Buildings of New York City|publisher=Emporis.com|accessdate=2008-08-22] with 50 completed skyscrapers taller than 656 feet (200 m). This is more than any other city in United States, and second in the world behind Hong Kong.[cite web|url=http://www.emporis.com/en/bu/sk/st/sr/|title=Emporis Skyline Ranking|accessdate=2008-06-16|publisher=Emporis.com] Surrounded mostly by water, the city's residential density and high real estate values in commercial districts saw the city amass the largest collection of individual, free-standing office and residential towers in the world. [cite web |publisher=Emporis |title=About New York City |url=http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/?id=newyorkcity-ny-usa |accessdate=2008-09-01] Failed verification|date=August 2008]New York has architecturally significant buildings in a wide range of styles. These include the Woolworth Building (1913), an early gothic revival skyscraper built with massively scaled gothic detailing able to be read from street level several hundred feet below. The 1916 Zoning Resolution required setback in new buildings, and restricted towers to a percentage of the lot size, to allow sunlight to reach the streets below. [cite journal |title=The Metropolitan Dimension of Early Zoning: Revisiting the 1916 New York City Ordinance |author=Fischler, Raphael |journal=Journal of the American Planning Association |volume=64(2) |year=1998] The Art Deco design of the Chrysler Building (1930), with its tapered top and steel spire, reflected the zoning requirements. The building is considered by many historians and architects to be New York's finest building, with its distinctive ornamentation such as replicas at the corners of the 61st floor of the 1928 Chrysler eagle hood ornaments and V-shaped lighting inserts capped by a steel spire at the tower's crown. [cite web |title=Favorites! 100 Experts Pick Their top 10 New York Towers |publisher=The Skyscraper Museum |date=January 22, 2006 |url=http://www.skyscraper.org/EXHIBITIONS/FAVORITES/fav_exhibits.htm# |accessdate=2008-09-01] A highly influential example of the international style in the United States is the Seagram Building (1957), distinctive for its facade using visible bronze-toned I-beams to evoke the building's structure. The Condé Nast Building (2000) is an important example of green design in American skyscrapers.
The character of New York's large residential districts is often defined by the elegant brownstone rowhouses, townhouses, and shabby tenements that were built during a period of rapid expansion from 1870 to 1930. [cite book |title=History of Housing in New York City: Dwelling Type and Change in the American Metropolis |author=Plunz, Richar A. |chapter=Chapters 3 [Rich and Poor] & 4 [Beyond the Tenement] |year=1990 |publisher=Columbia University Press |id=ISBN 0231062974] Stone and brick became the city's building materials of choice after the construction of wood-frame houses was limited in the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1835.[Lankevich (1998), pp. 82–83; cite book |title=New York: Old & New: Its Story, Streets, and Landmarks |author=Wilson, Rufus Rockwell |year=1902 |publisher=J.B. Lippincott |pages=p. 354] Unlike Paris, which for centuries was built from its own limestone bedrock, New York has always drawn its building stone from a far-flung network of quarries and its stone buildings have a variety of textures and hues. [cite book |author=B. Diamonstein–Spielvoegel, Barbaralee |title=The Landmarks of New York |publisher=Monacelli Press |year=2005 |id=ISBN 1580931545 See also cite book |author=Whyte, William H. |title=The WPA Guide to New York City |year=1939 |publisher=New Press |id=ISBN 1565843215] A distinctive feature of many of the city's buildings is the presence of wooden roof-mounted water towers. In the 1800s, the city required their installation on buildings higher than six stories to prevent the need for excessively high water pressures at lower elevations, which could burst municipal water pipes. [cite web |title=Wondering About Water Towers |author=Elliot, Debbie |publisher=National Public Radio |date=2006-12-02 |url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6567297 |accessdate=2008-09-01] Garden apartments became popular during the 1920s in outlying areas, including Jackson Heights in Queens, which became more accessible with expansion of the subway. [cite book |title=722 Miles: The Building of the Subways and how They Transformed New York |author=Hood, Clifton |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2004 |pages=pp. 175–177] ]Parks
New York City has over convert|28000|acre|ha of municipal parkland and 14 miles (22 km) of public beaches. [cite web |url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/html/99a/pr042-99.html |title=Mayor Giuliani Announces Amount of Parkland in New York City has Passed 28,000-acre Mark |date=February 3, 1999 |publisher=New York City Mayor's Office |accessdate=2008-09-01; cite web |url=http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_things_to_do/facilities/af_beaches.html |title=Beaches |publisher=New York City Department of Parks & Recreation |accessdate=2008-09-01] This parkland is augmented by thousands of acres of Gateway National Recreation Area, part of the National Park system, that lie within city boundaries. The Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, the only wildlife refuge in the National Park System, alone is over convert|9000|acre|ha of marsh islands and water taking up most of Jamaica Bay. Manhattan's Central Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, is the most visited city park in the United States with 30 million visitors each year — 10 million more than Lincoln Park in Chicago, which is 2nd.
Boroughs
New York City is composed of five boroughs, an unusual form of government. [cite book |title=Regionalism and realism: A Study of Government in the New York Metropolitan Area |author=Benjamin, Gerald, Richard P. Nathan |year=1990 |publisher=Brookings Institute |pages=p. 59] Each borough is coextensive with a respective county of New York State as shown below. Throughout the boroughs there are hundreds of distinct , many with a definable history and character to call their own. If the boroughs were each independent cities, four of the boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx) would be among the ten most populous cities in the United States.
* The Bronx (Bronx County: Pop. 1,373,659)
* Brooklyn (Kings County: Pop. 2,528,050)[cite web |publisher=New York Post |title=Big Apple Coming to Its Census |url=http://www.nypost.com/seven/03202008/news/regionalnews/big_apple_coming_to_its_census_102755.htm |accessdate=2008-03-20] is the city's most populous borough and was an independent city until 1898. Brooklyn is known for its cultural, social and ethnic diversity, an independent art scene, distinct neighborhoods and a unique architectural heritage. It is also the only borough outside of Manhattan with a distinct downtown area. The borough features a long beachfront and Coney Island, established in the 1870s as one of the earliest amusement grounds in the country. [cite book |title=Coney Island: The People's Playground |author=Immerso, Michael |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=2002 |pages=p. 3 |id=ISBN 0813531381] ]
* Manhattan (New York County: Pop. 1,620,867)
* Queens (Queens County: Pop. 2,270,338)[cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/nyregion/04fourth.html |author=O'Donnell, Michelle |title=In Queens, It's the Glorious 4th, and 6th, and 16th, and 25th... |publisher=New York Times|date=July 4, 2006 |accessdate=2008-09-01] and may overtake Brooklyn as the city's most populous borough due to its growth. Historically a collection of small towns and villages founded by the Dutch, today the borough is largely residential and middle class. It is the only large county in the United States where the median income among African Americans, approximately $52,000 a year, is higher than that of White Americans. [cite news |title=Black Incomes Surpass Whites in Queens |author=Roberts, Sam |publisher=The New York Times |date=January 10, 2006 |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/nyregion/01census.html?ref=nyregion |accessdate=2008-09-01] Queens is the site of Shea Stadium, the home of the New York Mets, and annually hosts the U.S. Open tennis tournament. Additionally, it is home to New York City's two major airports, LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport.]
* Staten Island (Richmond County: Pop. 481,613) Culture and contemporary life
"Culture just seems to be in the air, like part of the weather", the writer Tom Wolfe has said of New York City. [cite press release |title=Speeches: Tom Christopher Exhibit Opening |publisher=Consulate General of the United States: Frankfurt, Germany |date=May 9, 2007 |url=http://frankfurt.usconsulate.gov/frankfurt/speech05092007b.html |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20070723115555/http://frankfurt.usconsulate.gov/frankfurt/speech05092007.html |archivedate=2007-07-23 |accessdate=2008-09-01] Numerous major American cultural movements began in the city, such as the Harlem Renaissance, which established the African-American literary canon in the United States. The city was a center of jazz in the 1940s, abstract expressionism in the 1950s and the birthplace of hip hop in the 1970s. The city's punk and hardcore scenes were influential in the 1970s and 1980s, and the city has long had a flourishing scene for Jewish American literature. Prominent indie rock bands coming out of New York in recent years include The Strokes, Interpol, The Bravery, Scissor Sisters, and They Might Be Giants.
Entertainment and performing arts
The city is also important in the American film industry. "Manhatta" (1920), an early avant-garde film, was filmed in the city. [cite video |people=Bruce Posner |title=Picturing a Metropolis: New York City Unveiled |medium=DVD |publisher=Unseen Cinema |year=2005] Today, New York City is the second largest center for the film industry in the United States. The city has more than 2,000 arts and cultural organizations and more than 500 art galleries of all sizes.[cite web |title=Creative New York |publisher=Center for an Urban Future |month=December | year=2005 |url=http://www.nycfuture.org/images_pdfs/pdfs/CREATIVE_NEW_YORK.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2008-09-01] The city government funds the arts with a larger annual budget than the National Endowment for the Arts.]Strongly influenced by the city's immigrants, productions such as those of Harrigan and Hart, George M. Cohan and others used song in narratives that often reflected themes of hope and ambition. Today these productions are a mainstay of the New York theatre scene. The city's 39 largest theatres (with more than 500 seats) are collectively known as "Broadway," after the major thoroughfare that crosses the Times Square theatre district. [cite news |url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20040606-9999-1a6tony.html |title=2 plays + 9 nominations=good odds for locals |publisher=San Diego Union-Tribune |author=Welsh, Anne Marie |date=June 6, 2004 |accessdate=2008-09-01] This area is sometimes referred to as The Main Stem, The Great White Way or The Realto.
The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which includes Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the New York City Ballet, the Vivian Beaumont Theatre, the Juilliard School and Alice Tully Hall, is the largest performing arts center in the United States. Central Park SummerStage presents performances of free plays and music in Central Park and 1,200 free concerts, dance, and theater events across all five boroughs in the summer months. [cite web |title=Summerstage: Our Mission |url=http://www.summerstage.org/index.aspx?lobid=854 |publisher=Summerstage.org |accessdate=2008-09-01]
New York City is considered by many to be the heart of stand-up comedy in the United States. [ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand-up_comedy] ] [ [http://www.tarabrodin.com/company.php tara brodin | company ] ]
Cuisine
New York's food culture, influenced by the city's immigrants and large number of dining patrons, is diverse. Jewish and Italian immigrants have made the city famous for bagels, cheesecake, and New York-style pizza. Some 4,000 mobile food vendors licensed by the city, many immigrant-owned, have made Middle Eastern foods such as falafels and kebabs standbys of contemporary New York street food, although hot dogs and pretzels are still the main street fare. [cite news |title=Kebabs on the Night Shift |first=Jennifer |last=Bleyer |publisher=The New York Times |date=May 14, 2006 |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/nyregion/thecity/14vend.html|accessdate=2008-09-01] The city is also home to many of the finest haute cuisine restaurants in the United States. [cite news |title=Michelin Takes on the City, Giving Some a Bad Taste |first=Glenn |last=Collins |publisher=The New York Times |date=November 3, 2005 |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E0D9163EF930A35752C1A9639C8B63 |accessdate=2006-07-19]
Media
New York is a global center for the television, advertising, music, newspaper and book publishing industries and is also the largest media market in North America (followed by Los Angeles, Chicago, and Toronto). [cite press release |title=Tampa Bay 12th largest media market now |publisher=Tampa Bay Partnership |date=August 26, 2006 |url=http://tampabay.org/press.asp?rls_id=991& |accessdate=2008-09-01] Some of the city's media conglomerates include Time Warner, the News Corporation, the Hearst Corporation, and Viacom. Seven of the world's top eight global advertising agency networks are headquartered in New York. [ [http://adage.com/datacenter/datapopup.php?article_id=116384 Top 10 Consolidated Agency Networks: Ranked by 2006 Worldwide Network Revenue] , "Advertising Age" Agency Report 2007 Index (April 25, 2007). Retrieved on June 8, 2007.] Three of the "Big Four" record labels are also based in the city, as well as in Los Angeles. One-third of all American independent films are produced in New York.[cite web |title=Request for Expressions of Interest |publisher=The Governors Island Preservation & Education Corporation |year=2005 |url=http://www.govisland.com/PDFs/RFEI/RFEI.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2008-09-01] More than 200 newspapers and 350 consumer magazines have an office in the city]Two of the three national daily newspapers in the United States are New York papers: "The Wall Street Journal" and "The New York Times". Major tabloid newspapers in the city include "The New York Daily News" and "The New York Post", founded in 1801 by Alexander Hamilton. The city also has a major ethnic press, with 270 newspapers and magazines published in more than 40 languages. [cite news |title=Ethnic Press Booms In New York City |publisher=Editor & Publisher |date=July 10, 2002 |url=http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1538594 |accessdate=2008-09-01] "El Diario La Prensa" is New York's largest Spanish-language daily and the oldest in the nation. [cite web |url=http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=e4526a43cc213775795cc84762fce768 |title=el diario/La Prensa: The Nation's Oldest Spanish-Language Daily |date=July 27, 2005 |publisher=New America Media |accessdate=2008-09-01] "The New York Amsterdam News", published in Harlem, is a prominent African American newspaper. "The Village Voice" is the largest alternative newspaper.
The television industry developed in New York and is a significant employer in the city's economy. The four major American broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, are all headquartered in New York. Many cable channels are based in the city as well, including MTV, Fox News, HBO and Comedy Central. In 2005, there were more than 100 television shows taped in New York City. [cite press release |title=2005 is banner year for production in New York |publisher=The City of New York Mayor's Office of Film, Theater and Broadcasting |date=December 28, 2005 |url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/film/html/news/010106_2005_banner_year.shtml |accessdate=2008-09-01]
New York is also a major center for non-commercial media. The oldest public-access television channel in the United States is the Manhattan Neighborhood Network, founded in 1971. [ [http://www.mnn.org/en/community-celebrates-public-access-tvs-35th-annive Community Celebrates Public Access TV's 35th Anniversary] , Manhattan Neighborhood Network press release dated August 6, 2006. Accessed April 28, 2007. "Public access TV was created in the 1970s to allow ordinary members of the public to make and air their own TV shows—and thereby exercise their free speech. It was first launched in the U.S. in Manhattan July 1, 1971, on the Teleprompter and Sterling Cable systems, now Time Warner Cable."] WNET is the city's major public television station and a primary provider of national PBS programming. WNYC, a public radio station owned by the city until 1997, has the largest public radio audience in the United States. [cite web |publisher=Radio Research Consortium |title=Top 30 Public Radio Subscribers: Spring 2006 Arbitron |date=August 28, 2006 |url=http://www.rrconline.org/reports/pdf/Sp06%20eRanks.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2008-09-01] The City of New York operates a public broadcast service, nyctv, that produces several original Emmy Award-winning shows covering music and culture in city neighborhoods, as well as city government.
Accent
The New York City area has a distinctive regional speech pattern called the New York dialect, alternatively known as Brooklynese or New Yorkese. It is often considered to be one of the most recognizable accents within American English. [Newman, Michael (2005) "New York Talk" in "American Voices" Walt Wolfram and Ben Ward (eds). p.82-87 Blackwell ISBN 1-4051-2109-2] The classic version of this dialect is centered on middle and working class people of European American descent, and the influx of non-European immigrants in recent decades has led to changes in this distinctive dialect.The traditional New York area accent is non-rhotic, so that the sound IPA| [ɹ] does not appear at the end of a syllable or immediately before a consonant; hence the pronunciation of the city as "New Yawk."[ There is no IPA| [ɹ] in words like "park" IPA| [pɔːk] (with vowel raised due to the low-back chain shift), "butter" IPA| [bʌɾə] , or "here" IPA| [hiə] . In another feature called the low back chain shift, the IPA| [ɔ] vowel sound of words like "talk", "law", "cross", and "coffee" and the often homophonous IPA| [ɔr] in "core" and "more" are tensed and usually raised more than in General American.]In the most old-fashioned and extreme versions of the New York dialect, the vowel sounds of words like "girl" and of words like "oil" both become a diphthong IPA| [ɜɪ] . This is often misperceived by speakers of other accents as a reversal of the "er" and "oy" sounds, so that "girl" is pronounced "goil" and "oil" is pronounced "erl"; this leads to the caricature of New Yorkers saying things like "Joizey" (Jersey), "Toidy-Toid Street" (33rd St.) and "terlet" (toilet).[ The character Archie Bunker from the 1970s sitcom "All in the Family" was a good example of a speaker who had this feature. This particular speech pattern is no longer very prevalent.][Sontag, Deborah. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE0D61438F937A25751C0A965958260 "Oy Gevalt! New Yawkese An Endangered Dialect?"] , "The New York Times", February 14, 1993. Accessed July 8, 2007.] ] Sports
New York City has teams in the four major North American professional sports leagues.
New York is one of the few areas of the United States where baseball, rather than American football, remains the most popular sport. There have been fourteen World Series championship series between New York City teams, in matchups called Subway Series. New York is one of only five metro areas (Chicago, Washington-Baltimore, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area being the others) to have two baseball teams. The city's two current Major League Baseball teams are the New York Yankees and the New York Mets, who compete in six games every regular season. The Yankees have enjoyed 26 world titles, while the Mets have taken the Series twice. The city also was once home to the New York Giants (now the San Francisco Giants) and the Brooklyn Dodgers (now the Los Angeles Dodgers). Both teams moved to California in 1958. There are also two minor league baseball teams in the city, the Staten Island Yankees and Brooklyn Cyclones.
The city is represented in the National Football League by the New York Jets and New York Giants (officially the New York Football Giants), although both teams play their home games in Giants Stadium in nearby New Jersey.
The New York Rangers represent the city in the National Hockey League. Within the metro area are two other teams, the New Jersey Devils and the New York Islanders, who play in Long Island. This is the only instance of any metro area having 3 teams within one of the 4 major North American professional sports leagues.
In Association football, New York is represented by the Major League Soccer side, Red Bull New York. The "Red Bulls" also play their home games at the Giants Stadium in New Jersey.
The city's National Basketball Association team is the New York Knicks and the city's Women's National Basketball Association team is the New York Liberty. The first national college-level basketball championship, the National Invitation Tournament, was held in New York in 1938 and remains in the city. [cite web |url=http://www.nit.org/history/nit-postseason.html |title=Postseason Overview |publisher=National Invitation Tournament |accessdate=2008-09-01] Rucker Park in Harlem is a celebrated court where many professional athletes play in the summer league.
As a global city, New York supports many events outside these sports. Queens is host of the U.S. Tennis Open, one of the four Grand Slam tournaments. The New York City Marathon is the world's largest, and the 2004-2006 runnings hold the top three places in the marathons with the largest number of finishers, including 37,866 finishers in 2006. [ [http://www.aims-association.org/statistics/World's_Largest_Marathons.html World's Largest Marathons] , Association of International Marathons and Distance Races. Accessed June 28, 2007.] The Millrose Games is an annual track and field meet whose featured event is the Wanamaker Mile. Boxing is also a very prominent part of the city's sporting scene, with events like the Amateur Boxing Golden Gloves being held at Madison Square Garden each year.
Many sports are associated with New York's immigrant communities. Stickball, a street version of baseball, was popularized by youths in working class Italian, German, and Irish neighborhoods in the 1930s. Stickball is still commonly played, as a street in The Bronx has been renamed Stickball Blvd. as tribute to New York's most known street sport. In recent years several amateur cricket leagues have emerged with the arrival of immigrants from South Asia and the Caribbean. Street hockey, football, and baseball are also commonly seen being played on the streets of New York. New York City is often called "The World's Biggest Urban Playground," as street sports are commonly played by people of all ages. [cite video |people=Sas, Adrian (Producer) |year=2006 |url=http://nycgovparks.org/sub_newsroom/video/index.html?key=16&search= |title=It's my Park: Cricket |medium=TV-Series |location=New York City |publisher=Nystv]
Economy
New York City is a global hub of international business and commerce and is one of three "command centers" for the world economy (along with London and Tokyo). [cite book |author=Sassen, Saskia |title=The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo |year=2001 |publisher=Princeton University Press |edition=2nd edition |isbn=0691070636] The city is a major center for finance, insurance, real estate, media and the arts in the United States. The New York metropolitan area had an estimated gross metropolitan product of $1.13 trillion in 2005,[cite web|url=http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/15/economic-growth-gdp-biz-cx_jz_0715powercities_slide_2.html?thisSpeed=15000&boxes=custom|title=World's Most Economically Powerful Cities|publisher=Forbes|accessdate=2008-09-12] [ [http://www.citymayors.com/statistics/richest-cities-2005.html The 150 richest cities in the world by GDP in 2005] , dated March 11, 2007. The list fails to include Taipei. Accessed July 3, 2007.] the largest regional economy in the United States and second largest city economy in the world.][cite web|url=http://www.itweek.co.uk/accountancyage/news/2184877/london-ranked-world-six-largest=|title=London ranked as world's six largest economy|publisher=ITWeek|accessdate=2008-08-04] The metropolitan area's economy accounts for the majority of the economic activity in the states of New York and New Jersey. Many major corporations are headquartered in New York City, including 44 Fortune 500 companies. [cite web |url=http://www.nycedc.com/Web/NYCBusinessClimate/FactsFigures/FactsFigures.htm |title=NYC Business Climate - Facts & Figures |publisher=New York City Economic Development Corporation|accessdate=2008-09-01] New York is also unique among American cities for its large number of foreign corporations. One out of ten private sector jobs in the city is with a foreign company. [cite news |title=Keeping the Economy Growing |author=Wylde, Kathryn |publisher=Gotham Gazette |date=January 23, 2006 |url=http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/fea/20060123/202/1727 |accessdate=2008-09-01] ]New York City is home to some of the nation's — and the world's — most valuable real estate. 450 Park Avenue was sold on July 2, 2007 for $510 million, about $1,589 per square foot ($17,104/m²), breaking the barely month-old record for an American office building of $1,476 per square foot ($15,887/m²) set in the June 2007 sale of 660 Madison Avenue. [Quirk, James. cite web |url=http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk4NDImZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcxNjI5NzEmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkyMg= |title= "Bergen offices have plenty of space" |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20071222235142/http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk4NDImZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTcxNjI5NzEmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkyMg= |archivedate=2007-12-22, "The Record (Bergen County)", July 5, 2007. Accessed July 5, 2007. "On Monday, a 26-year-old, 33-story office building at 450 Park Ave. sold for a stunning $1,589 per square foot, or about $510 million. The price is believed to be the most ever paid for a U.S. office building on a per-square-foot basis. That broke the previous record—set four weeks earlier—when 660 Madison Ave. sold for $1,476 a square foot."]
Manhattan had 353.7 million square feet (32,859,805 m²) of office space in 2001.[cite web|url=http://www.allbusiness.com/construction/4266400-1.html|title=Four Percent of Manhattan's Total Office Space Was Destroyed in the World Trade Center Attack|publisher=Allbusiness|date=September 25, 2001|accessdate=2008-08-05] ]Midtown Manhattan is the largest central business district in the United States and is home to the highest concentration of the city's skyscrapers. Lower Manhattan is the third largest central business district in the United States, and is home to The New York Stock Exchange, located on Wall Street, and the NASDAQ, representing the world's first and second largest stock exchanges, respectively, when measured by average daily trading volume and overall market capitalization. [cite web |authors=Claessens, Stjin |title=Electronic Finance: Reshaping the Financial Landscape Around the World |publisher=The World Bank |month=September | year=2000 |url=http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTENERGY/0,,contentMDK:20708340~pagePK:210058~piPK:210062~theSitePK:336806,00.html |format=PDF |accessdate=2008-09-01] Financial services account for more than 35% of the city's employment income. [cite web |url=http://www.newyorkfed.org/research/current_issues/ci12-1.pdf|format=PDF |title=Challenges Facing the New York Metropolitan Area Economy |author=Orr, James and Giorgio Topa |work=Current Issues in Economics and Finance - Second District Highlights |publisher=New York Federal Reserve |date=Volume 12, Number 1, January 2006|accessdate=2008-09-01] Real estate is a major force in the city's economy, as the total value of all New York City property was $802.4 billion in 2006.[cite web |title=Tentative Assessment Roll: Fiscal Year 2008 |publisher=New York City Department of Finance |date=January 15, 2007 |url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/pdf/07pdf/tent-ass-roll-07-08t.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2008-09-01] The Time Warner Center is the property with the highest-listed market value in the city, at $1.1 billion in 2006.]The city's television and film industry is the second largest in the country after Hollywood. [cite web |url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/film/html/news/stats.shtml |title=NYC Film Statistics |publisher=Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre, and Broadcasting |accessdate=2008-09-01] Creative industries such as new media, advertising, fashion, design and architecture account for a growing share of employment, with New York City possessing a strong competitive advantage in these industries. [cite journal |author=Currid, Elizabeth |title=New York as a Global Creative Hub: A Competitive Analysis of Four Theories on World Cities |journal=Economic Development Quarterly |year=2006 |volume=20(4) |pages=pp. 330–350 |doi=10.1177/0891242406292708] High-tech industries like bioscience, software development, game design, and internet services are also growing, bolstered by the city's position at the terminus of several transatlantic fiber optic trunk lines. [cite web |title=Telecommunications and Economic Development in New York City: A Plan for Action|publisher=New York City Economic Development Corporation |month=March | year=2005 |url=http://www.nycedc.com/about_us/TelecomPlanMarch2005.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2006-07-19] Other important sectors include medical research and technology, non-profit institutions, and universities.
Manufacturing accounts for a large but declining share of employment. Garments, chemicals, metal products, processed foods, and furniture are some of the principal products. [cite web |url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/imb/downloads/pdf/whitepaper.pdf |format=PDF |title=Protecting and Growing New York City's Industrial Job Base |publisher=The Mayor's Office for Industrial and Manufacturing Business |month=January | year=2005 |accessdate=2008-09-01] The food-processing industry is the most stable major manufacturing sector in the city.[cite web |url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/imb/downloads/pdf/more_than_link_food_chain.pdf |format=PDF |title=More Than a Link in the Food Chain |publisher=The Mayor's Office for Industrial and Manufacturing Business |accessdate=2008-09-01 |month=February | year=2007] Food making is a $5 billion industry that employs more than 19,000 residents, many of them immigrants who speak little English. Chocolate is New York City's leading specialty-food export, with $234 million worth of exports each year.]Tourism is important to New York City, with about 40 million foreign and American tourists visiting each year. [cite web |title=NYC Statistics |publisher=NYC & Company |url=http://www.nycvisit.com/content/index.cfm?pagePkey=57 |accessdate=2008-09-01] Major destinations include the Empire State Building, Ellis Island, Broadway theatre productions, museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other tourist attractions including Central Park, Washington Square Park, Rockefeller Center, Times Square, the Bronx Zoo, New York Botanical Garden, luxury shopping along Fifth and Madison Avenues, and events such as the Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village, the Tribeca Film Festival, and free performances in Central Park at Summerstage. The Statue of Liberty is a major tourist attraction and one of the most recognizable icons of the United States. [cite web |url=http://nymag.com/listings/attraction/statue_of_liberty/ |title=Statue of Liberty |publisher=New York Magazine |accessdate=2008-09-01] Many of the city's ethnic enclaves, such as Jackson Heights, Flushing, and Brighton Beach are major shopping destinations for first and second generation Americans up and down the East Coast.
Demographics
Historical populations|type=USA
1698|4937
1712|5840
1723|7248
1737|10664
1746|11717
1756|13046
1771|21863
1790|33131
1800|60515
1810|96373
1820|123706
1830|202589
1840|312710
1850|696490
1860|813669
1870|942292
1880|1206299
1890|1515301
1900|3437202
1910|4766883
1920|5620048
1930|6930446
1940|7454995
1950|7891957
1960|7781984
1970|7894862
1980|7071639
1990|7322564
2000|8008288
2007*|8295029
footnote=Beginning 1900, figures are for consolidated city of five boroughs. Sources: 1698 — 1771, [cite book|last=Greene and Harrington|first=|title=American Population Before the Federal Census of 1790|publisher=|location=New York|year=1932|isbn=|pages=, as cited in: cite book|last=Rosenwaike|first=Ira|title=Population History of New York City|publisher=Syracuse University Press|location=Syracuse, N.Y.|year=1972|isbn=0815621558|pages=p.8] 1790 — 1990, [Gibson, Campbell. [http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027.html Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States:1790 to 1990] , United States Census Bureau, June 1998. Accessed June 12, 2007.] *2007 est[ [http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFPopulation?_event=Search&geo_id=16000US3403940&_geoContext=01000US%7C04000US34%7C16000US3403940&_street=&_county=new+york+city&_cityTown=new+york+city&_state=04000US36&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&ActiveGeoDiv=geoSelect&_useEV=&pctxt=fph&pgsl=160&_submenuId=population_0&ds_name=null&_ci_nbr=null&qr_name=null®=null%3Anull&_keyword=&_industry=Census Data for New York city, New York] , United States Census Bureau. Accessed June 12, 2007.] ]
New York is the most populous city in the United States, with an estimated 2007 population of 8,274,527 (up from 7.3 million in 1990).
New York's two key demographic features are its population density and cultural diversity. The city's population density of 26,403 people per square mile (10,194/km²) makes it the most densely populated American municipality with a population above 100,000. [ [http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GCTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-_lang=en&-mt_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_GCTPH1R_US13S&-format=US-13 US-13S&-CONTEXT=gct United States -- Places and (in selected states) County Subdivisions with 50,000 or More Population; and for Puerto Rico] , United States Census Bureau United States Census, 2000. Accessed June 12, 2007.] Manhattan's population density is 66,940 people per square mile (25,846/km²), highest of any county in the United States. [ [http://gislounge.com/features/aa041101c.shtml "Population Density"] , Geographic Information Systems - GIS of Interest. Accessed May 17, 2007. "What I discovered is that out of the 3140 counties listed in the Census population data only 178 counties were calculated to have a population density over one person per acre. Not surprisingly, New York County (which contains Manhattan) had the highest population density with a calculated 104.218 persons per acre."] [cite web |title=Census 2000 Data for the State of New York |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau |url=http://www.census.gov/census2000/states/ny.html|accessdate=2008-09-01] ]New York City is exceptionally diverse. Throughout its history the city has been a major point of entry for immigrants; the term "melting pot" was first coined to describe densely populated immigrant neighborhoods on the Lower East Side. Today, 36% of the city's population is foreign-born.[cite web |title=The Newest New Yorkers, 2000 |publisher=New York City Department of City Planning |year=2004 |url=http://home2.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/census/nny_exec_sum.shtml |accessdate=2008-05-27 |quote=The Dominican Republic was the largest source of the foreign-born, numbering 369,200 or 13 percent of the total, followed by China (262,600), Jamaica (178,900), Guyana (130,600), and Mexico (122,600). Ecuador, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia, and Russia rounded out the city's ten largest sources of the foreign-born.] About 170 languages are spoken in the city.]The New York metropolitan area is home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel; Tel Aviv proper (non-metro/within municipal limits) has a smaller population than the Jewish population of New York City proper, making New York the largest Jewish community in the world. About 12% of New Yorkers are Jewish or of Jewish descent and roots. [cite web |title=Jewish Community Study of New York |publisher=United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York |year=2002 |url=http://www.ujafedny.org/atf/cf/%7BAD848866-09C4-482C-9277-51A5D9CD6246%7D/JCommStudyIntro.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2008-09-01] It is also home to nearly a quarter of the nation's Indian Americans, [cite web |title=Census Profile:New York City's Indian American Population |publisher=Asian American Federation of New York |year=2004 |url=http://www.aafny.org/cic/briefs/indianamer.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2008-09-01] and the largest African American community of any city in the United States.
The five largest ethnic groups as of the 2005 census estimates are: Puerto Ricans, Italians, West Indians, Dominicans and Chinese.[cite web |title=NYC2005 — Results from the 2005 American Community Survey : Socioeconomic Characteristics by Race/Hispanic Origin and Ancestry Group |publisher=New York City Department of City Planning|url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/census/acs_socio_05_nyc.pdf |format=PDF |year=2005 |accessdate=2008-09-01; [http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/census/popacs.shtml Population Division American Community Survey] , New York City Department of City Planning] The Puerto Rican population of New York City is the largest outside of Puerto Rico. [Archive of the Mayor's Press Office, [http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/html/98a/pr256-98.html "Mayor Giuliani Proclaims Puerto Rican Week in New York City"] , Tuesday, June 9, 1998.] Italians emigrated to the city in large numbers in the early twentieth century. The Irish, the sixth largest ethnic group, also have a notable presence; one in 50 New Yorkers of European origin carry a distinctive genetic signature on their Y chromosomes inherited from Niall of the Nine Hostages, an Irish high king of the fifth century A.D. [cite journal |author=Moore LT, McEvoy B, Cape E, Simms K, Bradley DG |title=A Y-Chromosome Signature of Hegemony in Gaelic Ireland |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=78 |issue=2 |pages=334–338 |month=February | year=2006 |url=http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJHG/journal/issues/v78n2/43032/43032.web.pdf |format=PDF |pmid=16358217 |accessdate=2007-06-07 |doi=10.1086/500055Dead link|date=September 2008See also cite news |title=If Irish Claim Nobility, Science May Approve |publisher=The New York Times |date=2006-01-18|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/18/science/18irish.html?ex=1149652800&en=2336ca46c937614b&ei=5070 |first=Nicholas |last=Wade |accessdate=2008-09-01] ]New York City has a high degree of income disparity. In 2005 the median household income in the wealthiest census tract was $188,697, while in the poorest it was $9,320. [cite news |author=Roberts, Sam |title=In Manhattan, Poor Make 2 Cents for Each Dollar to the Rich |publisher=The New York Times |date=April 9, 2005 |url=http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/SamRoberts4Sep05.htm |accessdate=2008-09-01] The disparity is driven by wage growth in high income brackets, while wages have stagnated for middle and lower income brackets. In 2006 the average weekly wage in Manhattan was $1,453, the highest and fastest growing among the largest counties in the United States.[cite web |title=Average Weekly Wage in Manhattan at $1,453 in Second Quarter 2006 |publisher=Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor|date=February 20, 2007 |url=http://www.bls.gov/ro2/fax/qcew9310.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2008-09-01] The borough is also experiencing a baby boom that is unique among American cities. Since 2000, the number of children under age 5 living in Manhattan grew by more than 32%. [cite news |title=In Surge in Manhattan Toddlers, Rich White Families Lead Way |author=Roberts, Sam |publisher=The New York Times |date=2007-03-27 |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/nyregion/23kid.html |accessdate=2008-09-01] ]Home ownership in New York City is about 33%, much lower than the national average of 69%. [cite web |url=http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/homeownership/ |title=Homeownership] Rental vacancy is usually between 3% and 4.5%, well below the 5% threshold defined to be a housing emergency and used to justify the continuation of rent control and rent stabilization. About 33% of rental units are rent-stabilized. Finding housing, particularly affordable housing, in New York City can be more than challenging. [ [http://www.helium.com/items/329063-how-to-find-a-cheap-apartment-in-new-york-city How to find a cheap apartment in New York City] ; [http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/pr/vacancy.shtml Housing Vacancy Survey] ]
Government
Since its consolidation in 1898, New York City has been a metropolitan municipality with a "strong" mayor-council form of government. The government of New York is more centralized than that of most other U.S. cities. In New York City, the central government is responsible for public education, correctional institutions, libraries, public safety, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply and welfare services. The mayor and councillors are elected to four-year terms. The New York City Council is a unicameral body consisting of 51 Council members whose districts are defined by geographic population boundaries. [cite web |url=http://www.nyccouncil.info/html/actioncenter/moved.cfm |title=About the Council |publisher=New York City Council |accessdate=2007-06-06] The mayor and councilors are limited to two four-year terms.
The mayor is Michael Bloomberg, a former Democrat and current independent elected as a Republican in 2001 and re-elected in 2005 with 59% of the vote. [cite web |title=Statement and Return Report for Certification: General Election 2005 |publisher=New York City Board of Elections |date=November 8, 2005 |url=http://www.vote.nyc.ny.us/pdf/results/2005/general/Manhattan/New%20York%20Mayor%20NY%20Recap.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2008-09-01] He is known for taking control of the city's education system from the state, rezoning and economic development, sound fiscal management, and aggressive public health policy. In his second term he has made school reform, poverty reduction, and strict gun control central priorities of his administration. [cite web |title=About Mike Bloomberg |url=http://www.mikebloomberg.com/en/about_mike_bloomberg |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20070928061207/http://www.mikebloomberg.com/en/about_mike_bloomberg |archivedate=2007-09-28 |publisher=The Official Site of Mike Bloomberg |accessdate=2008-09-01] Together with Boston mayor Thomas Menino, in 2006 he founded the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, an organization with the goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." [cite web |url=http://www.mayorsagainstillegalguns.org/html/about/members.shtml |title=Mayors Against Illegal Guns: Coalition Members Retrieved on June 20, 2007] The Democratic Party holds the majority of public offices. 66% of registered voters in the city are Democrats. [cite web |title=County Enrollment Totals |publisher=New York State Board of Elections |date=April 1, 2006 |url=http://www.elections.state.ny.us/NYSBOE/enrollment/county/county_apr06.htm |accessdate=2008-09-01] New York City has not been carried by a Republican in a statewide or presidential election since 1924. Party platforms center on affordable housing, education and economic development, and labor politics are of importance in the city.
New York is the most important source of political fundraising in the United States, as four of the top five zip codes in the nation for political contributions are in Manhattan. The top zip code, 10021 on the Upper East Side, generated the most money for the 2004 presidential campaigns of both George W. Bush and John Kerry. [cite web |title=2006 Election Overview: Top Zip Codes |publisher=Opensecrets.org |url=http://www.opensecrets.org/overview/topzips.asp?cycle=2004 |accessdate=2008-09-01] The city has a strong imbalance of payments with the national and state governments. It receives 83 cents in services for every $1 it sends to the federal government in taxes (or annually sends $11.4 billion more than it receives back). The city also sends an additional $11 billion more each year to the state of New York than it receives back. [cite web |title=A Fair Share of State Budget: Does Albany Play Fair with NYC?|publisher=New York City Finance Division |date=March 11, 2005 |url=http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/attachments/65379.htm?CFID=232457&CFTOKEN=33008944 |accessdate=2008-09-01]
Located near City Hall are the courthouse for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building. Manhattan also hosts the NY Appellate Division, First Department. Brooklyn hosts the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and NY Appellate Division, Second Department. As with any county, each Borough has a branch of the New York Supreme Court and other New York State courts.
Crime
Since 2005 the city has had the lowest crime rate among the 25 largest U.S. cities, having become significantly safer after a spike in crime in the 1980s and early 1990s from the crack epidemic that impacted many neighborhoods. By 2002, New York City had about the same crime rate as Provo, Utah and was ranked 197th in overall crime among the 216 U.S. cities with populations greater than 100,000. Violent crime in New York City decreased more than 75% from 1993 to 2005 and continued decreasing during periods when the nation as a whole saw increases. [cite news |"Law Enforcement News" |title=Don't tell New York, but crime is going up |url=http://www.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/len/2002/12.31/page5.html] In 2005 the homicide rate was at its lowest level since 1963, and in 2007 the city recorded fewer than 500 homicides for the first time ever since crime statistics were first published in 1963. [cite paper |title=The Remarkable Drop In Crime In New York City |author=Langan, Patrick A. |date=October 21, 2004 |url=http://samoa.istat.it/Eventi/sicurezza/relazioni/Langan_rel.pdf |publisher=Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (Italy) |format=PDF |accessdate=2007-05-22]
Sociologists and criminologists have not reached consensus on what explains the dramatic decrease in the city's crime rate. Some attribute the phenomenon to new tactics used by the New York City Police Department, including its use of CompStat and the broken windows theory. Others cite the end of the crack epidemic and demographic changes. [cite book |title=The Crime Drop in America |chapter=The Rise and Decline of Hard Drugs, Drug Markets, and Violence in Inner-City New York |author=Johnson, Bruce D., Andrew Golub, Eloise Dunlap |editor=Blumstein, Alfred, Joel Wallman |year=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |id=ISBN 0521862795; cite book |title=New York Murder Mystery: The True Story Behind the Crime Crash of the 1990s |author=Karmen, Andrew |year=2000 |publisher=NYU Press |id=0814747175]
Organized crime has long been associated with New York City, beginning with the Forty Thieves and the Roach Guards in the Five Points in the 1820s. The 20th century saw a rise in the Mafia dominated by the Five Families. Gangs including the Black Spades also grew in the late 20th century. [cite book |title=NYPD: A City and Its Police |author=Lardner, James, and Thomas Reppetto |publisher=Owl Books |year=2000 |pages=pp. 18–21]
Education
The city's public school system, managed by the New York City Department of Education, is the largest in the United States. About 1.1 million students are taught in more than 1,200 separate primary and secondary schools. [cite web |url=http://home2.nyc.gov/html/dcp/download/census/sf3edp302.xls |title=School Enrollment by Level of School and Type of School for Population 3 Years and Over |publisher=New York City Department of City Planning |year=2000 |format=MS Excel |accessdate=2008-09-01] There are approximately 900 additional privately run secular and religious schools in the city, including some of the most prestigious private schools in the United States. [cite web |url=http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pss/ |title=Private School Universe Survey |publisher=National Center for Education Statistics |accessdate=2008-09-01] Though it is not often thought of as a college town, there are about 594,000 university students in New York City, the highest number of any city in the United States. [cite paper |publisher=Brookings Institution |title=New York in Focus: A Profile from Census 2000 |month=November | year=2003 |url=http://www.brookings.edu/es/urban/livingcities/newyork2.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2008-09-01] In 2005, three out of five Manhattan residents were college graduates and one out of four had advanced degrees, forming one of the highest concentrations of highly educated people in any American city. [cite news |title=New York Area Is a Magnet For Graduates |author=McGeehan, Patrick |publisher=The New York Times |date=August 16, 2006 |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9404E7DE143EF935A2575BC0A9609C8B63 |accessdate=2007-03-27] Public postsecondary education is provided by the City University of New York, the nation's third-largest public university system, and the Fashion Institute of Technology, part of the State University of New York. New York City is also home to such notable private universities as Barnard College, Columbia University, Cooper Union, Fordham University, New York University, The New School, and Yeshiva University. The city has dozens of other smaller private colleges and universities, including many religious and special-purpose institutions, such as St. John's University, The Juilliard School and The School of Visual Arts.
Much of the scientific research in the city is done in medicine and the life sciences. New York City has the most post-graduate life sciences degrees awarded annually in the United States, 40,000 licensed physicians, and 127 Nobel laureates with roots in local institutions.[cite press release |title=Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Economic Development Corporation President Andrew M. Alper Unveil Plans to Develop Commercial Bioscience Center in Manhattan |publisher=New York City Economic Development Corporation |url=http://home2.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fhome2.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2004b%2Fpr310-04.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1 |date=November 18, 2004 |accessdate=2008-09-01] The city receives the second-highest amount of annual funding from the National Institutes of Health among all U.S. cities. [cite web |url=http://report.nih.gov/award/trends/top100fy03.htm |title=NIH Domestic Institutions Awards Ranked by City, Fiscal Year 2003 |publisher=National Institutes of Health |year=2003 |accessdate=2007-03-26] Major biomedical research institutions include Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Rockefeller University, SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Weill Cornell Medical College.]The New York Public Library, which has the largest collection of any public library system in the country, serves Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island.[cite web |url=http://www.libraryspot.com/lists/listlargestlibs.htm |title=Nation's Largest Libraries |publisher=LibrarySpot |accessdate=2008-09-01] Queens is served by the Queens Borough Public Library, which is the nation's second largest public library system, and Brooklyn Public Library serves Brooklyn.]New York City also features many of the most elite and exclusive private schools in the country. These schools include Brearley School, Dalton School, Spence School, The Chapin School, Nightingale-Bamford School, and Convent of the Sacred Heart on the Upper East Side of Manhattan; Collegiate School and Trinity School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan; Horace Mann School, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, and Riverdale Country School in Riverdale, Bronx; and Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn. Some of New York City's renowned public secondary schools, often considered the best in the nation, include: Hunter College High School, Stuyvesant High School, The Bronx High School of Science, Brooklyn Technical High School, Bard High School Early College, Townsend Harris High School, and LaGuardia High School. The city is home to the largest Roman Catholic high school in the U.S., St. Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows, Queens, and the only official Italian American school in the country, the La Scuola d'Italia on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Transportation
Public transit is overwhelmingly the dominant form of travel for New Yorkers.[cite web |title=NHTS 2001 Highlights Report, BTS03-05 |publisher=U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics |year=2001 |url=http://www.bts.gov/publications/highlights_of_the_2001_national_household_travel_survey/pdf/entire.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2008-09-01] About one in every three users of mass transit in the United States and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders live in New York and its suburbs.][cite web |title=The MTA Network: Public Transportation for the New York Region |publisher=Metropolitan Transportation Authority |url=http://www.mta.info/mta/network.htm |accessdate=2008-09-01] [cite web |title=Commuting in America III: Commuting Facts |author=Pisarski, Alan |publisher=Transportation Research Board |date=October 16, 2006 |url=http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/nchrp/CIAIIIfacts.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2008-09-01] This is in contrast to the rest of the country, where about 90% of commuters drive automobiles to their workplace.]New York City is served by Amtrak, which uses Pennsylvania Station. Amtrak provides connections to Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.
The New York City Subway is the largest rapid transit system in the world when measured by the number of stations in operation, with 468. It is the third-largest when measured by annual ridership (1.5 billion passenger trips in 2006).
New York City's public bus fleet and commuter rail network are the largest in North America.
New York City is the top international air passenger gateway to the United States.[cite web |url=http://www.bts.gov/publications/us_international_travel_and_transportation_trends/2002/index.html |title=U.S. International Travel and Transportation Trends, BTS02-03 |publisher=U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics |year=2002 |accessdate=2008-09-01] The area is served by three major airports, John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International and LaGuardia, with plans for a fourth airport, Stewart International Airport near Newburgh, NY, to be taken over and enlarged by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (which administers the other three airports), as a "reliever" airport to help cope with increasing passenger volume. 100 million travelers used the three airports in 2005 and the city's airspace is the busiest in the nation. [cite web |url=http://www.panynj.gov/CommutingTravel/airports/pdfs/traffic/Air_Traffic_2005.pdf |title=2005 Annual Airport Traffic Report |publisher=The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey |date=November 2, 2006 |format=PDF |accessdate=2007-02-18] Outbound international travel from JFK and Newark accounted for about a quarter of all U.S. travelers who went overseas in 2004. [cite press release |url=http://www.panynj.gov/AboutthePortAuthority/PressCenter/PressReleases/PressRelease/index.php?id=724 |title=Port Authority Leads Nation in Record-Setting Year for Travel Abroad |publisher=The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey |date=August 29, 2005 |accessdate=2007-02-18] ]New York's high rate of public transit use, 120,000 daily cyclists [cite news |title=Biking It|author=Schaller, Bruce |publisher=Gotham Gazette |month=June | year=2006 |url=http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/transportation/20060718/16/1910/|accessdate=2008-09-01] and many pedestrian commuters makes it the most energy-efficient major city in the United States.
To complement New York's vast mass transit network, the city also has an extensive web of expressways and parkways, that link New York City to northern New Jersey, Westchester County, Long Island, and southwest Connecticut through various bridges and tunnels. Because these highways serve millions of suburban residents who commute into New York, it is quite common for motorists to be stranded for hours in traffic jams that are a daily occurrence, particularly during rush hour. The George Washington Bridge is considered one of the world's busiest bridges in terms of vehicle traffic. [ [http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061024/BIZ/610240312/-1/NEWS03 George Washington Bridge turns 75 years old: Huge flag, cake part of celebration] , "Times Herald-Record", October 24, 2006. "The party, however, will be small in comparison to the one that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey organized for 5,000 people to open the bridge to traffic in 1931. And it won't even be on "what is now the world's busiest bridge" for fear of snarling traffic."]
Despite New York's reliance on public transit, roads are a defining feature of the city. Manhattan's street grid plan greatly influenced the city's physical development. Several of the city's streets and avenues, like Broadway, Wall Street and Madison Avenue are also used as shorthand in the American vernacular for national industries located there: the theater, finance, and advertising organizations, respectively.
ister cities
New York City has ten sister cities recognized by Sister Cities International (SCI). [cite web |title=NYC's Sister Cities |publisher=Sister City Program of the City of New York |year=2006 |url=http://www.nyc.gov/html/unccp/scp/html/sc/main.shtml|accessdate=2008-09-01] [cite web |title=Sister Cities International: Online Directory: New York, USA |year=2007 |publisher=Sister Cities International |url=http://www.sister-cities.org/icrc/directory/usa/NY] The date indicates the year in which the city was twinned with New York City.
Like New York City, all except Beijing are the most populous cities of their respective countries. ["The Statesman's Yearbook 2003", edited by Barry Turner, Palgrave Macmillan (Basingstoke, London and New York), 2002, ISBN 0-333-98096-4] Unlike New York City, all but Johannesburg serve as national political capitals ("de facto" or "de jure") as well as commercial centers. However, few of them are seaports like New York City. ["Countries of the World", "Whitaker's Almanack 1999" (Standard Edition), The Stationery Office, London, 1998, ISBN 0-11-702240-3, pages 781-785 & page 907]
References
Further reading
* Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace (1998), "", Oxford University Press.
* Anthony Burgess (1976). "New York", Little, Brown & Co.
* Federal Writers' Project (1939). "The WPA Guide to New York City", The New Press (1995 reissue).
* Kenneth T. Jackson (ed.) (1995). "The Encyclopedia of New York City", Yale University Press.
* Kenneth T. Jackson and David S. Dunbar (eds.) (2005), "Empire City: New York Through the Centuries", Columbia University Press.
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* E. B. White (1949). "Here is New York", Little Bookroom (2000 reissue).
* Colson Whitehead (2003). "The Colossus of New York: A City in 13 Parts", Doubleday.
* E. Porter Belden (1849). [http://books.google.com/books?id=Jv-nXd8W8b0C&printsec=titlepage "New York, Past, Present, and Future: Comprising a History of the City of New York, a Description of its Present Condition, and an Estimate of its Future Increase"] , New York, G.P. Putnam. from Google Books.
External links
* [http://www.nyc.gov/ NYC.gov] – Official website of New York City
* [http://www.nycvisit.com/ NYCvisit.com] – Official tourism website of New York City
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* [http://www.nyc.gov/html/doitt/html/miscs/citymap.html NYCityMap] – Interactive Map of New York City – includes subway stations and entrances
* A [http://www.concharto.com/search/eventsearch.htm?_what=%2522wiki%252F%252Fnew_york_city%2522&_maptype=1 Map and Timeline] of many of the events mentioned in this article
Geographic Location (8-way)
Centre = New York City
North = 
